The graph below shows how elderly people in Europe spent their free time between 1980 and 2010.

The chart depicts how European elderly spent their leisure

time

(in per cent) between 1980 and 2010.

Overall

, it is obvious that older people tended to have active behaviour (sports and hiking)

while

others chose to experience a sedentary lifestyle (reading, theatre, and surfing the internet) over the period of

time

. In regards to the active lifestyle, hiking experienced a dramatic rise compared to playing sports. It stood at 20% in the 1980s,

then

happened to be one of the most appealing activities done by seniors in 2010; in which, it hit a peak at 80%.

On the other hand

, playing sports generally did not show any sharp change during the given

time

. Moving on to the other behaviour, surfing the internet was proved as the most popular sedentary activity among the European elderly.

Although

it wasn't really well known during the 1980s (0%), it

finally

witnessed a gradual increase during the 1990s period, before rising significantly to 50% in the 2010s.

Additionally

, reading saw a sharp rise during the duration, which started at 30% to 60%

at the end

of the period. Meanwhile, spending

time

in theatre experienced a downward trend over

time

, of which 50% in the 1980s

then

fell to 45% in 2010.