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In the future, most people's lives will include at least one episode of unpaid caring.
The latest figures on carers are from information published by the Office for National Statistics resulting from the 2011 Census. This showed that there has been an increase of 600,000 (11%) in the total number of carers since the last census in 2001 – with the national figure now standing at 6.5 million carers in the UK. The gender ratio has remained the same; 58% of carers are women and 42% are men.
Carers and employment – facts and figures:
- 3 million people combine caring for a loved one with paid work. [1]
- Every year, over 2 million people become carers, some overnight, some more gradually – so there is a new population of carers in the workforce every day. [2]
- Carers make up 11% of the total UK workforce, 1 in every 9 employees. [1]
- Eight out of ten carers are of working age, ie aged between 16 and 65. [1]
- 90% of working carers are aged 30+ - in their prime employment years. [1]
- Each year over 2 million people have given up work at some point to care and 3 million have reduced working hours.[2]
(1) Census (2011)
(2) Carers UK and YouGov, Juggling work and unpaid care: A growing issue (2019)