On Census Day 2021 there were approximately 4.7 million unpaid carers in England and approximately 310,000 unpaid carers in Wales. This equates to 8.9% and 10.5% of the usual resident population, aged 5 years and over providing unpaid care in England and Wales respectively.
The findings were published in an article Unpaid care by age, sex and deprivation, England and Wales: Census 2021 released by Office for National Statistics (ONS), on 13 February 2023.
The percentage of people providing unpaid care decreased between the 2011 and the 2021 Censuses across all age groups among males. The same was true for females, except those aged 85+, where there was an increase in both England and Wales.
Females were more likely to be providing unpaid care than males. In England 10.3% of females provided unpaid care compared to 7.6% of males. In Wales, the balance was 12.0% of females compared to 9.0% of males.
There were approximately 120,000 young unpaid carers (aged between 5 and 17) in England (1.4%) and 8,200 in Wales (1.8%), a decrease since the 2011 Census, when there were approximately 168,000 (2.1%) young unpaid carers in England and 11,000 in Wales (2.5%). There was a higher percentage of female than male young unpaid carers.
The age groups with the highest percentage of unpaid carers were 55-59 for females and 60-64 for males in England. In Wales, it was also 55-59 for females, but 55-64 for males.
However, when it came to providing the most hours of unpaid care (50 hours or more a week), the age groups most likely to provide this were females aged 75-79 and males aged 85-89 in both England and Wales.
The most deprived areas of England and Wales had higher percentages of people providing unpaid care: 10.1% and 11.5% respectively, compared to 8.1% and 9.7% respectively for the least deprived areas:
The North East was the English region with the highest percentage (10.1%) of people providing unpaid care. London had the lowest percentage: 7.8%.
St Helens was the local authority with the highest percentage of people providing unpaid care in England at 11.7%, whilst in Wales it was Neath Port Talbot: 12.3%.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Sophie John, ONS Head of Social Care Analysis said, “We’ve seen a decrease in the percentage of people providing unpaid care since 2011. This may reflect other Census findings where there has been an increase in the percentage of people reporting very good health and a decrease in the percentage of people that were disabled.
“However, we need to factor in that 2021 Census took place during the pandemic when there were restrictions on household mixing. Unpaid care, previously shared among several people, may have fallen to one person so as to reduce mixing. This might explain why, the percentage of people providing care has decreased.”
