Informal caregiving is closely connected with working life. In the United Kingdom in 2024 to 2025, 8% of people were informal carers, while 53% of adult informal carers were in employment. The figures below describe who provides care, how much time it takes, and how caregiving affects work, employer relationships, and health.
Contents
- How many people provide informal care
- Weekly caregiving hours and intensity
- Employment status of informal carers
- How caregiving changes work arrangements
- Employer support and staying in work
- Health and wellbeing outcomes
How many people provide informal care
The Family Resources Survey: financial year 2024 to 2025 reported that 8% of people in the United Kingdom were informal carers during 2024 to 2025. The estimate was 10% of females and 7% of males. In the same period, the UK had 3.4 million female informal carers and 2.3 million male informal carers.
Care is not limited to people living in the same home. Among UK informal carers in 2024 to 2025, 33% cared for parents living outside their household, while 9% cared for parents living inside their household. Overall, 52% provided care to someone inside their household and 52% provided care to someone outside it. These categories can overlap, so they should not be treated as mutually exclusive totals.
Some carers supported more than one person. In 2024 to 2025, 10% of UK informal carers cared for more than one person. A further 18% were classified as sandwich carers, combining care for an adult relative with care for a child. These figures show why a simple distinction between home and away care does not capture every caring arrangement.
Weekly caregiving hours and intensity
The time commitment varied substantially among UK adult informal carers in 2024 to 2025. The Family Resources Survey: financial year 2024 to 2025 recorded 21% providing fewer than 5 hours of care per week and 30% providing 5 to 19 hours. At the higher-intensity end, 9% provided 35 to 49 hours, and 14% provided 50 or more hours per week.
Some schedules were not fixed. In 2024 to 2025, 15% of UK adult informal carers reported a varying schedule with at least 35 care hours per week. Across the published categories, 38% of adult informal carers provided at least 35 hours of care per week. The measure includes carers with regular and varying schedules, so it should not be read as a separate count from every other time band.
Working carers reported a different distribution in the Survey of Employees and Self-Employed Workers, 2024 to 2025. Among working UK informal carers, 45% spent 9 or fewer hours per week caregiving, 16% spent 10 to 19 hours, 10% spent 20 to 34 hours, 9% spent 35 to 49 hours, and 7% spent 50 or more hours. Nearly half, 48%, provided care on all 7 days of the week.
| Weekly care commitment | UK adult informal carers, 2024 to 2025 | Working UK informal carers, 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Lower-hour category | 21%: fewer than 5 hours | 45%: 9 or fewer hours |
| Middle-hour category | 30%: 5 to 19 hours | 16%: 10 to 19 hours |
| 35 to 49 hours | 9% | 9% |
| 50 or more hours | 14% | 7% |
The two columns come from different survey populations and definitions. They provide context for the range of care commitments, but they are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
Employment status of informal carers
In the United Kingdom in 2024 to 2025, 53% of adult informal carers were in employment and 36% worked full-time, according to the Family Resources Survey: financial year 2024 to 2025. The same source reported that 20% were retired, 24% were economically inactive, and 3% were unemployed and seeking work.
Employment patterns differed by sex. In 2024 to 2025, 47% of male UK adult informal carers worked full-time, compared with 28% of female carers. Part-time work accounted for 22% of female adult informal carers and 10% of male adult informal carers. These figures describe reported employment status among adult informal carers; they do not by themselves explain why the patterns differ.
An English survey used a different population and period. In the Survey of adult carers in England 2025 to 2026: commentary, 60.1% of carers were retired, 9.0% were employed full-time, and 10.1% were employed part-time for 30 hours or less. Another 18.1% were not in paid work. These results should not be substituted for the UK-wide 2024 to 2025 estimates because the geography, survey design, respondent population, and measurement period differ.
How caregiving changes work arrangements
Work schedules can change when care needs become part of everyday planning. In 2024 to 2025, 21% of working UK informal carers reduced their weekly work hours to provide care, based on the Survey of Employees and Self-Employed Workers, 2024 to 2025. The reported reductions were 7 hours or fewer for 13%, 8 to 14 hours for 3%, 15 to 21 hours for 2%, and 22 hours or more for 2%. A further 1% stopped working completely because of care.
Canadian data offer a separate comparison. In 2022, 16% of Canadian unpaid caregivers for children or adults adjusted their work schedule to be more flexible for caregiving, 7% reduced their regular weekly work hours, and 5% were unable to work a paid job. These estimates come from The Daily — More than half of women provide care to children and care-dependent adults in Canada, 2022. The Canadian population includes care for children or adults and is not interchangeable with the UK informal-carer measures.
Sandwich caregiving can have a particularly broad connection with employment activity. In 2022, 66% of non-retired Canadian sandwich caregivers said caregiving affected employment or job-seeking activities in the previous year. This figure is from Sandwiched between unpaid care for children and care-dependent adults: A gender-based study, and applies specifically to non-retired Canadian sandwich caregivers.
Employer support and staying in work
In 2024 to 2025, 40% of working UK informal carers had discussed their caring situation with their employer, according to the Survey of Employees and Self-Employed Workers, 2024 to 2025. Discussion was reported by 47% of public-sector working carers and 34% of private-sector working carers.
Among working carers who discussed caring with their employer, 94% said the employer was supportive. A more specific 61% described the employer as very supportive, while 5% said the employer was not supportive at all. These percentages apply to carers who discussed caring, rather than to every working informal carer.
The same survey found that 80% of working UK informal carers who answered the question said they could continue working and caring for at least 2 years. Online information was another part of the picture: 10% accessed online information about caring that affected their ability to stay in work. Among working informal carers who had been absent because of a health condition or illness, 24% accessed online information relevant to staying in work.
Health and wellbeing outcomes
Working carers reported different physical and mental health experiences in 2024 to 2025. The Survey of Employees and Self-Employed Workers, 2024 to 2025 found that 57% said caregiving had not affected their physical health, while 35% said it had worsened their physical health. For mental health, 63% said caregiving had worsened it.
The mental-health figure differed by sex: 69% of female working UK informal carers said caregiving had worsened their mental health, compared with 54% of male carers. Care intensity was also associated with different reported physical-health outcomes. Among working UK informal carers providing at least 10 care hours weekly, 51% said caregiving worsened their physical health, compared with 21% among those providing 9 or fewer hours.
Older English evidence provides additional context, with a different period and population. The Office for National Statistics bulletin on unpaid care expectancy and health outcomes of unpaid carers, England: April 2024 combined Health Survey data from 2015, 2017, and 2019. Across those years, 48.6% of unpaid carers reported at least one adverse health effect from care, 32.6% reported feeling tired because of care, and 30.1% reported general stress because of care.
For England in 2019, 19.5% of unpaid carers had low mental wellbeing, compared with 14.8% of non-carers after age adjustment. These are reported associations and self-reported outcomes, not evidence that caregiving caused a particular health result. The older English measures also should not be combined arithmetically with the 2024 to 2025 UK working-carer estimates.