• Nearly one out of every four households (23% or 22.4 million households) is involved in caregiving to persons aged 50 or over.
  
• By the year 2007, the number of caregiving households in the U.S. for person's aged 50+ could reach 39 million.
  
• 5.8 - 7 million people (family, friends and neighbors) provide care to persons 65+ who need assistance with everyday activities.
  
• 5 million informal caregivers provide care for someone aged 50+ with dementia. The average age of a care recipient is 77.
  
• The average caregiver’s age is 46, female, married and working outside the home earning an annual income of $35,000.
  
• Even though some studies show a relatively equitable distribution of caregiving between men and women, female caregivers spend 50% more time providing care than male caregivers.
  
• One national study on women and caregiving highlighted the conflicting demands of work and eldercare.
  

The study found that: 

• 33% of working women decreased work hours
  
• 29% passed up a job promotion, training or assignment
  
• 22% took a leave of absence
  
• 20% switched from full-time to part-time employment
  
• 16% quit their jobs
  
• 13% retired early

Relationships Between Caregivers and Care Recipients

The person most likely to be providing care to an older person is a daughter

• Other studies have found that a much higher percentage, 15%- 24%, of caregivers were caring for a friend or neighbor as opposed to a family member.
  
• Among adults aged 20-75 providing informal care to a family member or friend of any age, 38% provide care to aging parents and 11% provide care to their spouse.
  
• In a national sample of caregivers who live with their care recipients, spouses account for about 62% of primary caregivers while adult children comprise 26%. Secondary caregivers are more likely to be adult children (46%) than spouses (16%).
  

• Among working caregivers caring for a family and friend aged 65+, two-thirds report having to rearrange their work schedule, decrease their hours or take an unpaid leave in order to meet their caregiving responsibilities.
  
• Caregiving seriously interferes with a caregiver’s employment outside the home. Over 7 in 10 Alzheimer caregivers are employed for at least some of the time they are caregivers. A majority of those employed caregivers report missing time from work, cutting back from full time to part-time work, taking a less demanding job, choosing early retirement, turning down a promotion, or giving up work altogether.
  

Hours

• Caregivers of people aged 50+ spend an average of 17.9 hours per week providing care. This figure increases to 20 hours per week among those providing care for individuals aged 65+.
  
• 20% (4.5 million out of 22.4 million) of those caring for family or friends aged 50 and older spend over 40 hours per week providing care, with some providing constant care.
  
• Ethnic differences exist in the number of hours of care provided per week to individuals aged 50+: African Americans 20.6 hours; Hispanics 19.8 hours; Whites 17.5 hours; and Asians 15.1 hours.
  

Years

• The duration of caregiving can last from less than a year to over 40 years. The majority of caregivers provide unpaid assistance for 1 to 4 years; 20% provide care for 5 years or longer.
  
• Caregivers spend an average of 4.5 years proving care.
  

Distance

• Nearly 7 million Americans are long-distance caregivers for older relatives (i.e., travel a distance of one hour or more between the caregiver and older adult needing assistance).
  
• The average travel time for these caregivers to reach their relatives is 4 hours.
  
• One study found that 19% of caregivers for the elderly lived with the person they were caring for, 46% percent lived 20 minutes or less from the elderly person needing care, and 18% lived over one hour away.

Impact on Physical Health

• A study of elderly spousal caregivers (aged 66-96) found that caregivers who experience mental or emotional strain have a 63% higher risk of dying than noncaregivers.
  
• 31% of those caring for persons aged 65+ describe their own physical health as "fair to poor".

Mental and Emotional Effects

• Caregiving can be an emotional roller coaster. On the one hand, caring for our loved ones demonstrates our love and commitment. On the other hand, exhaustion, inadequate resources, and continuous caring can lead to burn out, stress and depression.
  
• When asked what they need most, caregivers are most likely to say “extra money to help pay for things” and “free time or a break” for themselves.

• Studies show that among caregivers, an estimated 46%-59% are clinically depressed. Approximately 49% of female caregivers and 31% of male caregivers experience depression as a result of caregiving. Among spouse caregivers, 21-25% of husbands and 50-52% of wives are depressed.
  
• Caregivers use prescription drugs for depression, anxiety and insomnia two to three times as often as the rest of the population.
  
• A number of studies have found that female caregivers are more likely than males to suffer from anxiety, depression, and other symptoms associated with emotional stress.
  
• Stress in family caregivers is inversely correlated to income: the less income a caregiver has, the more stress he or she is likely to experience.
  
• Caregivers report high levels of emotional stress and physical stress due to their caregiving. Those who live with the care recipient are more likely to report feeling stress.
  
• The coping strategies used most commonly by caregivers are prayer and talking with friends or relatives.
  
• The two most often-mentioned difficulties of caregiving reported by Alzheimer’s caregivers are seeing the progressive deterioration of the care recipient and having high demands on their time.
  
• The biggest rewards they cite are the personal satisfaction they receive and the care recipient’s appreciation or happiness.

• What is the estimated value of informal caregiving? If the services provided by informal caregivers (i.e. family, friends, neighbors) had to be replaced with paid services, it would cost an estimated $196 billion.
  
• In 1997, $83 billion were spent on nursing home care compared to $32 billion for home care. As can be seen by the estimate above, the value of informal caregiving exceeds expenses for nursing home care and home care combined by $81 billion.
  
• Researchers estimate that the cost of informal caregiving in terms of lost productivity to U.S. businesses is $11.4 billion annually.
  
• As a result of their caregiving, informal caregivers are estimated to each lose an average of $25,494 in Social Security benefits, an average of $67,202 in pension benefits and an average of $566,433 in wage wealth. Combined, the result is a loss of $659,139 over the lifetime.
  

• About one-half of primary caregivers provide care with no outside assistance whatsoever.
  
• Contrary to popular belief, only an estimated 10% to 20% of family caregivers use formal services through public or private agencies.
  
• Support services for caregivers, including counseling, information and ongoing support, have been shown to deter institutionalization of care recipients with moderate dementia by nearly a year.
  
• Caregivers of persons with dementia who use adult day services experience less stress and better psychological well-being than those who don't use the service.
  
• Caregivers “learn by doing.” The majority have never received any advice or training in how to help their loved one with their activities of daily living, training that is particularly important for dealing with a person who is cognitively impaired.