Five million unpaid carers, and where the support is
The census counted every unpaid carer in England and Wales, place by place. Carers Trust publishes the local services in its network. This puts the two side by side.
This is a map, not a service, and nobody here can arrange support. In England and Wales you have a right to a carer’s assessment of your own needs, separate from the person you care for: ask the adult social care team at your council for one. The services listed on the other pages are where most people start.
4,989,016unpaid carers in England and Wales
People aged five and over who told the 2021 census they look after someone because of illness, disability or age.
1,511,600care for 50 hours a week or more
The equivalent of more than a full-time job, unpaid.
140 of 174areas where the network is present
Counties and unitary authorities where a service gives an address, or a network charity records working there.
84.4%of carers live in those areas
Which leaves 779,018 living where neither record shows the network.
Where caring is heaviest
England’s counties and unitary authorities, split into five equal groups by the published measure of deprivation — the share of each area’s neighbourhoods in the most deprived tenth nationally.
| Deprivation | Areas | Residents who are unpaid carers | Residents caring 50+ hours a week | Network present |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Least deprived fifth | 30 | 7.7% | 2.03% | 22 of 30 |
| Second | 30 | 8.3% | 2.39% | 25 of 30 |
| Middle | 31 | 9.0% | 2.7% | 24 of 31 |
| Fourth | 30 | 8.8% | 2.75% | 22 of 30 |
| Most deprived fifth | 31 | 9.7% | 3.3% | 27 of 31 |
In the most deprived fifth, about one resident in 30 is caring for fifty hours a week or more. In the least deprived fifth it is one in 49. Caring at all is more common too — 9.7% of residents against 7.7%. Heavy caring is not spread evenly, and it is heaviest in the most deprived places.
The network is not thinner where caring is heaviest. It is present in 27 of the 31 most deprived areas and 22 of the 30 least deprived. That is a finding about where services are, not about how much support each carer gets — a service in a large county and one in a small borough count the same here.
See the areas where the network does not show, and what that does not mean →
The network itself
Carers Trust’s page lists 157 services. Several are run by one charity, so the organisations behind them are fewer: 92 are charities on the register for England and Wales, and most of the rest are in Scotland, where charities register separately. The typical one — the median — reported income of £1,234,541 in its latest accounts. That is the whole charity’s income, including any work that is not about carers.
What this is for
Two readers, and they want different things.
- Somebody who has become a carer. Most people do not choose it and do not call themselves one for years. The network list is searchable here by the question they arrive with — I look after my mum, I need a break — rather than by a postcode.
- Somebody arguing about carer support. There is a public argument about a postcode lottery in social care. This is one part of it counted, place by place, against the only complete count of carers there is.
This was built without asking you, from information you already publish, to show what is possible rather than to speak for you. If you would rather it came down, say so and it comes down, and you do not have to give a reason. If you would rather it were built properly — with your own figures for carers registered with each service — that is the more interesting conversation.