With the complexity of care increasing and other factors putting ever-more pressure on family caregivers, the demands of family caregiving are becoming unsustainable for people to manage alone. As a result, ensuring better recognition of and support for family caregivers has become a health, economic, and social imperative.
Part of the Valuing the Invaluable series on the economic value of family caregiving, this report updates national and individual state estimates of the economic value of family caregiving using the most current data available. It found that in 2017, about 41 million family caregivers in the U.S. provided an estimated 34 billion hours of care to an adult with limitations in daily activities. The estimated economic value of their unpaid contributions was approximately $470 billion.
