Who are family and informal caregivers?
• Family caregivers are spouses, adult children and other relatives and friends. • Approximately 38% of informal care is in the form of adult children caring for aging parents. • Women are more likely to provide informal care. • The average caregiver is age 46, female, married and working outside the home. • The average age of primary caregivers of older persons is 60 years old. Half are 65 or older and slightly over one-third of primary caregivers are between the ages of 45 and 64. • Both men and women provide informal care. However, up to age 70, women are more likely to be caregivers and to provide more hours of care, to provide more care over longer periods and to care for more than one person.
