Unpaid carers were mostly female (68.3% NPT; 65.6% Swansea; 67.1% Denbighshire) and significantly older than the general adult population (NPT: mean age 54.9 years in unpaid carers, 50.3 in the general adult population; Swansea: 63.7, 48.4; Denbighshire: 56.5, 52.5) (1,16). These results are consistent with findings on self-reported carers from the 2021 Census and other research (1,6).
However, whilst the Census found a greater proportion of unpaid carers in the most deprived areas across Wales, this study found an overrepresentation of unpaid carers living in the least deprived areas in NPT (1.3%) and Swansea (0.3%).
This is an important consideration in determining support needs, as the Census also found unpaid carers living in the most deprived areas to be providing more hours of care per week.
LA-identified unpaid carers were older than GP-identified unpaid carers (NPT LA-identified mean age 63.5 years, GP-identified mean age 52.7 years, p <.001; Swansea 67.5, 62.1, p <.001; Denbighshire 68.0, 52.6, p <.001). This older age distribution in LA-identified unpaid carers is evident in Figure 3. This may relect the fact that local Authorities, with limited resources, may focus more on urgent cases, possibly making their data lean towards older and more vulnerable unpaid carers.
There was no evidence of differences in sex or deprivation distributions between LA-identified and GP-identified unpaid carers.
Combined with the small overlaps between LA-identified and GP-identified populations, this suggests that the two data sources identify demographically distinct unpaid carer populations, highlighting the need to look across data sources to determine the support needs of unpaid carers as a population.
(1) Unpaid care by age, sex and deprivation, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics [Internet]. [cited 2023 Aug 17]. Available from: ons.gov.uk
(6) Huang F, Song J, Davies AR, Anderson C, Bentley L, Carter B, et al. Unpaid carers in Wales: The creation of an e-cohort to understand long-term health conditions amongst unpaid carers in Wales Suggested Citation Acknowledgements. 2021 [cited 2022 Sep 1]; Available from: nationalarchives.gov.uk
(16) Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - Office for National Statistics [Internet]. [cited 2023 Aug 17].
Available from: ons.gov.uk