Information to Share About Family Caregivers

There are many questions to ponder when contemplating becoming family caregivers.  Family caregivers encompass everyone from a spouse, children, sibling, life partner or even a close neighbor.  While I provided care to my mother for 9 ½ years, there are statistics and other information I have discovered which I want to share about family caregivers:

• Family caregivers
  provide an estimated 90% of care in America.
• Data shows 17% of
  the American full-time workforce are caregivers, and this amounts to a combined
  126,222,624 missed workdays each year, at an estimated cost to the U.S. economy
  of $25.2 billion in lost productivity.
• More than 75% of
  all caregivers are female who may spend as much as 50% more time providing care
  than their male counterparts.
• Approximately 9%
  of caregivers self-identify as LGBT.
• Adults ages 45 to
  64 are the most likely to be in a family caregiver role.
• An average
  caregiver aged 50 or older who stops work to be a full-time caregiver will
  forego $303,880 in wages, Social Security and pensions benefits.
• In a survey of
  how family caregivers met the financial obligations of a loved one’s long-term
  care needs: 93% of caregivers reported using their own income to help pay for
  care; 74% personally provided care in a loved one’s home; 54% brought their
  loved one into their home, and 49% used their own savings to help pay for care.
  
• Approximately
  43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child in the
  last 12 months.
• Approximately 34.2
  million Americans have provided unpaid care to an adult age 50 or older in the
  last 12 months.
• On average, family caregivers spend
  24.4 hours per week providing care. Nearly 1 in 4 caregivers spends 41 hours or
  more per week providing care. 
• Approximately
  85% of all caregivers are family caregivers and 42% of them care for a mother
  (31%) or father (11%.)
• Approximately 16.6%
  of all Americans (39.8million) are caregivers to persons over the age of 18
  with a disability or illness.
• Primary family caregivers of
  people with dementia report spending an average of 9 hours per day assisting
  their relatives.
• In 2014, the
  estimated financial value of care provided to persons with Alzheimer’s or
  Dementia by unpaid caregivers was $217.7 billion.
• Family and other
  unpaid caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
  provide an estimated 21.9 hours of care per week.

References: 

The National Academy of Medicine

National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP

Alzheimer’s Association

Institute on Aging

Pew Research Center

Bureau of Labor Statistics