Carers Census: results 2018 to 2019

4. Cared for Person Information

The relationship between carers and the people they care for can be complex. Carers can provide care to more than one person and cared for people can receive care from more than one carer. Based on those de-duplicated records for which there is also information on the person being cared for; 15,240 carers provided care to one person while 1,250 carers provided care to two or more people. 

The information in this section is based on the number of individual cared for people who received care and support from the unpaid carers discussed in Section 3. This includes 17,180 cared for people: 16,470 cared for people who received care from one carer and 710 who received care from two or more carers.

4.1 Demographics

Age and Gender

17% of the cared for people in the Carers Census were children. 30% were working age adults and 45% were older people aged 65+. There was a similar proportion of male and female cared for people overall and a similar proportion of adult cared for people who were male and female. However, this differed for children being cared for by an unpaid carer where roughly 3 in 5 were male.

Carers Census, Scotland, 2018/19

Main Client Group

A person’s main client group, such as mental health or physical disability, is the main reason a person requires care and support. Cared for people can have more than one client group but for the purposes of this analysis, only the main client group for each cared for person is considered. 

The most common main client group overall and for adult cared for people, apart from ‘Other’, was Dementia (17% of adult cared for people) followed by Physical Disability (11% of adult cared for people). However, the most common main client group for children receiving care from an unpaid carer was Autism Spectrum Disorder (24%).

Carers Census, Scotland, 2018/19