Information on Cared for People

The relationship between unpaid 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; 31,940 carers provided care for one person and 5,430 carers provided care for more than one person in 2022-23.

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 the previous section. This includes 40,850 cared for people in 2022-23: 37,750 cared for people who received care from one carer and 3,100 who received care from more than one carer.

Age and gender

In 2022-23, 23% of cared for people in the Carers Census were children. 28% were working age adults and 39% were older people aged 65+.

There was a similar proportion of male (45%) and female (46%) adult cared for people. However, as seen in Figure 8, this differed for children being cared for by an unpaid carer. In 2022-23, 59% of children being cared for were male compared to 29% who were female.

Figure 8: In 2022-23, around 3 in 5 children being cared for by an unpaid carer were male

Source: Carers Census, Scotland, 2022-23.

Main client group

A person’s main client group is the main reason a person requires care and support; for instance, dementia or physical disability. 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.

In 2022-23, the most common main client group for children receiving care from an unpaid carer was Autism Spectrum Disorder (33%). The most common main client group for adult cared for people, apart from ‘Other’ and ‘Unknown/Missing’, was Dementia (19%) followed by Physical Disability (17%).

Figure 9: In 2022-23, a third of children being cared for by an unpaid carer were in the Autism Spectrum Disorder client group

Source: Carers Census, Scotland, 2022-23.