Scotland’s Carers Update Release: December 2022

Scotland's Carers Update Release

This is an update to the headline figure of the Scotland’s Carers publication and the subsequent Update Releases, the latest of which was published in April 2022.  It is intended to give users the latest up to date estimates on the number of carers living in Scotland.

The number of carers living in Scotland is estimated to be around 700,000 to 800,000. The latest figures show an estimated total of around 696,000 carers living in Scotland, including 28,000 young carers.

This figure was calculated using the same methodology as previous estimates included in Scotland’s Carers, in order to maintain consistency and to ensure young carers were included. More information on how this estimate was calculated can be found in the Background section.

The latest figures from the Scottish Health Survey 2017-2021 combined also show that for people aged 16 and over, 17% of females and 12% of males are carers. People are more likely to be providing unpaid care in their later working years – especially females. Around a quarter (25%) of females aged 45-54 and females aged 55-64 (25%) provided unpaid care in 2017-2021 combined.

For more detailed analysis on carers living in Scotland, including information on health and wellbeing, please refer to Scotland’s Carers.