Informal, unpaid carers provide care to others in need of assistance or support, and are usually friends or family of the person in need. They make a significant contribution to the care and wellbeing of people with a disability, mental illness, chronic condition, terminal illness and the frail aged.

Informal carers provide a significant contribution to the health and wellbeing of Australians in need of support and assistance, the magnitude of which only underscores the impending policy challenges faced by Australia. Greater recognition and awareness of carer demographics and preferences will ensure that approaches to social policy are responsive to the needs of carers and care recipients alike, resulting in improvements in welfare for Australia in the future.

This report estimates the total value of informal care provided in Australia today and examines the implications of demographic trends and projections for informal care in the future.

• Section 1 identifies who Australia’s carers are and provides a demographic profile of carers and their characteristics.
• Section 2 provides an estimate of the replacement cost value of the total amount of informal care provided in Australia in 2020 and discusses this value in the context of existing literature on other domestic and international studies.
• Section 3 provides an estimate of the opportunity cost value of informal care provided in Australia in 2020.
• Section 4 forecasts the supply and demand for informal carers over the next ten years and includes qualitative analysis of the issues raised by this analysis, including changes in the propensity to care and policy implications.

Key findings:

• It is estimated that there are almost 2.8 million informal carers, comprised of around 906,000 primary carers and 1.9 million non-primary carers in Australia in 2020. This represents a 5.5% increase in the number of carers since 2018 due to population growth.
• Nearly 36% of primary carers fall within lowest socioeconomic quintiles 1 and 2, compared to nearly 26% of non-primary carers and 18% of non-carers.
• Primary carers spent an average of 35.2 hours per week providing care, with 28% spending more than 60 hours per week, while 25% only spend 1-9 hours per week.