This guide is a regularly updated overview of datasets and major reports available in the Australian context that contain results relating to individuals who provide care and support to a family member or friend who lives with a disability, mental illness, alcohol or drug dependency, chronic condition, terminal illness, or who is frail due to age.

Key messages for carers:

• There is a lot of publicly available research and data relating to carers that can help us understand their experiences.
• These existing datasets provide the opportunity to further explore carers' experiences, identify gaps in the research and prevent duplication and over-consultation of carers.

Key messages for policy-makers:

• Multiple sources of data about carers exist across Australia, however not all are publicly available or widely known.
• Awareness and use of existing datasets can help ensure that policy and service design are evidence based and support consistency and integration between different forms of data collection, while also preventing duplication of resources and over-consultation of carers.