Scotland's Carers, 2026: Main Report

3. Age and sex of carers

3.1 Key points

• Whilst the SHeS reports a higher overall proportion of adult carers (15% of the 16+ population) than the census (13%), both sources agree that the likelihood of providing care increases with age, peaking at ages 55-64 (23% of people in the SHeS, 20% in the census) before decreasing after retirement age.
• The SHeS and the census both report that women (60% in the SHeS, 59% in the census) are more likely to provide care than men (40% in the SHeS, 41% in the census).
• The SHeS and the census agree that women are more likely to provide care than men across most ages, except the youngest (4-15) and oldest (75+) age-groups.

As stated previously, we have selected the SHeS as our principal data source for the purpose of this report. As such, this section will primarily present analysis of the SHeS data investigating differences in caring prevalence by sex and age, however we will also include analysis of census data to provide additional context.

3.2 Sex of carers

The SHeS 2019-2023 shows that for carers aged 16+, 40% are male, and 60% are female. This has remained largely stable over the past decade, with the SHeS 2012-2013 indicating that 41% of carers were male, and 59% female.

Scotland’s Census 2022 shows a similar picture to the SHeS, where 41% of carers aged 16+ are male, and 59% are female. This is consistent with the 2011 census. Given that, as stated in section 1, women are generally thought to be less likely to self-identify as carers than men, it is possible that the differences by sex may be larger than is reflected in the data.

3.3 Age of carers

The SHeS shows that the likelihood of being a carer generally increases with age. Around 8% of people aged 16-24 are carers, compared to 23% of those aged 55-64 providing care. The likelihood of providing care then begins to decrease around retirement age.

This is consistent with findings from the census, where the likelihood of providing care peaks between 55-64 (20%), before decreasing from ages 65+.

Figure 1: The prevalence of unpaid care increases with age before decreasing from ages 65+, with the SHeS and the census reporting similar proportions across most age-groups, except those aged 4-15 and 55-64 where the SHeS reported higher proportions of carers than the census.

The proportion of the population that provides unpaid care, for each age-group, comparing Scotland-level data from SHeS 2019-2023 and Scotland’s Census 2022.

Note: differences between the SHeS and the census may be visible in this chart, for example for ages 45-54 (21% in the SHeS, compared to 19% in the census), however as the confidence intervals of the SHeS estimate overlap with the census figure, this is not indicative of a notable difference (more information on this can be found in Annex 2). As such, these have been described as similar in this report.

The SHeS generally reports similar proportions of carers to the census in most age-groups. The exceptions to this trend are children aged 4-15 (3% in the SHeS compared to 2% in the census) and adults aged 55-64, where the most pronounced difference is observed, with the SHeS reporting 23% of people are carers, compared with 20% of people in the census.

This could be linked to the proportions reported by SHeS being higher overall than in the census (15% of those aged 16+ in the SHeS, compared to 13% in the census), with possible reasons for this being discussed in section 2.3 above. The 55-64 age-group reports the largest proportion of carers of all age-groups in both sources. Therefore, it is conceivable that the differences between the SHeS and the census are most distinct in the age-group encompassing the largest portion of the caring population.

3.4 Age and sex of carers

Although some marginal differences are seen, both the SHeS and the census agree that a higher proportion of carers are females than males across most ages, apart from the youngest and oldest age-groups.

The SHeS 2019-2023 shows no significant differences between males and females aged 4-15, with the magnitude of difference by sex generally increasing with age, peaking between the ages of 45-54, where 24% of women are carers compared to 17% of men. This is closely followed by ages 55-64, with just under a 7 percentage point difference between men and women. These differences then begin decreasing following retirement age, with men and women aged 75+ being equally likely to be carers (9% and 8%, respectively).

Figure 2: According to the SHeS 2019-2023, females are more likely to provide unpaid care than males across most ages, apart from the youngest (4-15) and oldest (75+) age-groups. The biggest difference by sex is seen in those aged between 45-54, where 24% of women provide unpaid care compared to 17% of men.

The proportion of the population that provides unpaid care, for each age-group and sex, Scotland-level data from SHeS 2019-2023.

Consistent with the trend seen in the SHeS, census data also shows that the magnitude of differences in proportions caring by sex generally increases with increasing age, with the most pronounced difference in sex again seen in people aged between 45-54, where 23% of women are carers, compared to 16% of men. This is closely followed by people aged between 55-64, with a difference of just under 7 percentage points between men and women. Looking at the oldest age-group, men are slightly more likely to be carers – with 10% of men aged 75+ providing care, compared to 8% of women.

Figure 3: As with the SHeS, the census shows that women are more likely to provide unpaid care than men across most ages. The exception is among people aged 75+, where men are slightly more likely to be carers (10% for men, compared to 8% for women).

The proportion of the population that provides unpaid care, for each age-group and sex, Scotland-level data from Scotland’s Census 2022.

Note: census figures presented in charts are derived from unrounded data, with data labels rounded to the nearest percentage. As such, small differences can be seen in the chart (for example, those aged 4-15 years), however the rounded percentages are equal (both 2%).

Notably, as discussed, the largest difference by sex observed in the both the SHeS and the census is among those aged 45-54. This contrasts with findings from SHeS 2012-2013, which reported the greatest difference by sex in the 35-44 age-group, a pattern attributed in the original Scotland’s Carers (2015) report to women’s additional responsibilities for school-aged or preschool children who may be affected by disability, physical or mental ill-health or frailty. Therefore, it is possible that this cohort continues to show the most pronounced difference by sex, with the observed shift in age-group simply reflecting the ageing of that cohort across the different survey periods.

Additionally, this may relate to trends reported by National Records of Scotland (NRS), which indicate that people are having children at older ages. Between 2012 and 2023, the proportion of births to mothers aged 16-24 fell from 23% to 14%, while the proportion to mothers aged 35-44 rose from 19% to 25%.

These findings are also consistent with research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Sandwich Carers – those who care for both sick, disabled, or older relatives and dependent children. According to data between January 2021 and May 2023, when considering those aged between 16 and 64 in the UK, 61% of sandwich carers are female, compared to 52% of the general population. Further, around half (51%) of sandwich carers were aged 45-64 years, compared with 40% of parents who do not also provide unpaid care to another adult relative (Sandwich carers, UK - Office for National Statistics). This aligns with the theory around the SHeS findings, where women of these ages may be more likely to be looking after children in addition to providing care for other adults. However, the SHeS data has a more specific definition of unpaid care, covering only children who have additional support needs (for example, children who may be affected by disability, physical or mental ill-health), compared to the ONS data which includes all childcare provided to dependent children.

Although the trends by age and sex are largely consistent between the SHeS and the census, the SHeS reports higher overall proportions of carers aged 16+ (15%) than the census (13%) (see section 2). The proportion of male carers aged 16+ is similar between the SHeS and the census (both around 12%), with the difference between sources being larger for females (17% of women are carers in the SHeS, compared with 15% in the census). Age-sex group analysis investigates this further, illustrated in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: The SHeS and the census both agree that generally, women across most age-groups are more likely to provide care than men. The exceptions are those aged 4-15, where both sexes are equally likely, and those aged 75+, where men are slightly more likely to provide care than women.

The proportion of the population that provides unpaid care, for each age-group and sex, comparing Scotland-level data from the SHeS 2019-2023 and Scotland’s Census 2022. The percentages for males are on the left-hand side of the graph, and the percentages for females are presented on the right-hand side. Estimates from SHeS for each age-group are presented as the top bar in each age-group, and data from the census is presented as the lower bar.

The SHeS and the census agree that women across most age-groups are more likely to provide care than men. The exceptions to this are those aged 4-15, where care provision is equally likely in men and women (both 3% in SHeS, 2% in the census); and those aged 75+, where slightly more men provide care (9% in SHeS, 10% in the census) than women (8% in both SHeS and the census) – though the difference in the SHeS is not statistically significant.

The proportion of men providing care is similar in the SHeS and the census across most-age-groups, with the exceptions of males aged 4-15 and 55-64, where the SHeS reports higher proportions than the census.

In contrast, for women there are either negligible differences between the SHeS and the census (for those aged 16-54 and 75+), or the SHeS reports higher proportions of the population providing care than the census, seen in those aged 4-15, 55-64 and 65-74.

This is consistent with the overall findings that the difference between men and women aged 16+ providing care is more pronounced in the SHeS (12% of men, 17% of women) than the census (12% of men, 15% of women).

3.5 Changes over time

The SHeS and the census present differing trends of how the number of carers in Scotland has changed in the last decade, with the SHeS indicating a decrease in the proportion of carers between 2012-2013 and 2019-2023, in contrast to the census which shows an increase between 2011 and 2022.

It is not clear why the trends from each source differ, however as noted in previous sections, we have selected the SHeS as our principal source for the purpose of this report, with the analysis of census data being included to provide further context.

According to the SHeS, the total proportion of carers aged 16+ decreased between 2012-2013 (17%) and 2019-2023 (15%). However, this reduction varies across ages and sexes. The largest decreases were seen in males aged 65-74 (where the proportion of carers decreased from 19% to 13%), and in females aged 55-64 (where it decreased from 32% to 26%). In the other age-sex groups, the proportion of carers remained the same, or saw marginal decreases, over time.

Figure 5: SHeS data shows the proportion of people providing care across most age-sex groups either remaining similar or slightly decreasing between 2012-2013 and 2019-2023, with significant sex-specific decreases seen in older age-groups, including females aged 55-64 and males aged 65-74.

The proportion of the population that provides unpaid care, for each age-group and sex, comparing Scotland-level data from SHeS 2012-2013 and SHeS 2019-2023. Within each age-band, data for males is presented on the left and data for females on the right. For each sex, data from SHeS 2012-2013 is on the left and data from SHeS 2019-2023 is on the right.

Conversely to the trend seen in the SHeS, the census data shows an increase in the proportion of carers across all age-sex groups since 2011, with the exception of males aged 65+, which remained stable with 11% of men in this age-group reporting that they provided care in both 2011 and 2022.

Figure 6: In contrast to SHeS, the census data shows an increase in the proportion of carers seen in most age-groups, with the exception of males aged 65+ where the proportion remained similar.

The proportion of the population that provides unpaid care, for each age-group and sex, comparing Scotland-level data from Scotland’s Census 2011 and Scotland’s Census 2022.

Note: due to the inability to filter out 3-year-old carers from the census 2011 data, this chart includes such records for both 2011 and 2022, to ensure comparability, using age-bands available in the 2011 census. Other analyses of 2022 census data presented within this report have removed records for 3-year-olds, to allow comparability with the SHeS which includes carers aged 4+.

Although the SHeS, which is our primary source for the purpose of this report, suggests a decrease in the percentage of the population providing unpaid care in 2019-2023 compared to 2012-2013, this appears to be somewhat at odds with anecdotal evidence from carers’ organisations and local services, which report increased demand on carers resulting from unmet need for social care.

While we do not know exactly why this is, one potential explanation may be that rather than more people taking on new caring roles, it could be the case that the SHeS captures existing carers that are taking on more intensive caring roles. This will be explored through analysis of hours of care provided, in section 4 below.