Scotland's Carers update release: June 2026

Estimated provision of care (aged 4+)

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 March 2025. It is intended to give users the latest up to date estimates on the number of carers living in Scotland.

These estimates are based on the Scottish Health Survey which is a sample survey, and as such it is important to note that these estimates have associated confidence intervals which need to be taken into consideration. Confidence intervals span the range of values in which the true value is likely to lie.

It is important to note that research indicates that it can be difficult to identify people that provide unpaid care, as often people do not recognise themselves as a carer, but simply as someone who is looking after their family and friends. As such, the true number of carers may be higher than our best estimates.

While different surveys provide different estimates of unpaid carers, the Scottish Surveys Core Questions 2024 data for people aged 16 and above suggests that the number of carers living in Scotland is estimated to be between 720,000 (according to the Scottish Health Survey) and 860,000 (according to the Scottish Household Survey).

The latest figures based on the Scottish Health Survey 2021-2024 show an estimated total of around 722,000 carers (+/-43,000) living in Scotland, including 23,000 young carers. This represents a 4% increase in the estimated total number of carers since 2019-2023.

There are no significant increases in the provision of care reported by SHeS for the age-groups used to calculate these estimates (4-15, 16-17 and 18+ years) between 2019-2023 and 2021-2024. Therefore, although the proportion of carers has remained similar, the increase in the estimated number of carers in Scotland appears to be primarily attributable to changes in population estimates produced by National Records of Scotland (NRS).

The methodology used to obtain these estimates is the same as previously used in the Scotland’s Carers publication, which allows for consistency and ensures that young carers are included. More information on how this estimate was calculated can be found in the Background section.

Provision of care by age and sex (aged 16+)

The latest figures from the Scottish Health Survey 2021-2024 combined show that 15% of people aged 16 and over are carers. Women are more likely to be carers than men, with 17% of females and 13% of males providing care. People are more likely to be providing unpaid care in their later working years – especially females. More than a quarter (27%) of females aged 55-64 provided unpaid care in 2021-2024 combined.

Figure 1: Women are more likely to provide unpaid care than men, and the proportion of the population providing care peaks between the ages of 55 and 64 (20% of men, 27% of women).

The proportion and confidence intervals of the Scottish population aged 16 and above who reported providing care, by age-group and sex, Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) 2021-2024.

Provision of care by hours of care (aged 16+)

Figures from the Scottish Health Survey 2021-2024 combined also show that nearly two-thirds of unpaid carers aged 16+ (63%) were providing up to 19 hours of unpaid care per week on average. However, 17% were providing 50 or more hours of unpaid care per week on average.

Figure 2: The largest proportion of carers provided care for an average of up to 19 hours per week (63%), followed by those providing 50 or more hours per week on average (17%).

The proportion and confidence intervals of the Scottish population aged 16 and above who reported providing care, by hours of care, SHeS 2021-2024.

For more detailed analysis on carers living in Scotland, please refer to Scotland’s Carers. The most recent report was published in Spring 2026, with further focused topic reports to be released in due course.