Carers UK: 1.1 million people left work in two years to care for a relative

1,500 a day

Carers UK says an estimated 1.1 million people in the UK have left employment in the past two years to care for a family member or friend who is older, disabled or seriously ill. That works out at around 1,500 people every day, and it is a 150% increase on the charity's comparable polling in 2019. The direction is clear: more people are walking away from paid work to care, and faster than before. The figures cover the whole UK and are not broken down by nation. If the same pattern holds where you work, the unpaid capacity you have been relying on is under strain, and that is worth testing rather than assuming.

What Carers UK found

The figures come from polling carried out by Opinium, which surveyed 4,000 UK adults between 14 and 17 July 2026, weighted to be nationally representative. The 2019 comparison is the charity's own. Back then, Carers UK polling found 468,000 people had left their job in the previous two years to look after older and disabled relatives, which it described as more than 600 people a day. Seven years on, that daily rate has more than doubled. Carers UK is not publishing this as neutral background. It is calling for paid carer's leave, saying people are being forced to choose between work and caring. Government says it is exploring how best to support unpaid carers who want to stay in work.

What it doesn't say

This is UK-wide polling, and Carers UK's published figures are not broken down by nation, so they cannot tell you how many of the 1.1 million were in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Anyone using them to argue a case locally should say so upfront. It also says nothing about whether the people being cared for were receiving paid, commissioned care alongside the family support, or whether the arrangement was purely informal. So the polling shows unpaid care getting harder to sustain alongside a job, but not how many of those families will now need more paid care as a result.

The other numbers around it

Reporting on the survey says the 1.1 million brings to 3.33 million the total number of people who say they have given up work altogether at some point to care for a family member or friend. That is the cumulative loss to the labour market, not a two-year snapshot. The other figure worth holding onto is about the people still in work. Coverage of the survey reports that one in five workers (20%) are managing a paid job alongside unpaid caring, up from 15% when Carers UK asked the same question in 2019. Read together, those two numbers describe a pipeline. A bigger share of the workforce is carrying both roles, and a bigger number each year is giving one of them up. The exits are not a separate story from the juggling; they are what the juggling turns into.

What it changes

For commissioners, the working assumption that families will keep absorbing need around commissioned hours is getting weaker each year the polling is repeated. A carer who leaves work may be able to give more time, or may be in a household that has just lost an income and will need more help, not less. Neither outcome is neutral for a placement budget. For operators and registered managers, the 20% figure is the one that lands closest to home: if it holds for your team, around one in five of your staff may be caring for someone at home. Carers' leave policies, flexible rotas, open conversations and regular check-ins cost less than replacing an experienced member of staff who reaches the point of choosing without ever saying so. For policy readers, the argument is now attached to a number and a rate of change. Paid carer's leave is the ask on the table, and government has said it is looking at the problem. What it does next will be measured against 1,500 a day.