Carers UK says 1.1 million people in the UK left work in the last two years to provide unpaid care. On 15 October 2026 Care England argued that this is also a staffing risk for care providers, though the survey does not count care staff separately. Baroness Casey's Big Conversation is under way, and whether reform will reach unpaid carers is not yet known.
The numbers behind this story.
Policy and reform · Unpaid care
People aged 5 and over providing unpaid care, by hours a week (age-standardised) · 2011 and 2021
Note: Census 2021 asked the unpaid care question differently from 2011. ONS compares the two years only in these three broad bands.
Source: ONS, Unpaid care, England and Wales: Census 2021 (opens in a new tab) Published 27 September 2026
Care England argues that Carers UK's findings on people cutting hours, turning down training and leaving jobs to care for relatives also describe the care workforce, though the survey does not count care staff separately.
The UK could have 600,000 too few unpaid carers by 2035 and up to one million too few by 2050, according to research by Public First for Carers Trust, while plans for reform centre on paid care.
Unpaid carers in touch with social services in England have gone from more than half saying they can look after themselves in 2016-17 to just under half, with stress at the highest level the survey has recorded.
Asked in late August, the public guessed that 38% of people in the UK ever become unpaid carers, far fewer than actually do, according to research reported by The Carer.
Around 1,500 people a day across the UK are giving up paid work to care for a relative or friend, up from more than 600 a day in 2019, and the government has yet to answer on paid carer's leave.