Summary: Caring for someone rarely begins with a decision to become a carer. It might start with the shopping or a lift to an appointment, then build one small step at a time. Our analysis shows that unpaid caring is not evenly shared across England: places with very similar age profiles can have very different caring rates, and the latest 2026 survey data shows substantial geographic differences remain. The newest government survey also shows how caring can affect carers themselves, from sleep and health to the ability to look after their own needs. Explore the figures for your area, see what sits behind them and, if you're wondering about your own family, our free Is It Time for Care? tool can help you take stock.
The key findings
Sources include Census 2021, ONS age-standardised figures, GP Patient Survey 2026, Survey of Adult Carers in England 2025/26 and Semrush UK search data. Different sources measure different groups and should not be compared as if they were one time series. Full sources and methodology are in the notes for journalists.
Contents
- Unpaid care in your area: the interactive map
- It's not just about age: England's caring divide
- What might explain the divide?
- Where caring is most intensive
- Every area at a glance
- Caring rarely starts big. It builds.
- What caring is doing to carers
- The carers who don't know they're carers
- What families search for when caring gets harder
- When helping becomes caring: what you can do
- Common questions
- For journalists: sources, method and downloads
Unpaid care in your area: the interactive map
The 2021 Census remains the most detailed local picture of unpaid caring across England. The 2026 GP Patient Survey gives a more recent view of where adults are reporting caring now. Use the map to see where reported caring is highest in 2026, where caring was most intensive at the Census, and which areas sit towards the higher end in both datasets.
Where are the highest levels of unpaid caring?
The latest national survey shows that unpaid caring remains a major part of life across England. Explore where reported levels are highest now, where the most intensive caring was recorded at the 2021 Census, and whether the same parts of the country remain towards the top.
Important: the 2021 Census and 2026 GP Patient Survey ask different questions and cover different populations. The then-and-now view compares where areas sit relative to one another, not a direct rise or fall in the percentages.
Then and now: do the same places still have more carers?
Each dot is one of the areas on the map, placed by its share of carers at the 2021 Census and in the 2026 GP Patient Survey. Areas that share an NHS area are combined. Choose an area, or select a dot, to highlight it.
The dots rise from left to right: places with more carers in 2021 still had more in 2026 (correlation 0.79, where 1 is a perfect match; 0.75 after allowing for age). The dashed line shows the overall trend. The two surveys ask the question differently, so compare positions, not the numbers.
Census 2021 (Census Day 21 March 2021) via ONS/Nomis tables TS039 and TS007, grouped into Unique Senior Care service areas. The Census asks about unpaid care for everyone aged five and over, so figures are shown as a share of residents in that age group. Shares of people caring aren't adjusted for age, so compare areas with a similar share aged 65+. The 2026 view uses the GP Patient Survey 2026 (NHS England/Ipsos, weighted), shown for the NHS area covering each area; where an area spans more than one NHS area, the colour shows their combined figure. Boundaries: ONS Open Geography, contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right.
It's not just about age: England's caring divide
You'd expect places with more older residents to have more carers, and broadly, they do. Older people are more likely to need help, and many carers are getting older themselves.
But when we compared areas with almost exactly the same share of people aged 65 and over, the caring load was strikingly different.
Source: Census 2021 (ONS/Nomis TS039 and TS007), analysed by Unique Senior Care. Not adjusted for age, which is why areas are paired by age profile. County areas include the cities within them, for example Nottinghamshire includes Nottingham.
In Merseyside and The Wirral, 10.7% of people aged five and over were providing unpaid care at the 2021 Census. In Bath and North East Somerset, where the share of older residents is almost identical, it was 8.1%. In other words, the reported share of people caring was around a third higher in Merseyside and The Wirral. Nottinghamshire and Surrey show a similar difference: 9.8% compared with 8.0%.
Official figures show the same divide
Our comparison uses simple shares, so we checked it against the Office for National Statistics' own figures, which adjust for age across every council in England. They point the same way. Four of the five council areas with the highest rates of unpaid care in England are in Merseyside and Nottinghamshire, and the lowest rates outside London were in Surrey and Hampshire.
Source: ONS, Unpaid care, England and Wales: Census 2021 (19 January 2023). Darker bars are council areas within Merseyside and Nottinghamshire.
What might explain the divide?
These figures can't tell us exactly why one area has more carers than another. But national ONS analysis points to deprivation. After adjusting for age, 10.1% of people in England's most deprived areas were providing unpaid care, compared with 8.1% in the least deprived. People in the most deprived areas were also more than twice as likely to be caring for 50 hours or more a week (4.0% against 1.9%).
Carers UK's own research with WPI Economics points the same way: unpaid carers living in the North of England and the West Midlands are more likely to be living in poverty.
And that gap has grown. Between the 2011 and 2021 Censuses, the difference in caring rates between England's most and least deprived areas widened from 0.4 to 2.0 percentage points.
Source: ONS, Unpaid care by age, sex and deprivation, England and Wales: Census 2021 (13 February 2023). The Census question changed in 2021 and was asked during the pandemic, so compare years with care.
The divide is still visible in 2026
The 2021 Census remains the most detailed local picture of unpaid caring across England. To see whether the same geographic pattern is still visible today, we compared it with the 2026 GP Patient Survey.
The two surveys can't be compared directly. They ask different questions, cover different populations and use different geographic areas. But when places are compared with one another, a similar geographic pattern remains: areas with relatively high levels of unpaid caring in 2021 tended to remain towards the higher end of the 2026 survey.
The 2026 comparison uses the GP Patient Survey, carried out by Ipsos for NHS England between January and April 2026. Its geography is based on NHS areas rather than the 35 areas used for the Census analysis, so the comparison is about relative position rather than a direct change in percentage.
It isn't only how many people are caring that differs from place to place. It's how much they're doing.
Where caring is most intensive
At the 2021 Census, more than 1.4 million people in England were providing at least 50 hours of unpaid care every week.
Across the 35 areas we analysed, the proportion of unpaid carers providing at least 50 hours a week ranged from around a quarter to a third.
Source: Census 2021 (ONS/Nomis TS039), analysed by Unique Senior Care. Kent includes Medway. Shares are of each area's own unpaid carers.
In Merseyside and The Wirral, a third of all unpaid carers (33.5%), 48,080 people, were caring for 50 hours or more a week. In Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Oxfordshire, it was around a quarter.
2021 Census: every area at a glance
The table below contains the Census figures behind our 35-area analysis, including the number of unpaid carers, the share of people aged five and over providing unpaid care and the proportion of carers providing 50 hours or more each week.
See the figures for all 35 areas
| Area | Unpaid carers | Share of aged 5+ caring | Carers doing 50+ hrs | Share aged 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merseyside & The Wirral | 143,676 | 10.7% | 33.5% | 19.2% |
| Derbyshire | 99,703 | 9.9% | 30.6% | 20.7% |
| Shropshire | 47,730 | 9.9% | 30.2% | 22.5% |
| Devon | 113,606 | 9.8% | 31.0% | 24.3% |
| Nottinghamshire | 106,521 | 9.8% | 30.2% | 18.6% |
| Staffordshire | 105,345 | 9.8% | 30.6% | 21.0% |
| Lancashire | 140,629 | 9.7% | 31.4% | 20.1% |
| Cheshire | 99,922 | 9.6% | 29.8% | 20.9% |
| Herefordshire | 16,577 | 9.3% | 29.0% | 25.9% |
| Norfolk | 81,535 | 9.3% | 31.5% | 24.4% |
| Dorset | 68,864 | 9.2% | 29.3% | 25.5% |
| Worcestershire | 52,741 | 9.2% | 29.5% | 22.9% |
| Kent | 158,513 | 9.1% | 32.0% | 19.7% |
| West Midlands | 249,152 | 9.1% | 32.3% | 15.6% |
| Yorkshire | 442,511 | 9.1% | 31.2% | 18.8% |
| Suffolk | 65,103 | 9.0% | 30.0% | 23.6% |
| Greater Manchester | 239,237 | 8.9% | 31.8% | 15.8% |
| Sussex | 145,025 | 8.9% | 28.5% | 22.4% |
| Warwickshire | 49,625 | 8.8% | 28.6% | 20.5% |
| Essex | 152,132 | 8.7% | 30.3% | 19.8% |
| Leicestershire | 87,833 | 8.6% | 29.2% | 17.7% |
| Wiltshire | 60,578 | 8.6% | 28.5% | 20.0% |
| Gloucestershire | 51,862 | 8.5% | 27.1% | 21.7% |
| Bedfordshire | 53,982 | 8.2% | 28.2% | 15.7% |
| Hampshire | 145,181 | 8.2% | 28.7% | 19.9% |
| Hertfordshire | 92,781 | 8.2% | 25.9% | 17.0% |
| Northamptonshire | 60,682 | 8.2% | 29.7% | 17.6% |
| Bath & NE Somerset | 14,970 | 8.1% | 25.7% | 19.4% |
| Cambridgeshire | 68,480 | 8.1% | 28.3% | 17.6% |
| Buckinghamshire | 41,773 | 8.0% | 25.5% | 18.8% |
| Surrey | 90,497 | 8.0% | 25.9% | 18.9% |
| Oxfordshire | 52,674 | 7.7% | 25.9% | 17.9% |
| Bristol | 33,973 | 7.6% | 27.4% | 12.9% |
| Berkshire | 64,896 | 7.3% | 26.8% | 15.3% |
| London | 596,470 | 7.2% | 27.2% | 11.9% |
Source: Census 2021 (ONS/Nomis TS039 and TS007), grouped into Unique Senior Care's service areas and extracted on 22 September 2026. County areas include the cities within them. "Carers doing 50+ hrs" is the share of each area's own unpaid carers.
The geography tells us where unpaid caring is most prevalent or intensive. The wider evidence helps show what that level of caring can mean for the people providing it. Behind every one of these numbers is a family, and for many, caring did not start as a clearly defined role. It built gradually.
Caring rarely starts big. It builds.
Riley started out as a grandson helping his grandparents with everyday things. There was no single moment when he became their carer. Instead, one small problem led to another, and another.
"It was very much like a jumper, or like a thread, just pulling on it, and there was another thing, there was another thing."
Before long, Riley was working a full-time job and a weekend job, while travelling to look after his grandparents in between. Even when he was away, he was still phoning them every morning and every night.
"It was too much," he says. He gave up his full-time job to care for them. In his words: "I've sort of gone from being a grandson to pretty much a full-time carer."
Riley is far from alone. Carers UK's 2026 polling estimates that 1.1 million people have left work to care over the past two years.
Read the video transcript
What caring is doing to carers
2003/04 → 2023/24
Riley's experience is his own, but national evidence shows why the point between helping and caring matters. The number of people providing 35 hours or more of unpaid care a week rose from around 1.1 million in 2003/04 to 1.9 million in 2023/24, according to Joseph Rowntree Foundation analysis for IPPR.
The newest official evidence gives an even clearer view of what sustained caring can mean day to day. The Survey of Adult Carers in England 2025/26 covers unpaid carers aged 18 and over who are known to local authorities because they care for another adult. It does not represent every unpaid carer in England, but it tracks the experiences of carers within the social care system over time.
The 2021/22 survey took place during the COVID-19 period, so individual year-to-year changes should be read with care. The longer trend is shown here to give context rather than to attribute the change to one cause.
Source: Department of Health and Social Care, Survey of Adult Carers in England 2025/26, published 24 September 2026. These figures describe carers in the survey's eligible population, not all unpaid carers in England.
Taken together, the evidence points to a caring role that has become increasingly demanding for many families. More people are providing substantial amounts of care than two decades ago, while the latest official survey shows carers known to local authorities are more likely to report difficulty looking after themselves than they were a decade ago, alongside high levels of tiredness and disturbed sleep. These datasets measure different groups and periods and should not be directly combined, but together they show the significant pressure caring can place on families.
"My sort of mental health and all of those sort of similar things kind of fell by the wayside."
Yet many people carrying substantial caring responsibilities still do not think of themselves as carers at all.
The carers who don't know they're carers
Ask most people who look after a parent, partner or grandparent whether they're a carer, and plenty will say no. They're a daughter, a husband, a grandson. They're just doing what needs doing.
Research for Carers Week 2023 found that nearly three quarters of people who are, or have been, caring for someone don't call themselves a carer. And it matters: of those who took longer to recognise their role, 46% said they had missed out on financial support as a result.
In Carers UK's State of Caring 2024 survey, 55% of carers who responded said it took them more than a year to recognise their caring role, and almost a quarter (24%) said it took more than five years.
It shows in the records, too. The Census asked everyone the same question about caring. A GP record only notes that someone is a carer if it's been shared with the practice and recorded.
These measures come from different systems and cannot identify whether the same person answered the Census and was recorded by their GP.
Source: Nuffield Trust analysis of around 13 million GP records (29 July 2025).
And when people don't see themselves as carers, they don't always ask for the support they're entitled to. Nearly three quarters of State of Caring 2025 respondents (73%) hadn't had a Carer's Assessment in the previous 12 months. Council adult social care directors estimate that only 5% to 10% of unpaid carers get any support at all from their council.
So when caring starts to become too much, where do people turn?
What families search for when caring gets harder
People do not usually search for a question as broad as "have I become a carer?". They search for the problem directly in front of them: how to get a break, how to cope, how to get a Carer's Assessment, what to do when a parent refuses help, or how to arrange more support.
We analysed 100 UK search terms about caring for older relatives. Of the 95 with recorded Semrush volume, the tracked terms totalled an estimated 18,920 UK searches a month. Almost a third of that volume was around Carer's Assessments and formal support.
Semrush UK database, checked 22 September 2026. Search volumes are estimates of searches, not numbers of people.
Source: Semrush UK database, historical snapshots for 15 September 2022 and 15 September 2026. This is one exact phrase, not every search about burnout, and searches aren't the same as people.
Across all the terms we tracked, searches added up to around 18,920 a month. Almost a third were about Carer's Assessments and formal support, and a further 3,480 a month were about respite, breaks and the strain of caring.
See all nine search themes
Estimated monthly UK searches across 95 tracked terms with recorded volume (18,920 in total), Semrush UK, 22 September 2026. Searches, not people; similar phrases overlap.
What people rarely do is ask the bigger question outright: has helping become caring, and is it time for more support? The search data suggests families often arrive at that question through the individual pressures building around them.
When helping becomes caring: what you can do next
If some of this sounds familiar, the useful question is not whether you are "coping well enough". It is whether the situation has changed enough that you, the person you care for, or both of you would benefit from more support.
Signs that helping may have become caring
- Someone needs help every day, or you're getting up in the night or staying over.
- You've taken on their medication: prescriptions, reminders or checking tablets.
- You're helping with washing, dressing or using the toilet.
- You're worried about falls, or helping them move around.
- You're not sure they're safe on their own for as long as before.
- You're cancelling work, plans or sleep to keep things going.
- Your phone is always on, even when you're away.
- One person in the family is doing most of it.
If one or two of these ring true, it doesn't mean anything's gone wrong. It may just mean it's worth a conversation, with the person you're helping, with the rest of the family, or with someone outside it.
A gradual change or an urgent worry?
Three routes, depending on where you are
"I'm not sure whether it's time for more help"
Start with the Is It Time for Care? tool. It takes a few minutes, looks at what's changed for the person you care for and for you, and suggests next steps. It's a good place to begin a family conversation, too.
Start the Is It Time for Care? tool"I think I'm a carer, and I need support for me"
If you're 18 or over and provide regular unpaid care, you can ask for a free Carer's Assessment from the council for the area where the person you care for lives. It's about how caring affects you and what would help, not a test of how well you're doing.
"We're ready to look at sharing some of the care"
Sharing care doesn't mean handing everything over. It might be a few visits a week, help with meals or medication, overnight support or live-in care. A conversation with one of our Care Managers looks at what would actually help, what your relative wants to keep doing for themselves, and the routines that matter to them.
Read about how to arrange care at home, what home care costs and funding care at home.
Talk through your options"It's just allowed me time to breathe. It's allowed me to spend quality time with my nan."
Common questions
How do I know if I've become a carer?
If you regularly help someone who'd struggle without you because of their age, an illness or a disability, you're a carer, whether or not the word feels right. It could be a few hours a week or round the clock. Many people do it for years before they recognise it.
How do I know when it's time for care?
There's rarely one obvious moment. It's worth taking stock when help is needed every day or overnight, when you're managing medication, personal care or safety, when caring is affecting your own health, sleep or work, or when one person is carrying most of it. The Is It Time for Care? tool can help you think it through.
Why are some areas caring more than others?
Older populations tend to have more carers, but that doesn't explain it all. Areas with near-identical age profiles showed very different levels of caring at the 2021 Census, and a similar geographic pattern is visible in the 2026 GP Patient Survey. ONS analysis has also found unpaid care is more common and more intensive in England's more deprived areas.
Does getting care at home mean I'm no longer a carer?
Not at all. Many families share care, with professional carers taking on particular tasks while relatives stay closely involved. Plenty of people find they have more time for the relationship once some of the practical load is shared.
For journalists: sources, method and downloads
Please keep the dates and descriptions below with any figures you use.
Media enquiries: Chloe Ashby, Content Manager, [email protected]
Downloads: Download chart images (PNG)
The 35 areas and the caring divide
Figures for the 35 areas come from Census 2021 (Census Day 21 March 2021, ONS/Nomis tables TS039 and TS007), grouped by Unique Senior Care into the areas it serves and extracted on 22 September 2026. The areas include counties (which include the cities within them), single councils, cities and combined areas, and together cover around 89% of England's population. The North East, Cumbria, Lincolnshire, Cornwall and Somerset aren't included. Shares of people caring are simple (crude) shares of residents aged 5 and over, not age-standardised, so we compare areas with near-identical shares of residents aged 65 and over. "Around a third higher" compares the reported shares of 10.7% and 8.1%. Comparisons between the 35 areas apply to the areas analysed, not all of England. To check the pattern, we used ONS's age-standardised figures for every council area in England. Those are the source of the England-wide comparisons on this page, including the top five council areas and the lowest rates outside London.The 2026 check
To test whether the Census pattern still holds, we used the GP Patient Survey 2026 (NHS England, carried out by Ipsos; fieldwork 2 January to 13 April 2026; published 9 July 2026; around 654,000 responses from adults aged 16+ registered with a GP practice in England). We used weighted results for each of England's 36 Integrated Care Systems, as reorganised in April 2026. The survey's caring question differs from the Census and finds higher rates, so we compare places within the survey only. Results aren't age-adjusted, so our headline 2026 comparison pairs two areas with similar age profiles at the 2021 Census, where the survey's confidence intervals don't overlap.Survey of Adult Carers in England 2025/26
The Survey of Adult Carers in England 2025/26 was published by the Department of Health and Social Care on 24 September 2026. It covers unpaid carers aged 18 and over who are known to their local authority and care for another adult. The eligible population was 311,660 carers; 153,455 were sampled and 43,460 responses were received. Results are weighted to the eligible population. It should not be treated as representative of every unpaid carer in England.Search research
We built a list of 100 UK search terms about caring for older relatives, grouped into nine themes, and checked them in the Semrush UK database on 22 September 2026. 95 returned an estimated volume, totalling around 18,920 searches a month. We excluded terms mainly about foster care, professional carer jobs and young carers. The "carer burnout" comparison uses Semrush's historical snapshots for 15 September 2022 and 15 September 2026, compared like for like, and applies to that exact phrase only. Search volumes are modelled estimates of searches, not people, and similar phrases overlap.Other sources and what they cover
- ONS, Unpaid care, England and Wales: Census 2021 (19 January 2023): 4.7 million carers in England; 1,404,771 caring 50+ hours; top council areas.
- ONS, Unpaid care by age, sex and deprivation (13 February 2023): deprivation figures and the widening gap.
- IPPR, analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation of the Family Resources Survey: people caring 35+ hours a week.
- Centre for Care, University of Sheffield: carers giving 50+ hours rising from 24% to 30% (England and Wales, 2011 to 2021). Its Unpaid Care Dashboard, created with Carers UK, offers detailed council-level Census data for researchers and councils.
- Department of Health and Social Care, Survey of Adult Carers in England 2025 to 2026 (24 September 2026): looking after themselves, health, sleep, stress, social contact and other measures among carers known to local authorities.
- Carers UK, State of Caring 2025 (21 October 2025) and State of Caring 2024 via Carers UK's Facts about carers: figures describe survey respondents, not all carers.
- Nuffield Trust (29 July 2025): GP records vs Census. Different systems that measure different things.
- ONS, Unpaid care expectancy and health outcomes of unpaid carers, England (18 April 2024).
- GP Patient Survey 2026 (NHS England/Ipsos, 9 July 2026): 2026 caring rates by NHS area; carers' long-term health conditions (72% vs 61%).
- Carers UK, Facts about carers (September 2026), citing: Carers Week 2023 research (carers not identifying as carers; 46% missing financial support); Carers UK research 2024 (57% overwhelmed); Carers UK polling 2026 (1.1 million left work to care in two years); WPI Economics research for Carers UK (carers in the North of England and West Midlands more likely to be in poverty); Centre for Care research (65% lifetime chance of caring; around 12,000 new carers a day, 2010 to 2020); ADASS spring survey 2026 (5% to 10% of carers supported by councils).
Things to bear in mind
- Census 2021 remains the latest and most complete count, but it's a snapshot from March 2021, taken during the pandemic, with a question worded differently from 2011.
- We haven't combined figures from different sources into a single total, and we haven't used any data from our own client records.
- Riley's story is shared with his consent. His experience is his own and isn't presented as typical of all carers.
Sources last checked: 29/09/2026. Read about how we research and review our content.
With over 30 years of experience in the care industry, providing outstanding care has always been Helena’s core mission.
Helena has been a dedicated member of Unique Senior Care for 10 years, starting as Care Manager and advancing to Head of Extra Care and now serving as Director of Operations.
She holds a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care and Children and Young People’s Services (England), as well as a Diploma in Welfare Services. Helena has completed various leadership and management courses, enhancing her expertise in the care industry.
Helena has authored published articles, including one for Skills for Care on managing change through the COVID pandemic. She has a steadfast commitment to advocating for and supporting those in need, ensuring their voices are heard and their rights upheld.