Statistics Canada has released a new study on the landscape of unpaid caregiving to children or care-dependent adults in Canada.
In particular, the study provides a detailed portrait of sandwich caregivers for the first time in nearly 20 years, including who these caregivers are, how much care they provide and to whom, and the impacts of this unpaid caregiving on the caregivers. Unpaid caregiving is an important component of the care economy – a highly relevant issue for Canadian society and the economy, especially given the recent pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic on social care and healthcare systems. We invite you to share these new findings with your network.
A few highlights:
- In 2022, 42% of Canadians aged 15 years or older provided unpaid care to children under 15 years old or to adults 15 years or older with a long-term condition or disability in the past 12 months.
- 8 million Canadians (or 13% of unpaid caregivers) were “sandwich caregivers” – that is, they provided unpaid care to both children and care-dependent adults. Women were more likely than men to be sandwich caregivers.
- 86% of sandwich caregivers said that their care responsibilities affected at least one aspect of their health and well-being, compared to 74% of caregivers for only adults and 62% of caregivers for only children.
For more information, we encourage you to consult the following StatCan resources: