Health of young and elderly informal carers: analysis of UK census data

More young and old people acted as informal carers in the United Kingdom in 2001 than previously estimated: 114 000 children aged between 5 and 15, and more than one million people aged 65 and over. In terms of the hours of care provided, nearly 9000 children and 381 000 people aged at least 65 provided at least 50 hours of care a week. Many would consider this an unacceptably heavy burden for children and pensioners.