---
type: source
title: "AARP 2025 Caregiving Report: 63 Million Family Caregivers Provide $870 Billion in Unpaid Care"
author: "AARP"
url: https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/basics/caregiving-in-us-survey-2025/
date: 2025-07-24
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: report
status: enrichment
priority: high
tags: [caregiving, unpaid-care, workforce-crisis, aging, social-determinants, economic-value]
processed_by: vida
processed_date: 2026-03-15
enrichments_applied: ["unpaid-family-caregiving-provides-870-billion-annually-representing-16-percent-of-total-us-health-economy-invisible-to-policy-models.md", "caregiver-workforce-crisis-shows-all-50-states-experiencing-shortages-with-43-states-reporting-facility-closures-signaling-care-infrastructure-collapse.md", "family-caregiving-functions-as-poverty-transmission-mechanism-forcing-debt-savings-depletion-and-food-insecurity-on-working-age-population.md", "modernization dismantles family and community structures replacing them with market and state relationships that increase individual freedom but erode psychosocial foundations of wellbeing.md", "social isolation costs Medicare 7 billion annually and carries mortality risk equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day making loneliness a clinical condition not a personal problem.md"]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

### Scale of Unpaid Caregiving

- **63 million** Americans now provide unpaid care (up from 53M — **45% increase** over past decade)
- Economic value: **$870 billion/year** in unpaid services (previously estimated $600B based on 38M caregivers)
- Average: 18 hours/week, 36 billion total hours annually
- More than 13 million caregivers struggle to care for their own health

### Workforce Crisis in Paid Care

- Paid caregivers earn median **$15.43/hour**
- **92%** of nursing home respondents report significant/severe workforce shortages
- ~70% of assisted living facilities report significant/severe shortages
- **All 50 states** experiencing home care worker shortages
- 43 states report HCBS providers have **closed** due to worker shortages

### Financial Impact on Caregivers

- Nearly half experienced at least one major financial impact:
  - Taking on debt
  - Stopping savings
  - Unable to afford food
- Caregiving as poverty mechanism: unpaid labor forces economic sacrifice that compounds over decades

### Structural Dynamics

- Caregiver ratio declining: fewer potential caregivers per elderly person as demographics shift
- Unpaid caregiving masks true cost of elder care — if even 10% of this labor was professionalized, it would add $87B to healthcare spending
- Connection to social isolation: caregivers themselves become socially isolated, compounding health risks

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** The $870B in unpaid care is healthcare's largest hidden subsidy. The system's financial sustainability depends on family members providing free labor — and that labor force is shrinking relative to the elderly population it serves. This is a structural time bomb, not a social issue.
**What surprised me:** The 45% increase in caregivers over a decade — from 53M to 63M. This isn't just demographics; it reflects the growing gap between care needs and institutional capacity. More families are absorbing care responsibilities that the system can't or won't provide.
**KB connections:** [[social isolation costs Medicare 7 billion annually and carries mortality risk equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day making loneliness a clinical condition not a personal problem]], [[modernization dismantles family and community structures replacing them with market and state relationships that increase individual freedom but erode psychosocial foundations of wellbeing]]
**Extraction hints:** Claims about: (1) unpaid caregiving as healthcare's largest hidden subsidy, (2) caregiver workforce crisis as leading indicator of care infrastructure collapse, (3) caregiving as a mechanism that transmits elderly health burdens to working-age population

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[modernization dismantles family and community structures replacing them with market and state relationships that increase individual freedom but erode psychosocial foundations of wellbeing]]
WHY ARCHIVED: Fills the caregiver crisis gap in the KB — essential for understanding the senior care infrastructure that exists outside formal healthcare systems.
EXTRACTION HINT: The $870B figure compared to total US healthcare spending ($5.3T) — unpaid care is 16% of the total health economy, invisible to every policy model.


## Key Facts
- 63 million Americans provide unpaid care as of 2025 (up from 53 million, a 45% increase over past decade)
- Unpaid caregiving valued at $870 billion annually (previously estimated $600B based on 38M caregivers)
- Average caregiver provides 18 hours/week, totaling 36 billion hours annually
- More than 13 million caregivers struggle to care for their own health
- Paid caregivers earn median $15.43/hour
- 92% of nursing homes report significant/severe workforce shortages
- ~70% of assisted living facilities report significant/severe shortages
- All 50 states experiencing home care worker shortages
- 43 states report HCBS providers have closed due to worker shortages
- Nearly half of caregivers experienced at least one major financial impact (debt, stopped savings, or food insecurity)
