England and Wales Census 2021 - Unpaid care by age, sex and deprivation in England and Wales

This release presents insight into the provision of unpaid care in England and Wales in 2021. Key findings are presented at country, regional and local authority level and analysis on deprivation.

The data used to create these tables have been adjusted to avoid the release of confidential data. Country, region and local authority are based on 2021 boundaries. Counts have been rounded to the nearest 5, and these rounded counts were used to calculate age-standardised and age-specific percentages; this is for consistency with statistical disclosure methods.

All figures are individually rounded; totals may not sum exactly because of this rounding. Data represents usual residents aged 5 years and over.  

Age-specific percentage

Age-specific percentages are used to allow comparisons between specified age groups. 

Details can be found here

Age-standardised percentage

Age-standardised percentages (ASPs) allow for comparison between populations over time and across geographies, as they account for differences in the population size and age structure. The 2013 European Standard Population is used to standardise proportions. 

The 2013 European Standard Population can be found here

__Confidence interval __

The lower and upper 95% confidence limits form a confidence interval (CI), which is a measure of the statistical precision of an estimate and shows the range of uncertainty around the figure. As a general rule, if the CI around one figure overlaps with the interval around another, we cannot say with certainty that there is more than a chance difference between the two figures.

Index of multiple deprivation

National deciles and quintiles of area deprivation are created through ranking small geographical populations known as Lower layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) based on their deprivation score from most to least deprived and grouping them into 10 or 5 divisions based on the subsequent ranking. We have used the 2019 IMD and WIMD because this is the most up to date version at the time of publishing.

Unpaid carer

In 2021: A person is a provider of unpaid care if they look after or give help or support to anyone because of long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses, or problems related to old age.

In 2011 and 2001: A person is a provider of unpaid care if they look after, give help or support to family members, friends, neighbours or others because of long-term physical or mental ill-health/disability, or problems related to old age.

In 2001, 2011 and 2021, this does not include any activities as part of paid employment. No distinction is made about whether any care that a person provides is within their own household or outside the household.  A person can only be classified as an unpaid carer if they are aged 5 years or over.

Usual resident

For Census 2021, a usual resident of the UK is anyone who, on Census Day, was in the UK and had stayed or intended to stay in the UK for a period of 12 months or more or had a permanent UK address and was outside the UK and intended to be outside the UK for less than 12 months.