How many UK employees are unpaid carers?

The headline figure

Carers UK’s most cited estimate, drawn from ONS census and labour-market data, is that approximately 1 in 7 UK employees is providing unpaid care to a family member or friend — equivalent to roughly 5 million working carers across the UK economy Carers UK key facts.

How that breaks down

Within working carers:

Parent-carers (parents caring for a disabled or chronically ill child) are the largest single sub-group. Over 1.7 million children in English schools have identified SEND DfE, and the great majority have at least one parent in or near the workforce.

Carers of older parents are the next biggest cohort, concentrated in the 50–65 age band.

Sandwich carers (caring for both a child and an older parent) are a growing third group, typically women aged 40–55.

Why the number you hold internally is probably lower

Most carer disclosure is informal. Carers UK consistently finds that fewer than half of working carers have told their employer about their caring responsibilities. Among parent-carers of children with SEND, disclosure is lower again. The implication: if your DEI dashboard shows carer numbers well below 1 in 7, the gap is almost certainly non-disclosure, not absence.

What this means at organisation scale

Applying the 1-in-7 figure to organisation sizes:

100 employees → ~14 carers, ~7 likely parent-carers.

1,000 employees → ~140 carers, ~70 likely parent-carers.

10,000 employees → ~1,400 carers, ~700 likely parent-carers.

These are the people in your workforce most exposed to the decision to leave, to drop hours, or to disengage. They are also disproportionately senior, female, and concentrated in the 40–55 age band — the cohort organisations spend a decade developing for their top pay quartiles.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.