Unpaid caregivers work 1.2 billion hours a week

Marissa Brent-Tookey

Marissa Brent-Tookey Jul 14, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>Unpaid caregivers work 1.2 billion hours a week</h1>
                <h2><p>Almost 1-in-3 Americans serve as informal, unpaid caregivers, and about 20 percent of those who care for the elderly are in their 70s and 80s themselves, according to a study published in Population and Development Review. UW Today says this is surprising, given assumptions that the burden of looking after</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/marissa-brent-tookey-crosscut-com/">Marissa Brent-Tookey</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Almost 1-in-3 Americans serve as informal, unpaid caregivers, and about 20 percent of those who care for the elderly are in their 70s and 80s themselves, according to a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00044.x/epdf?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">study</a> published in Population and Development Review. <a href="http://www.washington.edu/news/2015/06/16/study-reveals-surprising-truths-about-caregivers/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">UW Today</a> says this is surprising, given assumptions that the burden of looking after both young children and the elderly falls on the "sandwich generation" of middle-aged parents. This study is unique for its attention to the variety of caregiving situations it examined, from watching a friend's kids for a few hours to long-term spousal care.</p>
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Almost 1-in-3 Americans serve as informal, unpaid caregivers, and about 20 percent of those who care for the elderly are in their 70s and 80s themselves, according to a study published in Population and Development Review. UW Today says this is surprising, given assumptions that the burden of looking after both young children and the elderly falls on the "sandwich generation" of middle-aged parents. This study is unique for its attention to the variety of caregiving situations it examined, from watching a friend's kids for a few hours to long-term spousal care.

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By Marissa Brent-Tookey

Marissa Brent-Tookey is an editorial intern at Crosscut. She holds a B.A. in French from Seattle University and now studies film production at Shoreline Community College. In addition to crewing a doz