Data on the population distribution by age are derived from The Care Board’s calculations using the 2024 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC) microdata provided through a Minnesota Population Center (MPC)’s Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) extract pulled on March 13, 2025. The population data reflect a weighted aggregate count of individuals for each age, which are then categorized into Early (aged 0-24), Middle (aged 25-64), and Late (65+) Stages of Life.

The level of support required for individuals to maintain daily well-being, health, and functionality vary based on life stage, personal circumstances, and health conditions. Care on a given day is calculated using time diary data from recent years of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) provided through an IPUMS extract pulled on February 27, 2025 and demographic data from the most recent month of the IPUMS CPS-ASEC.

• ATUS: Used to estimate a weighted mean daily average of informal self-care activities for an individual living alone who spent 0 minutes in their day providing care to a child, elder, or other adult within or outside their household and conducting their care activities alone. It includes both weekday and weekend time use data adjusted by survey weights for accurate representativeness. We assume that those in this sample are the sole recipients and providers of their completed care activities. This provides a baseline from which we can estimate inequalities in engagement of care activities among all individuals.

The capacity to offer care to others is influenced by factors such as time availability, employment status, household responsibilities, and existing caregiving obligations. Capacity to care is calculated using the IPUMS ATUS to estimate both informal and formal care activity minutes, where formal care is an activity engaged in for a wage or payment and informal care is an activity receiving no direct compensation for the work. Formal care is often done for non-family members whereas informal care is often done for family and other household members.

• ATUS: Used to estimate the number of minutes in informal care activities and the number of minutes spent in formal care occupations for a wage, considering all individuals regardless of living arrangements. These activities are categorized into Care Focuses: Developmental, Daily Living, and Health.

To estimate the economic value of care provision across the Developmental, Daily Living, and Health care focuses, we calculate the respective total daily care hours and apply the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. This provides a baseline for understanding a lower-bound monetary valuation of unpaid care, translating daily care hours into a minimum estimated value.

The amount of time spent providing direct or indirect care, including child-rearing, elder care, household maintenance, and supporting dependents’ well-being. Care time can be both paid (formal) and unpaid (informal).

Time spent on non-care activities including paid work, education, and leisure.

Women aged 18 and over with at least one own child under the age of 18 living in their household. This classification includes biological, adoptive, and stepmothers and excludes women whose children live elsewhere.

Women aged 18 and over who do not have any own child living in their household. This includes women with own children who live elsewhere.

Men aged 18 and over with at least one own child under the age of 18 living in their household. This classification includes biological, adoptive, and stepfathers and excludes men whose children live elsewhere.

Men aged 18 and over who do not have any own child living in their household. This includes men with own children who live elsewhere.

Individuals who do not fall into the defined categories of mother, non-mother, father, or non-father. This includes parents under the age of 18 and parents with adult children over the age of 18 living in their household.

In our analysis, secondary activities are treated as distinct activities. For example, if an individual spends one hour cooking and concurrently provides one hour of childcare, these are recorded separately in the raw data as one hour of primary activity (cooking) and one hour of secondary care (childcare). We then separate and reintegrate these entries, classifying them back into the primary activities column. This approach can result in the cumulative daily activities for an individual exceeding 24 hours in some instances.

The act of supplying care, support, or services to meet a care need, encompassing both paid (formal) and unpaid (informal) labor.

A classification of care activities based on the type of support provided or received. The three care focuses—Developmental, Daily Living, and Health—capture distinct caregiving needs and responsibilities across life stages.

Care activities that are not directly reimbursed in exchange for a wage, salary, or stipend; usually performed by a family member, neighbor, or others in one’s social network.

Care activities that are done in exchange for a wage, salary, or stipend; usually performed by a non-family member.

Activities or services that nurture and support human development needs, such as education, play, and supervision. This includes teachers and childcare workers in the formal sector and parental nurturing or education activities in the informal sector.

Activities or services that facilitate daily living, including household tasks and personal maintenance. This includes housekeepers and food service workers in the formal sector and cooking or cleaning in the informal sector.

Activities or services that address health needs, including medical care, therapy, and caregiving for sick, disabled, or elderly household members. This includes doctors and nurses in the formal sector and caring for sick or elderly family members in the informal sector.

The annual earnings a person doing this task would make were they paid for the effort. This is estimated using a crosswalk of the median annual income from similar jobs and activities in the paid labor market.

A Gini coefficient is a statistical measure of the inequality within a population. It has a scale of 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality). It is often used as a measure of wealth or income inequality within a country or state. Our Gini statistic is like the income inequality Gini; however, we compute inequality of formal care (as a resource) across the population of those who are at risk for needing the care. To estimate the number of individuals in formal care jobs, we use county-level estimates from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) to identify the number of people working in care industries. We then aggregate across counties for a national estimate of the distribution of care jobs. We compute this statistic at the national level, which provides a measure of overall inequality in the distribution of care jobs across the country relative to where the at-risk need is located. A higher Gini coefficient, closer to one, indicates greater inequality in the distribution of care jobs across the U.S. A lower Gini coefficient, closer to zero, indicates greater equality.

A direct comparison between the number of individuals in a geographic area needing care (children, elderly, and disabled) and the number of able-bodied adults aged 18 to 65 capable of caring for those individuals dependent on care. The ratio is calculated by dividing the population available to provide care (numerator) by the population in need of care (denominator). These populations are further weighted based on their capacity to provide care as outlined in the capacity to care section. To estimate the number of individuals who need care at the county level we use Tables B18101 (Age & Sex) and S0101 (Sex by Age by Disability Status) from the U.S. Census Bureau. To estimate the number of individuals capable of providing care, we use CPS-ASEC to identify formal sector caregivers and homemakers. Children under 18 and adults aged 65 and older are defined as either dependents or at risk of needing care.

• A care ratio of one indicates that there is one able-bodied adult capable of providing care for every one dependent/at-risk of care person. A care ratio of two indicates two able-bodied adults for every one dependent. A care ratio below one indicates a higher number of dependents needing care than those capable of providing care.

Includes individuals aged 18 and over sandwiched between minor children and aging parents. For our purposes, they are individuals who have their own minor child(ren) under age 10 and, on an average day, spend at least one minute on either primary or secondary elder care activities. Sandwich generation individuals shoulder unique responsibilities and complexities that set them apart from other caregivers. We estimate the sandwich generation population and their median daily caregiving hours to highlight the magnitude of caregivers in this category and the average amount of effort they spend caring for others each day.

Individuals who live with their own child under age 10 and spend at least one minute providing unpaid care for an elderly person needing support because of a condition related to aging as a percentage of the total population.

The median hours per day spent in care activities for sandwich caregivers, computed using only responses from sandwich caregivers (as defined above) from the IPUMS ATUS.

Secondary caregiving activities are included in this estimate. Secondary activities occur when a person is engaged in two tasks simultaneously (i.e., cooking dinner while supervising a child).

The capacity to offer care to others, influenced by factors such as time availability, employment status, household responsibilities, and existing caregiving obligations.

A classification of care activities based on the type of support provided or received. The three care focuses—Developmental, Daily Living, and Health—capture distinct caregiving needs and responsibilities across life stages.

The support required for individuals to maintain daily well-being, health, and functionality, varying based on life stage, personal circumstances, and health conditions.

The act of supplying care, support, or services to meet a care need, encompassing both paid (formal) and unpaid (informal) labor.

A direct comparison between the number of individuals in a geographic area needing care (children, elderly, and disabled) and the number of people in the formal and informal economy capable of caring for those people. The ratio is calculated by dividing the population available to provide care (numerator) by the need for care (denominator).

The amount of time spent providing direct or indirect care, including child-rearing, elder care, household maintenance, and supporting dependents’ well-being. Care time can be both paid (formal) and unpaid (informal).

Activities or services that facilitate daily living, including household tasks and personal maintenance. This includes housekeepers and food service workers in the formal sector and cooking or cleaning in the informal sector.

Activities or services that nurture and support human development needs, such as education, play, and supervision. This includes teachers and childcare workers in the formal sector and parental nurturing or education activities in the informal sector.

The annual earnings a person doing this task would make were they paid for the effort. This is estimated using a crosswalk of the median annual income from similar jobs and activities in the paid labor market.

Men aged 18 and over with at least one own child under the age of 18 living in their household. This classification includes biological, adoptive, and stepfathers and excludes men whose children live elsewhere.

Care activities that are done in exchange for a wage, salary, or stipend; usually performed by a non-family member.

The Gini Coefficient for Formal Care reveals inequalities in how caregiving resources are distributed across the country.

Activities or services that address health needs, including medical care, therapy, and caregiving for sick, disabled, or elderly household members. This includes doctors and nurses in the formal sector and caring for sick or elderly family members in the informal sector.

Care activities that are not directly reimbursed in exchange for a wage, salary, or stipend; usually performed by a family member, neighbor, or others in one’s social network.

Women aged 18 and over with at least one own child under the age of 18 living in their household. This classification includes biological, adoptive, and stepmothers and excludes women whose children live elsewhere.

Time spent on non-care activities including paid work, education, and leisure.

Men aged 18 and over who do not have any own child living in their household. This includes men with own children who live elsewhere.

Women aged 18 and over who do not have any own child living in their household. This includes women with own children who live elsewhere.

Individuals who do not fall into the defined categories of mother, non-mother, father, or non-father. This includes parents under the age of 18 and parents with adult children over the age of 18 living in their household.

When caregiving is a primary activity and the main focus, including tasks like feeding, bathing, or directly supervising a child or adult in need of care.

Individuals who live with an own child under age 10 and spend at least one minute providing unpaid care for an elderly person needing support because of a condition related to aging.

When caregiving happens alongside some other primary activity, including situations where a caregiver is responsible for a child or dependent while simultaneously engaging in another activity, such as cooking or working from home. Secondary care is considered a secondary activity in the collection of time-use data.