Care is the invisible engine that keeps our homes, communities, and economy running. From raising children to supporting aging loved ones, care work fuels daily life—yet much of it remains unseen and undervalued. The care economy is a vast network of time, effort, and resources dedicated to sustaining well-being. It includes both paid care—professional and measured—and unpaid care—often invisible, but essential. By making this labor visible, we can better understand its true impact on households and society.
Our stage of life shapes care and our capacity for care provision.
The figure above visualizes the average need for care along the lifespan, as well as our capacity to provide care over our life cycle. With time use data, we estimate how people care for themselves and others throughout the day, including tasks like cooking, hygiene, and leisure activities. Please visit the Methodology & Data page for measurement details.
Our capacity to care for ourselves and others changes over our lifetime. Life stages shape both the type and amount of care required. This interdependence highlights the vital role of the care economy across all life stages.
Care refers to the support, attention, and resources needed to maintain well-being, health, and daily functioning. The levels of care needed vary by life stage, personal circumstances, and health conditions, ranging from minimal assistance to intensive care.
As we age, our need for care and capacity to provide it shift. The type of care support required also varies based on life stages and circumstances.We categorize care into three primary care focuses: Developmental, Daily Living, and Health. Each focus consists of paid, professional care and unpaid family care, which is often invisible, but essential.
Supporting the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth of children, including those with disabilities.
Estimated total hours of developmental care needed in the U.S. each day:
If we were to pay minimum wage to meet these demands, it would translate to around $5 billion per day.
Paid Care Examples: Teachers, childcare workers, special education instructors.
Unpaid Care Examples: Parental nurturing, educational and enrichment activities.
Facilitating day-to-day functioning through managing routine tasks, household maintenance, and personal care.
Estimated total hours of daily living care needed in the U.S. each day:
If we were to pay minimum wage to meet these demands, it would translate to around $13 billion per day.
Paid Care Examples: Housekeepers, food service workers, hairdressers.
Unpaid Care Examples: Cooking, cleaning, grooming.
Maintaining, supporting, or improving the health and well-being of individuals of all ages.
Estimated total hours of health care needed in the U.S. each day:
If we were to pay minimum wage to meet these demands, it would translate to around $5 billion per day.
Paid Care Examples: Doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, home health aides.
Unpaid Care Examples: Caring for sick or elderly household members, medication management.
Daily Living care demands more than half of all the care required in a day. No matter the age group, our ability to thrive requires time to care for our basic needs like providing food, shelter, and clothing.
Now that we understand care across the stages of life and by focus, the next question we might ask is:
To find the answer, we shift our focus to the people and systems that provide both paid and unpaid care.
Care Provision is the act of delivering care, support, or services to meet a care need. It includes the time individuals spend on unpaid activities—such as a parent caring for a child—and paid care work in fields like childcare and eldercare.
Care provision is unequally distributed, with daily care hours varying by gender and parental status.
Parents living with their own minor children provide the most care, with mothers spending the largest portion of their day caring for others.
Across all groups, women consistently spend more of their day providing care.
Parents living with their own minor children make up approximately one quarter (24%) of the U.S. adult population.
They provide nearly half (43%) of all daily care hours despite being only a quarter of the population.
Altogether 1.7B hrs hours of care are provided each day, which is equivalent to at least $12B when valued at minimum wage.
The majority of care provided in a day is unpaid care. It accounts for 86% of all daily care hours.
The Care Economy spans multiple domains and responsibilities, weaving together care provision types (paid and unpaid) and care focuses (Developmental, Daily Living, and Health) into a complex and interconnected system. The chart below shows all daily care hours, highlighting the relative size of paid care provision (dark blue) and unpaid care provision (light blue).
Paid and unpaid care markets are both fundamental to economic and social well-being. Unpaid care accounts for 86% of all daily care provision hours. Paid care is provided by professionals working in care occupations. Unpaid care is provided by family, friends, or community members.
Developmental care includes paid occupations like educators and childcare professionals, but the majority of this care (88%) comes from unpaid activities such as play and supervision provided by parents or family members.
Daily Living care includes activities necessary for household maintenance and hygiene activities. The vast majority (92%) is unpaid, carried out by individuals and families as part of their everyday routines. Hygiene activities, like showering or brushing teeth, account for the largest portion of Daily Living care hours.
Health care includes activities and occupations involved in caring for sick, elderly, or disabled individuals. Most daily health care hours are provided (52%) by unpaid family members, but a substantial portion is provided by paid healthcare professionals.
Care provision is essential yet often invisible, with much of it provided informally and without pay. Care enables individuals to participate in the labor force, sustains families, and supports the development of future generations, but its value extends far beyond economic measures. Care fosters social cohesion and enhances quality of life for both caregivers and recipients.
Care needs differ across the nation, shaped by demography and available caregiving resources. Two key metrics - the Care Ratio and Gini Coefficient of Care Jobs - offer insight into caregiving capacity and resource inequality.
Care work plays a vital role in both the economy and society, yet much of its value goes unrecognized. Statistics on labor force participation, caregiving hours, and the share of workers in the care sector reveal its significant economic contribution.
Exploring the value of unpaid care demonstrates its critical role in supporting families, communities, and advancing the broader economy.
