Reference
Caregiving by the numbers
Caregiving statistics get tossed around without sources, mixed across years, or quietly borrowed from a vendor's marketing. Here they are the honest way: each figure with its source, its year, and a confidence level — and anything vendor-commissioned is labeled, so you know what to trust. It’s the same data behind our Price Index and Tech Plan.
The scale: who needs care
The aging population driving all of it.
61+ million (~18% of US population)
Americans age 65+
Up from 57.8M (17.3%) in 2022.
78+ million (~22% of US population)
Projected Americans 65+ by 2040
The demographic driver behind rising caregiving demand.
~28% (community-dwelling)
Older adults 65+ living alone
59% live with a spouse/partner.
23%
Sandwich-generation adults
Have a parent 65+ AND are raising a child <18 or financially supporting an adult child (Oct 2021 survey).
54%
Sandwich generation — adults in their 40s
36% of those in their 50s, 27% of 30s are also sandwiched.
The caregivers — and the value of their work
The invisible workforce holding the system up.
59 million
US family caregivers
Up from ~53M (2020). A 2026 vendor survey loosely cited 63M — prefer this AARP figure.
Over $1 trillion/yr
Value of unpaid family caregiving
Surpasses 2024 private health spending ($967B) and Medicaid ($932B). Up from ~$600B in prior editions.
49.5 billion hours/yr
Total unpaid family-care hours
Equals work of 23.8M full-time workers.
23.8 million full-time workers (~17% of US full-time workforce)
Caregiving workforce equivalent
What care costs
The price of hired human care — the benchmark everything else is measured against.
$35/hr (~$80,080/yr at 44 hrs/wk)
Non-medical home aide
Part-time ~20 hrs/wk ≈ $36,400/yr.
$95/day (~$24,700/yr)
Adult day health care
$6,200/mo (~$74,400/yr)
Assisted living
~$7,250/mo (~$87,000/yr)
Memory care
Derived, not a direct survey line — verify before public use.
$114,975/yr
Nursing home (semi-private room)
$129,575/yr
Nursing home (private room)
~$216,000–$324,000/yr
24/7 in-home care
Composite behind the 'families can't self-fund' contrast.
The affordability gap
Why most families can't simply buy their way out.
~$56,680/yr
Median 65+ household income
~$200,000
Median 65+ retirement savings
Anchor: the median family cannot self-fund the human-care alternative.
What the affordable tech actually costs
The here-now stack — a fraction of the cost of human care.
~$28–$65/mo
Medical alert / PERS
Fall-detection add-on +$8–15/mo.
~$30–$60/mo + ~$100 upfront
Automatic pill dispenser (Hero)
NOT suitable beyond early-stage dementia (cannot verify ingestion).
~$45–$65/mo all-in
GPS locator (dementia/wandering)
$249 + ~$30–$40/mo
Companion device (ElliQ)
WA Medicaid began reimbursing it Mar 2026 — first US state.
$20,000 or $499/mo
Home humanoid (1X NEO)
Price is verified; CAPABILITY is marketing — relies on remote human teleoperators; not a validated eldercare product.
What the tech can (and can't) do
The evidence, not the marketing.
~70–80% (controlled ~90–98%)
Fall-detection real-world accuracy
The 24/7 human monitoring relay is the actual safety mechanism, not the sensor.
Agitation ↓ (SMD −0.36), anxiety ↓; no effect on cognition/depression/QoL
Companion-robot clinical effect
Peer-reviewed; effects real but modest. Vendor '95% loneliness' claims are uncontrolled.
Dementia, specifically
The condition that defines so much of the caregiving journey.
7.4 million
Americans 65+ living with Alzheimer's
~13 million
Unpaid dementia caregivers
Family/friends providing unpaid dementia care.
19+ billion hours, ~$446.3 billion
Unpaid dementia care — hours & value
$409 billion (projected)
National cost of Alzheimer's/dementia care
Health + long-term care costs.
Survey signals — read with caution
Useful directionally, but vendor-commissioned. Not gospel.
90% (20% severe)
Caregivers reporting burnout symptoms
VENDOR-COMMISSIONED (LogicMark sells safety devices) — directional only, never cite as gospel.
77%
Caregivers open to AI health monitoring
VENDOR-COMMISSIONED — same caveat. Same survey: 73% report financial strain.
How to read these
- Sources first. Government and peer-reviewed figures (Census/ACL, AARP, the Alzheimer’s Association, CareScout/Genworth, published RCTs) carry the most weight.
- “Vendor-commissioned” means the number comes from a company that sells a related product. Treat it as a directional signal, not a fact.
- “Estimate” means derived or composite — useful for scale, worth verifying before high-stakes use.
Figures are point-in-time and drift; confirm against the original source before relying on one. This page is information, not medical or financial advice. Spot an error or have a better source? Tell us — accuracy is the point.