According to this study published by the Research Department for Evaluation and Statistics Studies (DREES) and carried out using the Autonomy survey system, nearly one in four people aged 55 to under 65 declare themselves to be a caregiver .
The Daily life and health survey is the first survey of the Autonomy 2021-2025 system, a major ten-year survey system on disability and loss of autonomy. It allows an initial count of people who declare a restriction of activity in everyday life or functional limitations. For the first time, it also allows a count of people who, regardless of their age, help relatives. In 2021, 334,000 people responded to the survey. This large sample allows a departmental variation of the results.
8.8 million adults and 0.5 million minors aged 5 or over are informal caregivers, ie one person in six and one minor in twenty respectively. The percentage of caregivers peaks around the age of 60: between the ages of 55 and 64, one person in four is concerned. The regular help provided may take the form of help with activities of daily living, moral support or financial assistance. The assistance most frequently declared is moral support (6.4 million people aged 5 or over, including 368,000 minors), followed by assistance with daily living (5.7 million people, including 308,000 minors) and financial assistance (1.3 million adults).
Women more often provide regular help with daily living or moral support than men
Among adults, women report slightly more often than men that they provide regular help in any form. Among minors, girls are also slightly overrepresented. This observation is found in almost every age group, with the exception of those aged 75 or over, where women are under-represented. On the other hand, men are slightly overrepresented among those declaring that they provide financial assistance.
The proportion of caregivers providing assistance with activities of daily living peaks in the DROMs, in Hauts-de-France and in Corsica.
The proportion of caregivers aged 5 or over providing regular assistance with activities of daily living is higher, with the same age structure, in Martinique (15.1%), in Guadeloupe (12.5%), in Réunion (11.5%), Mayotte (10.4%), Guyana (10.3%), Hauts-de-France (10.2%) and Corsica (9.6%). After controlling for the effect of territorial differences in population age distribution, these regions are also those where the proportion of people aged 5 or over declaring themselves to be severely limited or declaring at least one functional limitation is the highest.
310,000 adults and 170,000 children with disabilities are supported in dedicated structures at the end of 2018
As of December 31, 2018, 12,500 medico-social establishments and services support 310,000 adults and 170,000 children or adolescents with disabilities. Institutions remain the most numerous structures, despite the strong growth in services since 2006. The people supported are more male and the adults are younger than the general population. Accompanied disabled people mostly have intellectual disabilities. There are also 0.6 million dependent elderly people in institutions. In total, 0.8 million disabled or dependent people live in dedicated establishments.
• 9.3 million people report providing regular assistance to a loved one with a disability or loss of autonomy in 2021, Studies and results, n°1255, February 2023, in pdf.