Informal long-term care in the context of demographic change and intergenerational fairness in the EU
The demographic change currently underway in Europe, with older people living longer and fewer children being born, is expected to both rise the demand for long-term care and reduce the availability of informal caregivers. This trend could lead to imbalances in intergenerational social transfers by increasing the burden on caregivers, reducing the quality of life for older people and increasing pressure on formal care systems, with implications for public finances.This science-for-policy brief explores the differences in caregiving and care-receiving patterns across generations in the context of an ageing population.
Our results show that changes in the age structure of the population have shifted the balance of care responsibilities across generations, with fewer available informal caregivers for the present generations than in the past. In the future, this trend is likely to worsen. Younger adults today are likely to face a higher caregiving burden when they reach their 50s and 60s compared to previous generations, while also being at risk of receiving less informal care in their older age.
Achieving intergenerational fairness in informal long-term care requires redistributing care responsibilities and more support for caregivers. Labour market policies need to enable people to combine informal caregiving with paid work, protect caregivers’ wellbeing and reduce gender and socio-economic inequalities. At the same time, it is important to expand and diversify formal services and to integrate them more effectively with informal care and other social and health services. A person-centred approach should be adopted to ensure that care is coordinated and tailored to each individual’s evolving needs throughout their life.
BERNINI Alba;
NATALE Fabrizio;
NEDEE Astrid;
QUERIN Federica;
2026-03-04
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC145258
978-92-68-37667-6 (online),
OP KJ-01-26-071-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC145258,
10.2760/9689703 (online),
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