Overview
This issue discusses different timing in family caregiving in Europe. New research using large-scale European longitudinal data shows that caregiving is shaped by the intersection of gender, education, occupation, and migration background — with gaps of up to eleven years between social groups. Recognising caregiving as an unequally timed life-course transition is essential for designing fairer support systems. Women and individuals in lower-skilled occupations are particularly likely to enter caregiving earlier, often while still balancing employment and other family responsibilities. Counterintuitively, higher education is associated with earlier caregiving onset. Migration background shows no consistent independent association with timing, though its interaction with other factors still contributes to variation across social groups. It is crucial to recognize the need for more equitable caregiving policies across Europe, including better support for working caregivers, stronger recognition of gender inequalities in care, and more intersectional approaches to data collection and policy design. As European populations continue to age, informal caregiving will remain an essential component of long-term care systems. Understanding when people become caregivers, and which groups are most affected, is not just a research question. This is a precondition for designing care policies that are both effective and just in supporting caregivers while reducing social inequalities.
To read more, please click the link: ECPD_PolicyInsights_2026.3.