The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.
An invisible workforce across the country dedicates their time, energy and spirit to their work, usually without pay. These are family caregivers, and their contribution to the U.S. economy exceeded $1 trillion in economic value in 2024, according to a new report from the AARP Public Policy Institute.
The report, “Valuing the Invaluable 2026,” found that the 59 million family caregivers in the U.S., who are caring for adults, provided 49.5 billion hours of care, equaling work done by 23.8 million full-time workers, or about 17 percent of the nation’s full-time workers. The first report in the 20-year Valuing the Invaluable series — issued every two to four years — estimated the economic value of caregiving at $350 billion in unpaid care in 2006
Family caregivers provide essential support to adults with disabilities and complex medical conditions. Family caregivers handle daily tasks of living (such as toileting, dressing, preparing meals, and transportation), complex medical and nursing tasks, and coordination of medical and social services. Most long-term services and supports (LTSS) in the United States is provided by family caregivers,1 and nearly all of it is unpaid.2
1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Families Caring for an Aging America (Washington, DC, The National Academies Press, 2016), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK396401/ 2 Of the 59 million caregivers of adults, only 2 million were paid for all of their care hours, and another 9 million were paid for some of the hours they provided. The total economic value of $1.01 trillion is for all care provided, whether or not it is paid. Source: Caregiving in the US 2025 (table 2, page 7)
