The Economic Value of Non-Professional: A Europe-Wide Analysis

Background  This paper had two aims. Firstly, to provide a broader view of the profile of non-professional caregivers in Europe, and secondly, to estimate the economic value of the non-professional caregiving. Methods  The European Quality of Life Survey 2016/17, carried out by Eurofound, was used. The target population of the survey was adults who care for a relative or friend in a total of 33 European countries. The opportunity cost method was used to estimate the economic value of caregiving, in which two of the activities forgone were analysed: paid activities (restricted to caregivers who were employed), for which the average gross wage of each country was used; and unpaid activities, for which the minimum gross wage of each country was used. Results  There were more than 76 million non-professional caregivers in Europe that provides care for a relative or friend. This figure represents 12.7% of the population in Europe. The estimated time devoted to non-professional care in Europe reached 72,301.5 million hours in 2016. Sharp differences were found among countries. The economic value of that time is estimated at 576,000 million of euros, which represented about 3.63% of Europe’s GDP. Conclusion  This study show the very important number of resources dedicated to the non-professional care of dependent people and their economic valuation. These results may be helpful in prospective analyzes estimating future needs on professional and nonprofessional and for designing of long-term care policies in Europe.