Raising a Second Family: How Aging Affects Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

In the United States in 2024, about 1.09 million grandparents aged 60 and over were responsible for the basic needs of grandchildren living with them, and almost one in three of them had a disability^[1]. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa such households are far more common: in Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia, about 30% of older people live in households made up of grandparents and grandchildren alone^[2].

Grandparents rarely plan to raise a second family. More often they step in at short notice, when a parent dies, falls ill, migrates for work, goes to prison, or cannot care safely for a child, and they keep a child within the family who might otherwise grow up in care outside the family. They do it at an age when their own health, income and energy may be changing, and often without the training, allowances or support that unrelated foster carers receive. This study brings together census, survey and research evidence from several continents on how many older people are raising grandchildren, why, how their health and finances compare, and what support reaches them.

From 2% in the US to about 30% in parts of Africa: how common grandparent-headed homes are depends on where older people live

The clearest global picture comes from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), which compiles census and survey data on how older people live. It counts “skip-generation” households, made up of grandparents and grandchildren with no parent present. In its 2019 database, every country in the top quarter of the distribution, where 12% or more of older people lived in such households, was in Africa^[2]. In Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia the figure was about 30%. Fourteen of 24 African countries saw these households become more common, and in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe the share rose by more than 10 percentage points between 2000 and 2018^[2].

Elsewhere the shares are lower but far from trivial: 9% of older people in the Philippines and 6% in Indonesia, and from 3.1% in Uruguay to 11% in the Dominican Republic across Latin America and the Caribbean. In the United States the share rose from 1.3% in 1970 to 2% in 2015^[2].

National surveys tell a similar story. In Thailand’s 2017 Survey of Older Persons, 8.9% of 41,752 people aged 60 and over lived in skipped-generation households^[4]. In China, a conference analysis of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) found that 9% of adults aged 40 and over in its sample lived with grandchildren only^[5]. A 2025 study that harmonised household surveys of adults aged 55 and over in 24 countries found that living with any grandchild ranged from 41.1% in Mexico to 0.1% in Sweden, though that measure includes three-generation homes, not only grandparents raising children alone^[6].

In England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) used the 2021 Census to estimate that around 141,000 children lived in kinship care, with relatives and no parent present. Most of them, 59.2% or about 72,000 children, lived with at least one grandparent^[3].

Grandparents step in when the middle generation is missing, and most stay for years

UN DESA links the highest rates of skip-generation living to two things: parents migrating for work and leaving children behind, and high adult mortality from AIDS, civil conflict or war, which leaves children in the care of grandparents^[2]. (For the wider picture of HIV in later life, see our study of older people living with HIV.)

The US and UK surveys used here do not record why grandparents took the children on, so the reasons in those countries cannot be measured from these sources. What the surveys do show is how often older grandparents carry the role without a parent in the home, and for how long.

The American Community Survey asks grandparents who live with grandchildren whether they are responsible for most of their basic needs. In 2024, 6.55 million US grandparents lived with grandchildren under 18, and 2.01 million were responsible for them^[7]. Just over half of those responsible, 1.09 million, were aged 60 or over^[1]. Among these older grandparents, 45.1% were raising the children with no parent in the household, compared with 30.2% of responsible grandparents aged 30 to 59^[1]. The role is rarely short. About half of all responsible US grandparents (1.00 million) had been responsible for five years or more^[8].

The same pattern appears in England and Wales. In the 2025 annual survey by the charity Kinship, 73% of kinship carers said that when they took on the children they expected the arrangement to be long-term or permanent, and 48% of respondents were aged 60 or over^[9]. The survey is self-selected rather than representative, but 69% of respondents were grandparents, down from 86% in its first survey in 2016^[9].

Older grandparent carers report more disability and poorer health, though not every measure agrees

In the US in 2024, 31.4% of responsible grandparents aged 60 and over had a disability, against 20.6% of those aged 30 to 59^[1]. Part of that gap is simply age; the survey does not show whether caregiving itself adds to it.

Studies that compare grandparents raising grandchildren with other grandparents of similar age point the same way on everyday function. A national US analysis of the 1992–94 National Survey of Families and Households compared 173 custodial and 3,304 non-custodial grandparents. More than half of the custodial grandparents had a limitation in at least one of five activities of daily living, and in a logistic regression analysis they had 50% higher odds of such a limitation^[10]. Its authors called for “policies that support rather than penalize grandparents raising grandchildren”^[10]. Using the US Health and Retirement Study, a later analysis found that grandparents who had recently begun raising a grandchild had lower well-being than grandparents who were not^[11], which suggests the early period may be the hardest.

The picture is not one of uniform harm. In Taiwan, custodial grandparents followed over two waves of a national biomarker study reported worse health than their peers, yet showed no significant differences in health biomarkers^[12]. In Thailand, older people in skipped-generation households had better functional health than those living with their children, though worse than those living alone or with only a spouse^[4]. In China, the CHARLS conference analysis found that grandparents living with grandchildren only had more depressive symptoms at the start, and that heavier caregiving in those households was associated with more symptoms^[5]. The 24-country study found that living with grandchildren was more common among older people who reported difficulty with daily activities^[6], so some of the poorer health seen in grandparent carers may come before the caring rather than from it.

In England and Wales, 9% of Kinship’s 2025 survey respondents rated their health bad or very bad, close to the 8% among people aged 50 to 69 in the general population, but only 53% rated it good or very good, against 63%^[9]. In the 2021 Census, 25.3% of kinship care households included someone whose health condition limited them a lot, against 10.0% of households with a parent^[3].

Raising children on later-life incomes: poverty and deprivation run higher

For many older grandparents, the children arrive as working lives are winding down. In the US in 2024, 37.4% of responsible grandparents aged 60 and over were in the labour force, against 73.3% of those aged 30 to 59^[1].

The poverty figures reflect that. Of responsible US grandparents aged 60 and over, 17.7% had incomes below the official poverty level in the past 12 months^[1]. Across all US grandparents living with grandchildren, responsible or not, the figure was 11.9%^[1], and for all people aged 65 and over it was 11.2%^[13]. The age bands differ (60 and over against 65 and over), so the comparison is indicative, but older grandparents raising grandchildren appear more likely to be poor than older people in general. Responsible grandparents aged 30 to 59 had a similar rate, 18.9%^[1], which suggests the gap is linked to raising children rather than to age alone.

In England and Wales, the 2021 Census showed that 67.4% of kinship care households were deprived on at least one of four measures (employment, education, health and disability, and housing), against 41.7% of households with a parent. On the health and disability measure alone the figures were 46.8% and 25.4%^[3]. Kinship’s 2025 survey found that, because of the cost of living, 21% of kinship carers were not putting the heating on, 17% were avoiding the dentist or other healthcare treatment, and 11% were skipping meals^[9].

In Thailand, older people in skipped-generation households were concentrated among the least advantaged: 72.9% lived in rural areas, 88.7% had not completed primary education, and 53.9% were in the two poorest wealth quintiles^[4]. Our study of older people on low incomes sets out the wider evidence on poverty in later life.

Same children, less help: kinship carers often get less support than foster carers

When a child cannot live with their parents, the support the new carer receives often depends less on the child’s needs than on the legal route the family took. In the US and the UK, foster carers who are approved by the authority that placed a child receive an allowance; a grandparent who takes in a child informally, or under a different legal order, may receive much less.

In the US, federal foster care funds pay foster parents and licensed relatives who care for children removed because of abuse or neglect. Relatives who are not licensed must instead turn to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which, as one study of state policy put it, “provides lesser amounts of assistance than provided to foster parents and licensed relatives”^[14].

In England and Wales, Kinship estimates that there are more than 141,000 children in kinship care, three times the number in mainstream foster care^[9]. Its 2025 survey found that 36% of kinship carers were raising the children on their own, against 26% of foster carers in a 2024 survey who were fostering alone^[9]. Of carers who had received local authority support, 38% rated it poor or very poor. Half (50%) of kinship foster carers said they would move to a permanent order, such as special guardianship, if the council guaranteed them an allowance at least equal to their fostering allowance. That is a measure of how much the allowance matters to families^[9].

Age adds to the strain. In Kinship’s survey, 13% of respondents were concerned about whether they could continue caring over the next year if their situation did not improve. Of these, 47% named concerns about their own age, health or wellbeing^[9]. For grandparents in their sixties and seventies, raising a child also sits alongside the other caring roles many already hold; our study of older unpaid carers looks at those.

What the evidence asks of us

The evidence is uneven, but it points in a consistent direction. Older people raising grandchildren keep children within their families, often for many years, while carrying more disability and more financial hardship than other older people. The gaps it reveals are in support and policy, not in the grandparents.

• Equal financial support for equal care. Kinship’s 2025 recommendations call on the UK and Welsh Governments to “equalise financial support between kinship carers and foster carers”, to speed up England’s Kinship Allowance Pilot, and, in the meantime, for local authorities to provide non-means-tested allowances^[9]. The US evidence on payment gaps between licensed and unlicensed relatives points the same way^[14].
• Health services that recognise grandparent carers. With almost a third of older US grandparent carers living with a disability^[1], and some carers putting off healthcare because of cost^[9], primary care and community services have a part to play in identifying older people who are raising children and making sure their own health needs are met.
• Support at the start. Well-being appears lower soon after grandparents take a child on^[11], when they often have little notice. Information, advice and practical help are most needed in that period.
• Rights at work. More than a third of older US grandparent carers are in the labour force^[1]. Kinship recommends a new right to statutory paid employment leave for kinship carers^[9].
• Better data. Few countries publish regular statistics on grandparents raising grandchildren by the carer’s age. The US American Community Survey is an exception. In countries where skip-generation households are most common, linked to migration, AIDS and conflict^[2], social protection and ageing policy need to count these households and plan for them.

Language: this piece says “older people” rather than “the elderly”, and uses “grandparents raising grandchildren”, “grandparent carers” and “kinship carers”, the terms used by kinship care and grandparents’ organisations. “Skip-generation” or “skipped-generation” household is the statistical term for a home of grandparents and grandchildren with no parent present, and “custodial grandparent” is the term many studies use.

Why we're publishing this

Grandparents raising grandchildren hold families together at some of their hardest moments, and they do so largely out of sight of statistics and services. This study gathers the international evidence in one place so that kinship care and grandparents’ organisations, and the grandparents they work with, can cite it.

How to read this data

The figures come from different kinds of source and are not directly comparable. The US numbers are 2024 American Community Survey estimates, which define a responsible grandparent by self-report of responsibility for most of a grandchild’s basic needs. The UN DESA figures are shares of older people living in skip-generation households, drawn from censuses and surveys in different years. They count living arrangements, not caregiving, and the report pages used here do not state the age band for “older persons”. The 24-country study counts any co-residence with grandchildren. The ONS figures are census-based estimates of children in kinship care with any relative, not only grandparents. Kinship’s survey is a self-selected online survey and is not representative of all kinship carers. The health studies are cross-sectional or short follow-ups and show associations, not causes. One of the Chinese findings comes from a conference abstract rather than a full peer-reviewed paper. The evidence specifically on carers aged 60 and over is thin outside the US.

Use this data

Free to cite with attribution to Understanding Aging. Charities, carers' groups, campaigners and journalists are welcome to reuse these figures and charts. For the underlying figures as a spreadsheet, get in touch.

Important: This article summarises published research and statistics for general information. It is not medical, care or financial advice and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or predict anything about an individual. If you have concerns about your own or someone else's health, please speak to a GP or another qualified health professional.

Sources

1. US Census Bureau. American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table S1002: Grandparents. US Census Bureau, 2025. data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2024.S1002
2. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Living arrangements of older persons around the world: the 2019 database (technical paper). United Nations, 2019. un.org/development/desa/pd/…/desa-pd-technicalpaper-living_arrangements_of_older_persons_2019.pdf
3. Office for National Statistics. Kinship care in England and Wales: Census 2021. ONS, 2023. ons.gov.uk/…/kinshipcareinenglandandwales/census2021
4. Thonglor R, Nakamura K, Seino K. Sociodemographic characteristics and functional health among Thai older adults in skipped generation households. Health & Social Care in the Community, 2022. europepmc.org/article/MED/35894153
5. Tang F, Li K. Grandparents caring for grandchildren, family structure, and depressive symptoms in China (conference abstract). Innovation in Aging 4(Suppl 1), 2020. europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC7741363
6. Reynolds SA, Edwards R, Torres JM. Grandparent-grandchild coresidence among middle-aged and older adults around the globe. Populations, 2025. europepmc.org/article/MED/40873784
7. US Census Bureau. American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table B10051: Grandparents living with own grandchildren under 18 years by responsibility, presence of parent and age of grandparent. US Census Bureau, 2025. data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2024.B10051
8. US Census Bureau. American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table B10050: Grandparents living with own grandchildren under 18 years by responsibility and length of time responsible. US Census Bureau, 2025. data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2024.B10050
9. Kinship. Handle With Care: annual survey of kinship carers 2025. Kinship, 2025. kinship.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/handle-with-care-report.pdf
10. Minkler M, Fuller-Thomson E. The health of grandparents raising grandchildren: results of a national study. American Journal of Public Health 89(9):1384–1389, 1999. europepmc.org/article/MED/10474557
11. Baker LA, Silverstein M. Depressive symptoms among grandparents raising grandchildren: the impact of participation in multiple roles. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 2008. europepmc.org/article/MED/19890447
12. Fokakis ZN, Nadorff DK, McKay IT. Is raising your grandchild bad for your health? The association between custodial grandparent status and health biomarkers in Taiwanese grandparents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020. europepmc.org/article/MED/32156094
13. US Census Bureau. American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table S1701: Poverty status in the past 12 months. US Census Bureau, 2025. data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2024.S1701
14. Dorch E, Mumpower J, Jochnowitz L. The cost and benefits of cash and services to kinship caregivers. Social Work in Public Health, 2008. europepmc.org/article/MED/19301544