This Client Level Data (CLD) Insight report looks at how the age profile of people accessing long-term support varies across support settings and is based on data published in July 2024.
We know that as a person gets older, they are more likely to experience adverse health conditions and therefore have more health and care needs. It’s therefore not a surprise that accessing long-term support is more common among older people, with around 60 per cent of those accessing it being over the age of 65 (Figure 1). Looking in more detail at smaller age groups, around a fifth of all those accessing long term support (which equates to approximately 140,000 people) were aged 75 to 84 years and a quarter (approximately 160,000 people) were over the age of 85 years.
In March 2024, around 480,000 people were supported in the community in England. Around half (49 per cent) were under the age of 65 years, with the largest group overall being those aged 45 to 64 years (24 per cent). Across the different settings, we saw differences in the age breakdown (Figure 1). For example, in older age groups, we saw around two thirds (65 per cent) of people in nursing care were aged 75 to 94 years compared to 57 per cent of people in residential care and 35 per cent in the community.
From a different perspective, we can also explore the different support settings in which people from each age group are being supported and differences between age groups (Figure 2).
The first thing to note is that as age increases, the percentage being supported in the community decreases steadily from 95% in the youngest age group (age 18 to 24 years) to 50 per cent in the oldest age group (age 95 years and over). In contrast, the percentage of people in each age group accessing long-term residential care increases from 5 per cent in the youngest age group to 37 per cent in the oldest group. With nursing care, we see a different picture, with very few people under the age of 45 accessing it (around 1,000 in total), then increasing before we see a levelling off at around 13 per cent for age groups over 75 years.
We would expect that older people accessing long-term support would have more complex health needs and therefore be more likely to require residential and nursing care rather than being supported in the community. It is important to consider this in the context of an ageing population to ensure that future demand for long-term support, particularly in residential and nursing care settings, can be met.
Data in this briefing
Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: July 2024
This briefing is one of a number of CLD insights available on the Client Level Data homepage.
Highlighted pages
Client Level Data
The Client Level Data (CLD) collection is the first national collection of social care records, covering requests for support, assessments, reviews and services provided or commissioned by councils as part of their duties under the Care Act 2014.
What is the gender split of people in long-term support?
This Client Level Data (CLD) Insight report looks at how the gender split of people in long-term support compares to the overall population in England and is based on data published in July 2024.
How does the ethnicity of people accessing long-term support compare to the wider population?
This Client Level Data (CLD) Insight report looks at how the ethnicity of people in long-term support compares to the overall population in England and is based on data published in July 2024. Note that in the Client Level Data (CLD) around 6% of records had unknown ethnicity and these have been excluded from the analysis.