AARP Hearing Center
November is National Family Caregivers Month, a chance to recognize the contributions, commitment, and sacrifices made by America’s 63 million family caregivers every single day.
Newly released AARP caregiving data, Caregiving in the U.S. 2025: Caring Across States, finds that nearly three in ten adults (27%) in Iowa are family caregivers, providing largely unpaid and unsupported care to older parents, spouses, and other loved ones.
Across Iowa, 657,000 family caregivers help their older parents, spouses, or other loved ones live independently at home and in their communities—where they want to be. Family caregivers in our state provide billions in unpaid care each year. They are the backbone of our long-term care system, spending countless hours driving to doctor appointments, picking up prescriptions, cooking meals, managing medications, and much more.
Most family caregivers don’t get paid for helping their loved ones, but they still spend plenty out of their own pockets—and it’s not cheap. On average, caregivers spend more than $7,200 a year, roughly a quarter of their income. In Iowa, 54% report financial setbacks—taking on debt, draining savings, or struggling to afford basics like food and medicine. And for the 62% of Iowa caregivers who are also working, many must reduce work hours or leave the workforce entirely due to caregiving responsibilities.
But here’s the thing: while family caregivers do so much for their loved ones, they’re too often overlooked by society and lawmakers as they hold up a broken system. That’s why this month, and every month, AARP Iowa is shining a spotlight on family caregivers and calling on lawmakers to pass commonsense solutions that will save them money, time, and provide them with more support.
Explore the full Caring Across America report and the Iowa summary to see how caregiving varies nationwide and what the data tells us about the lives behind the numbers.
Your voice is needed to show lawmakers that family caregivers are a powerful constituency.
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