Need for Caregivers Expected to Grow

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By 2032, about 95,000 Mississippians will be 85 or older—a 67 percent increase in that age group since 2012. Who will care for those people? To answer that question, the state legislature has created an ad hoc committee to study issues related to family caregivers and long-term care services.

The caregiver support ratio—the number of people ages 45 to 64 available to care for people in the high-risk 80-plus population—is projected to drop to about 4 to 1 in 2030, down from 8 to 1 in 2010, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Currently, about 826,000 Mississippians provide care for relatives or friends at an estimated value of $5.2 billion a year.