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AustraliaCommunity profile

Greater Sydney

Unpaid childcare

In Greater Sydney 1,074,354 people (25.2% of people aged 15+) provided unpaid care to children in 2021. Of these, 167,031 people were caring for children other than their own.

The role of unpaid childcare in Greater Sydney is determined by many different factors. For example areas with high levels of unpaid child care may have a dominance of single income families with one significant earner, or there could be a lack of provision of paid child care in the area. The level to which people care for others children can also indicate the role of extended family (eg. grandparents caring for grandchildren, family day care).

The role of unpaid child care is a complex one so this topic should be viewed in conjunction with several others, including Household Type, Employment, Household Income and Educational Attendance.

Q:

Derived from the Census question:

'In the last two weeks did the person spend time looking after a child, without pay?', which specifically asks respondents to differentiate between caring for their own children and caring for others children.

Unpaid childcare
Greater Sydney - Persons aged 15+ (Usual residence)20212016Change
Unpaid child careNumber%Australia %Number%Australia %2016 to 2021
Provided unpaid child care (all)1,074,35425.226.31,073,08827.327.6+1,266
Cared for own child/ren907,32321.320.0798,05520.319.8+109,268
Cared for other child/ren154,6993.65.7251,4886.47.0-96,789
Cared for own child/ren and other child/ren12,3320.30.623,5450.60.8-11,213
No unpaid child care provided2,941,84268.967.32,557,66465.264.1+384,178
Not stated251,7475.96.4292,9517.58.3-41,204
Total persons aged 15+4,267,943100.0100.03,923,703100.0100.0+344,240
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016 and 2021. Compiled and presented by .id (informed decisions).
Please refer to specific data notes for more information

Dominant groups

Analysis of the unpaid child care provided by the population in Greater Sydney in 2021 compared to Australia shows that there was a lower proportion of people who provided unpaid child care either to their own or to other children. Overall, 25.2% of the population provided unpaid child care, compared with 26.3% for Australia.

The major differences between the share of the population providing unpaid child care in Greater Sydney and Australia were:

  • A larger percentage who did not provide care for children (68.9% compared to 67.3%)
  • A larger percentage who provided unpaid childcare for own child/ren (21.3% compared to 20.0%)
  • A smaller percentage who provided unpaid childcare for other child/ren (3.6% compared to 5.7%)

Emerging groups

The number of people who provided unpaid child care for their own and/or other people's children in Greater Sydney increased by 1,266 between 2016 and 2021.

The largest changes in the number of people performing unpaid child care in Greater Sydney, between 2016 and 2021 were those who:

  • No unpaid child care provided (+384,178 persons)
  • Cared for own child/ren (+109,268 persons)
  • Cared for other child/ren (-96,789 persons)
  • Cared for own child/ren and other child/ren (-11,213 persons)

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