The Future of the Care Economy

The report examines the care economy—comprising paid and unpaid activities that sustain human activity—as a critical but undervalued driver of economic growth. It highlights systemic inequities, such as the disproportionate burden of unpaid care on women and the precarity of paid care work, while presenting a framework for public-private collaboration to improve care systems. The document provides evidence that investing in care can increase GDP, improve workforce participation, and reduce social expenditure, illustrated through promising practices in cities like Bogota and countries like Costa Rica.

• Unpaid care services represent a massive, often invisible portion of the global economy, equivalent to nearly 2 billion people working full-time without pay and accounting for 9% of global GDP, or $11 trillion.
• The care economy is characterized by three primary inequities: an overreliance on unpaid care predominantly performed by women, the precarity and low wages of the paid care sector (often staffed by migrant workers), and a significant care access gap that limits social mobility and employment for disadvantaged groups.
• Demographic shifts are driving an urgent need for care investment; the population over age 60 is projected to increase by 40% by 2030, with the number of care recipients estimated to reach 2.3 billion.
• Investing in the care sector can yield high economic returns; for example, a projected $1.3 trillion investment in the United States could result in a $3.1 trillion GDP return and the creation of 11 million jobs.
• Insufficient care infrastructure creates direct costs for businesses through productivity loss and employee turnover; in the US, caregiving-related absences in 2015 resulted in an estimated annual productivity loss of $5,600 per employee.
• The report proposes a three-part organizing framework for a better care economy: reimagining care networks (cooperation between government, business, and communities), applying design principles (quality, sustainability, co-responsibility, and accessibility), and focusing on success factors (strategic articulation, engaged leadership, and data-driven approaches).
• Promising practices for transforming care systems include Bogota's 'Care Blocks' for urban planning, Costa Rica's national care policy for people in dependency, and the SEWA cooperative childcare scheme in India.

APA

World Economic Forum (2024). The Future of the Care Economy. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Future_of_the_Care_Economy_2024.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. The Future of the Care Economy. 2024. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Future_of_the_Care_Economy_2024.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=The Future of the Care Economy |date=March 2024 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Future_of_the_Care_Economy_2024.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2024future, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{The Future of the Care Economy}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2024}, month = mar, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Future_of_the_Care_Economy_2024.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }