North Dakota Family Caregivers Provide Billions in Unpaid Economic Value

North Dakota's 62,000 family caregivers provided an estimated $1 billion in unpaid care in 2021, logging 58 million hours of labor that never appeared on a paycheck, according to AARP's "Valuing the Invaluable" report. Nationally, the figure reached $600 billion, based on 38 million caregivers averaging 18 hours of care per week at an assessed wage of $16.59 per hour.

In Stutsman County, the math cuts deeper. Census data shows 19.12 percent of the county's roughly 21,000 residents are 65 or older, well above the national rate of 16.04 percent. The county's median age of 40.2 also exceeds the national figure of 38.8. More older residents means more families quietly absorbing the cost of medical appointments, medication management, and daily personal care that never shows up in economic statistics.

For those families in Jamestown, formal support is available but thin. Stutsman County Human Services operates an Adult Services division that funds in-home care through the state's Service Payments for the Elderly and Disabled, known as the SPED program. Services are delivered by county staff or qualified service providers, with the stated goal of keeping residents out of nursing facilities.

Comfort Keepers serves the Jamestown area with private in-home and respite care on flexible schedules. Family Voices of North Dakota maintains statewide respite resources for caregivers of children and adults with disabilities, and the Aging and Disability Resource Link connects families to local and statewide services.

What Jamestown largely lacks is a dedicated adult day services center, where working caregivers could leave a loved one safely during business hours, and a structured local caregiver support group. Those gaps leave families with few options for relief on weekdays and no organized peer network to help manage the sustained weight of caregiving.

AARP North Dakota has pressed state legislators to expand long-term care access, increase senior nutrition funding, and strengthen the Resource Link. As Stutsman County's senior share of the population continues to grow, the unpaid tab its families carry will only get larger.