Statistics of Long Term Care

You are taking an important step towards securing the financial future for you and your family. Your greatest financial risk today and in the foreseeable future is not your hospital or doctor bills, but the very high cost of long term care.

  1. 70% of people who are older than 65 will need long term care services.
  2. 77 million Americans will turn 50 over the next 18 years. That's 1 person every 7.5 seconds.
  3. 43% of individuals age 65 will enter a nursing home sometime in their lifetime, with 50% staying an average of 2.5 years.
  4. The national average cost for 1 year in a nursing home is approximately $41,000; in larger cities from $50 to $60,000 annually.
  5. 50 percent of all couples and 70 percent of single persons are impoverished within one year of entering a nursing home.
  6. For every person receiving care in a nursing home, there are 4 people receiving care outside a facility.
  7. The annual cost to companies for lost productivity from elder care responsibilities is $17 billion a year or $3,142 per employee.
  8. By 2020, 1 in 3 workers will provide some type of elder care.