The number of Canadians over age 45 providing care for aging parents and other adults increased dramatically over a five-year period, according to a Statistics Canada study released Tuesday.

About 2.7 million Canadians provided unpaid care to people 65 and over with some form of long-term health problem in 2007, an increase of 670,000 over 2002, the study says.

Many of these older caregivers are members of the so-called sandwich generation — those overseeing their own children as well as elderly parents.

"The findings suggested that aging Canadians need assistance, and that family and friends provide help despite growing work and family demands," write the federal agency's Kelly Cranswick and Donna Dosman, authors of the 10-page report.

The aging population will have a great impact on future caregiving, they say.

Projections show that by 2056, the proportion of Canadians age 65 or older will more than double, to over one in four; similarly, the proportion of people 80 and over will triple to about one in 10, says the study, taken from figures compiled during the 2007 General Social Survey (GSS) on Family, Social Support and Retirement.

The survey, which interviewed 23,000 Canadians age 45 and older, also found the population of seniors surpassed 4.3 million in 2006, up 11.5 per cent from 2001.

According to the GSS, caregiving is not just provided to seniors living in their own homes, but extends to those living in institutions and long-term-care facilities who still count on family and friends for help. In 2007, more than one in five unpaid caregivers provided care to seniors living in care facilities, the GSS said.

Caregivers perform a range of tasks, including personal care, tasks outside and inside seniors homes, transportation and medical care.

About 43 per cent of caregivers in the study released Tuesday were between ages 45 and 54.

Other study findings:

• Caregivers were more likely to be women who were employed and married.
• One in four caregivers, or about 675,000 people, were themselves seniors.
• One-third of these senior caregivers were over 75.
• Fifty-four per cent of caregivers were coping "very well" with their responsibilities, while 42 per cent said they were "generally OK" with the role of caregiver.
• Less than five per cent of caregivers said they were not coping well with their responsibilities.

'Caregiving is a priority issue'

The report highlights caregivers' increasing need for help with the demands of looking after the elderly, Sandra Hirst, president of the Canadian Association on Gerontology, told CBCNews.ca.

Hirst, an associate nursing professor at the University of Calgary who was not involved in the Statistics Canada study, said "caregiving is a priority issue" and it's time caregivers received support in their efforts.

Various studies have researched the burden placed on caregivers looking after family members at home.

A study released earlier this month in the Canadian Journal on Aging, a publication of the gerontology association, notes that research has shown few caregivers are "overly burdened," but that doesn't tell the whole story on how they are faring.

The study, by University of Victoria investigators, looked at 92 community-based caregivers on Vancouver Island and concluded that caregivers can both be burdened and experience "good" or "high" well-being.