Long-term care, dependence and the third sector

Abstract

The demographic changes that have taken place throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first century confirm the increase in the number of older adults. More older adults implicitly entail an increase in the number of people in a situation of dependence. The issue of long-term care has economic, social and health care implications. This article addresses the characteristics of the companies involved in long-term care services and the employment generated. The database of the Spanish Directory of Companies (DIRCE) provided information on the variables used in the analysis: companies created, employment generated, companies by legal status and territorial distribution of the companies. Noteworthy findings were that the long-term care service sector contributes more to creating jobs than other economic sectors and that third sector companies are important in providing long-term care services.