9,000 children provide over 50 hours care a week

Doctors from the University of Liverpool analysed data from the 2001 UK census, the first to ask about carers and their health.

It showed around a million over-65s and 100,000 under-16s cared for a relative.

And the research, published in the British Medical Journal, found just under half of all carers said they were not in good health.

Carers of all ages are twice as likely to suffer ill-health Dave Clark, Carers UK

The 2001 census showed about 5.9 million people of all ages, out of the UK population of 57.7 million, provide informal care for another person.

It showed 114,000 children aged between five and 15 and more than one million aged 65 and over acted as carers.

Nearly 9,000 children and 381,000 people aged 65 and over provided at least 50 hours of care a week.

And 44,000 over-85s said they acted as a carer - more than half provided at least 50 hours of care a week.

Previous estimates of the number of carers in the UK had been based on much smaller studies.

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But many of these children and pensioners were not in good health themselves.

More than a quarter of over-65s who cared for over 50 hours a week described their health as "not good".

And in under 16s, 773 of the 18,000 providing more than 20 hours of care a week said their health was "not good".

Dr Tim Doran, a lecturer in public health medicine at the University of Liverpool who led the research, told BBC News Online: "Previous estimates of the number of people involved in caring and their situation were based on small scale studies.

"This was the first time people were asked in a census about informal caring and about their own health."

He added: "We were really dealing with bare numbers in this study. There needs to be work looking at the impact that the burden of care has on the lives of young and elderly carers."

Dr Doran said he also hoped local authorities and the government would use the figures from the study to plan funding and support for young and elderly carers.

Lack of information

Dave Clark of the organisation Carers UK said: "The problem of ill health is not age-related.

"Our own research has shown that carers of all ages are twice as likely to suffer ill-health as the general population.

"Over half of carers had sustained a physical injury since becoming a carer, over half were being treated for a stress-related disorder and 90% were not given any information by NHS staff on how to care safely.

"And 65% of carers who reported physical or mental health problems did not get an increase in services following a Carer's Assessment."