Latest Data: 2020
This page examines the carer duties of UK professional archaeologists.
Highlights
Share this Research
The individuals’ survey for Profiling the Profession asked respondents about their duties as carers. Around a third of archaeologists had such responsibilities, primarily for children.
The ONS provides data on the number of working adults in the UK, defined as those between the ages of 16-64 (in 2021, 41,478,000) and the number of working adults with dependent children (in 2021, 12,244,000). That means 29.5% of the working population have dependent children, which is almost exactly the same level as reported for archaeologists. There are no national statistics available for caring duties for other adults.
Table 2.9.1: Responses from employed/self-employed archaeologists on carer duties for 2019-20.
| Carer | Count | % |
|---|---|---|
| Carer for children, yours or others | 274 | 27% |
| Carer for adults | 38 | 4% |
| Carer for both | 20 | 2% |
| Not a carer | 665 | 67% |
| Total (n=) | 997 |
Download this table:
Age and Carer Duties
One of the correlations discovered during the analysis (met a threshold of p < .001, see methods page for more on this) was a correlation between age and carer duties. Almost half of archaeologists aged in their 40s have carer duties, with caring for children peaking for this group and caring for other adults peaking for archaeologists in their 50s:
Table 2.9.2: Responses from those who were employed or self-employed as an archaeologist regarding whether they are a carer, broken down by ages.
| Age | Carer | Not a carer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | % | Count | % | |
| Under 30 | 26 | 19% | 113 | 81% |
| 31-40 | 81 | 30% | 193 | 70% |
| 41-50 | 109 | 45% | 133 | 55% |
| 51-60 | 85 | 40% | 125 | 60% |
| 61+ | 20 | 21% | 74 | 79% |
| Total | 321 | 33% | 638 | 67% |
Download this table:
Image Credit
A selection of femora, tibiotarsi and tarsometatarsi from Uley – from Fothergill, B.T., Best, J., Foster, A. and Demarchi, B., 2017. Hens, Health and Husbandry: Integrated Approaches to Past Poultry-keeping in England. Open Quaternary, 3(1), p.5. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/oq.34 CC BY 4.0
Version control and change log
As a digital document we may update parts of this page in the future to account for corrections or the need for clarification. Please use the version when citing:
Version: 1.0
Change log: no changes
CREDITS
Title: Profiling the Profession
2020 Authors: Kenneth Aitchison, Poppy German and Doug Rocks-Macqueen
Published by: Landward Research Ltd
Version Date: 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9572452-8-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14333387
License: CC BY SA 4.0 for all text and figures. Header images are from different sources check image credits for their specific licensing.
2020 funders: Historic England, with support from Historic Environment Scotland, CIfA and FAME.
Questions about Profiling the Profession: enquiries@landward.eu