In the context of increases in chronic physical and mental health conditions, demands for care are vast. Countries vary in how they seek to meet this demand, but most, including the UK, rely heavily on care provided, generally unpaid, by families, friends, or neighbours. In addition, caring is not equally distributed. Women are more likely to provide care, to have provided care for longer and to care more intensively than men. The act of caring itself can limit access to financial and social resources and may be associated with poorer psychological and physical health. However, most research on caregiving has focused on older spouses, or older working age carers, while caring earlier in the life course is often overlooked in policy and research. Younger caring often occurs at a time when young adults are seeking to complete education, establish themselves in the job market and form long-term relationships. Younger carers are also likely to have fewer financial and socio-emotional resources than older carers. This talk will draw on findings from across several recent research projects which have used the UK Household Longitudinal Study to investigate the impact of caring on health and other outcomes from a life course perspective, highlighting the importance of national household panel studies as a key infrastructure resource, as well as implications of findings for policy and practice