Against a background of rising adult mortality and morbidity in the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub‐Saharan Africa, this paper provides both quantitative and qualitative evidence for the existence of a largely neglected group of young people with increased responsibility for caregiving. Using questionnaire surveys, focus groups, storyboards and in‐depth interviews in three studies across Southern and Eastern Africa some young people in Lesotho, Tanzania and Zimbabwe are found to devote considerable time and energy to caring for sick members of their households. Examination of the tasks carried out by these youngsters finds them to be burdened beyond usual familial and societal expectations of children's ‘normal’ contributions to the reproduction of households via domestic chores and suchlike. It is concluded that these young people can be described as ‘young carers’. The three studies are presented to illuminate different socio‐spatial aspects of caregiving by young people. First, using qualitative data from Lesotho the range of caring tasks young caregivers perform for care recipients – usually a grandmother, parent, or sibling – is identified. Second, the impact caregiving responsibilities have on children's primary school attendance is examined using survey data from Tanzania. Third, the wider negative and positive impacts of caregiving including loss of friends and gaining of emotional maturity for young carers and their households is explored with in‐depth individual interviews from Zimbabwe. Finally, suggestions are made for further research to deepen understanding of the geographies of caring within the context of the population geographies of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub‐Saharan Africa and beyond. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Geographical studies of the African HIV/AIDS epidemic must consider not only familiar biological and epidemiological parameters, but also the development contexts in which the epidemic is raging. HIV/AIDS is exceptional in its geographical spread and socio-economic and demographic impacts: very different from more familiar African diseases such as malaria. Vulnerability to the disease needs to consider not only exposure, but also each society's capacity to cope with it at the same time as the heavy burdens of poverty, prior infection and fragile governance, and also each society's potentiality to intervene to mitigate its potentially devastating effects, whether through facilitating behavioural change or in more effective health provision. The importance of the development dimensions in Africa is illustrated through discussion of the wide range of scenarios offered by UNAIDS for the patterns and levels of the epidemic for 2025.

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