OBJECTIVES: Stroke can result in disability necessitating long-term care; understanding how patients are cared for following stroke is important to ensure adequate provision for patients and support for informal caregivers. The aims of this structured literature review were to (i) determine the relative contributions of informal and formal caregivers to long-term care of stroke patients in Asia and (ii) identify the financial burden of informal care. METHODS: MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Process and Embase were searched on 24/02/2016. Terms for stroke, care and Asian countries were combined with terms such as “contribution” and “ratio” to identify studies describing the amount of informal or formal care received, and with economic search terms to find studies on the financial burden of caregiving. Non-English language studies were excluded. RESULTS: The database searches yielded 266 results, of which 23 were ultimately found to be relevant. Eight studies reported the proportion of patients receiving informal versus formal care; 10 described the financial burden of care, measured as hours of care per day, long-term duration of care, or costs; and 5 reported data relevant to both. Taiwan was most frequently assessed (6 studies) but India, Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand also featured. In Taiwan, the proportion of patients reported to receive home or community-based care, rather than institutional care, varied between 47.0%­–93.5%. The proportion of patients receiving care in these settings also varied between the other countries, from 14.3% (India) to 90.5% (Japan) for care at home. CONCLUSIONS: Although the ratio of patients receiving care in informal versus formal settings varied between countries, the within-country heterogeneity complicates comparisons. Understanding how trends over time, and among subpopulations, contribute to heterogeneity in these figures is necessary to accurately evaluate the financial burden of informal care across Asian populations as a whole.