MIAMI—A new report released by the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute (GWI) is the only research to answer key questions about the wellness industry. How big is the total wellness market for each country? Which countries’ markets are growing fastest post-pandemic? How much do people spend per capita each year on wellness in each nation? What is the wellness market’s contribution to each country’s overall economy/GDP?
The Global Wellness Economy: Country Rankings is packed with data. It finds that the U.S. remains the undisputed goliath in wellness spending, with an annual market worth $1.8 trillion, and ranking first in 9 of the 11 wellness sectors. Almost all the top-25 wellness markets have seen strong growth since the pandemic, with the U.K., the Netherlands, the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Australia as standouts, surpassing their pre-pandemic market sizes by 120 percent or more. Globally, the wellness economy drives 5.6 percent of total GDP—so, roughly 1 in every 20 “dollars” spent by consumers worldwide is on wellness.
To put all this wellness spending in context, the research finds that annual, global per capita spending on wellness ($706) is on par with consumer out-of-pocket spending on healthcare ($711). At the regional level, per capita wellness spending is higher than consumer out-of-pocket spending on healthcare across every region except North America. And wellness spending per capita is higher than spending on clothing/shoes ($289) and hotels/restaurants ($475) across the world (Euromonitor data). In countries like Switzerland, Iceland and the U.S., people spend far more: on average, over $5,300 a year on wellness.
“For countries interested in growing their wellness economy, it’s crucial to know where they stand in this massive global industry,” said Ophelia Yeung and Katherine Johnston, GWI’s senior research fellows. “It’s also important to see how different countries’ wellness markets have responded to the impacts of the pandemic.”
The report is a companion to GWI’s 2023 Global Wellness Economy Monitor, a complete global update on all 11 wellness sectors, finding that the world wellness economy is worth $5.6 trillion and forecast to reach $8.5 trillion by 2027.
Download the country rankings report here.
