The Wellness Industry Is Now Richer Than Big Pharma and Sports North American residents spend over $5,000 per year on wellness, according to a new study. The industry hit a record high in 2023.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- The global wellness market hit $6.32 trillion in 2023, according to a new report from the Global Wellness Institute.
- The Institute folds many industries under wellness, including personal care, beauty, weight loss, health, nutrition, and wellness real estate.
- The study says the growth in the market is due to an emphasis on wellness following the pandemic.
If you bought even just a bar of bath soap last year, you contributed to the wellness industry—and a new report released Tuesday from the Global Wellness Institute showed you helped it reach a record-high of $6.32 trillion in 2023.
That's bigger than the pharmaceutical and sports categories.
The wellness industry overall grew 25% from 2019 to 2023. The report predicts that by the end of 2024, it will reach another all-time high of $6.8 trillion.
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The wellness market is so large because it includes the massive personal care and beauty industries, which are worth $1.21 trillion on their own. So every trip to the hair salon counts as "wellness" — the study's authors say that personal care and beauty products are marketed as "self-care" to consumers.
Other enormous industries fall under wellness too, like the $1.09 trillion weight loss, health, and nutrition category, and the $1.06 trillion physical fitness market. Wellness real estate encompasses everything from gyms to office buildings designed with the health of occupants in mind — think air filter systems in an office space. It's a $438.2 billion industry and is part of the broader wellness category too.
The study attributes record sales to consumers emphasizing health—and spending accordingly—following the pandemic. The global wellness industry dipped during the pandemic, falling from $5 trillion in 2019 to $4.6 trillion in 2020.
Since then, however, it has continued to creep higher, reaching $5.8 trillion in 2022 before hitting $6.32 trillion in 2023.
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The report showed that people in North America put the most cash behind wellness, with each person spending about $5,768 per year. For context, the next biggest market is Europe, where residents spend an average of $1,794 per person.
Another report published last month from SNS Insider narrowed in on the global corporate wellness market, which includes mental and physical wellness programs for employees. The report estimated that the size of the market would almost double from $64.11 billion in 2023 to an estimated $123.35 billion by 2032.
