GWI just unveiled Build Well to Live Well: The Future, a complete, 160-page update of its pioneering 2018 report on the wellness real estate market. Packed with new global, regional and national data, it finds that wellness real estate is by far the fastest growing market in the 11-sector wellness industry––doubling from $225 billion in 2019 to $548 billion in 2024 (19.5% annual growth). And…
Wellness Policy Actions to Help More of Us Move and Get Healthy By Tonia Callender, GWI research fellow On June 21, many thousands around the world celebrated International Yoga Day. This year’s theme, “Yoga for One Earth, One Health”, highlighted our collective need to improve our physical and mental health. The benefits of physical activities like yoga are well documented, and government public awareness campaigns…
Study Suggests We Don’t Just Hear Music, but ‘Become It’ A 2025 study from McGill University shows our brain rhythms actually sync with sound to create emotion, movement and meaning–– shedding new light on the neuroscience of music and what makes music powerful. Our brain and body don’t just understand music, they physically resonate with it––and it shapes our sense of timing, musical pleasure and…
Smartphones, AI and Rising Unwellness By Thierry Malleret, economist Malleret discusses NYU Professor Arpit Gupta’s recent argument for “the smartphone (and social media) theory of everything.” Put simply, he posits that the widespread use of smartphones and social media (that began around 2011) are a major cause of unhappiness in individuals and larger problems across society. The fact that so many observable negative trends began…
New Global Flourishing Study: Indonesia & Mexico Rank Highest The headline-grabbing World Happiness Report is based on a single question put to people in 164 countries: how do you rate your life satisfaction on a scale of one to ten? Northern European nations––Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, etc.––always ranks highest for happiness. The new “Global Flourishing Study” gathers more multidimensional wellbeing data on 200,000-plus people in…
Wellness Tourism Provides Unique Benefits for Local Communities By Tonia Callender, GWI research fellow While political and economic uncertainty are influencing tourism flows, analysts predict a rise in global tourism visits this year.1 The seasonal influx of visitors provides jobs and revenues for businesses and communities, but the volume of visitors can also pose threats to the local environment and the quality of life for…
