The continent where wellness is flourishing the most is Asia. There, three long-term trends fuel the demand for wellness: (1) the rising prevalence of chronic lifestyle diseases, (2) intensely aging populations, and (3) rising incomes (a major boost that explains why Asia is playing “wellness catch-up” with the West). According to the ADB (Asian Development Bank), wellness—defined with the GWI as the active pursuit of…
In the immediate post-COVID era, the world will be collectively poorer—explicable by simple arithmetic: In the first three quarters of this year, the income earned by workers around the world fell by more than 10%—a loss caused by the pandemic equivalent to more than $3.5 trillion, or 5.5% of global GDP. Notably, this doesn’t yet take into account the mass lay-offs that are looming (like…
The Global Wellness Institute is the research organization renowned for sizing and analyzing the sectors across the global wellness economy and known for its wellness industry bubble chart. On Monday, a new “bubble” will be born when the GWI releases the first research on the dynamic, multi-sector mental wellness economy at the Global Wellness Summit. While mental wellness is a market seeing explosive growth (dramatically…
A new study from the University of California, San Francisco found that people consciously aware of the vistas and objects around them on a walk—researchers call these “awe walks”—reported being more hopeful and upbeat than walkers who did not. Study participants were older men and women, and one group was instructed on how to cultivate awe (i.e., look at the world with fresh, childlike eyes)…
CB Insights, a major tech industry analyst, recently released a report on global wellness investment trends for the first half of 2020. It paints a picture of which tech-enabled wellness solutions are rising fastest in the wake of coronavirus, including business models focused on mental health/wellness, fitness, women’s health, sleep, beauty and personal care, and new wellness platforms for parents and kids. A few key…
Culture—a defining element for containing the pandemic—explains why East Asian nations (where community acts as a collective agent for the common good) have done much better than individualistic countries characterized by a “to each his/her own” mentality. The reason is the following: the lower the level of social cohesion (or the higher the level of social inequality), the stronger the incentive for individuals to compete…
