The Global Wellness Economy: Country Rankings
Data for 2019-2022
A companion to GWI’s 2023 Global Wellness Economy Monitor, this report is the only place to find detailed regional and country-level data on the size of the wellness industry. It ranks 145 countries by the size of their wellness economies, compares wellness to the size of each country’s overall economy, examines per capita spending on wellness at the country level, and explores post-pandemic recovery of the wellness market across different countries. The report also provides a summary analysis and data profile for the wellness economy across six global regions.
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Key Findings
The United States 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 United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Australia as standouts, surpassing their pre-pandemic market sizes by 120% or more. Globally, the wellness economy drives 5.6% 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, GWI 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) all across the world. In countries like Switzerland, Iceland, and the United States, people spend far more: on average, over $5,300 a year on wellness.
The five largest wellness markets are the United States ($1.8 trillion), China ($790 billion), Germany ($269 billion), Japan ($241 billion), and the United Kingdom ($224 billion). The top ten largest markets represent 70% of the global wellness economy; the top 25 represent 86%. The vast majority of the 25 largest wellness markets have seen robust recent growth. Comparing market sizes in 2019 versus 2022, 22 of 25 countries (except Thailand, Japan, Brazil) are now larger than they were pre-pandemic, as measured in U.S. dollars.
