Right now, the size of the United States wellness market doubles that of any other nation. However, would it surprise you to know Switzerland spends the most per capita on wellness-related activities and products? These are among the key takeaways to come from “The Global Wellness Economy: Country Rankings,” report by the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute (GWI). This first of its kind report measures the wellness markets of 150 nations, with data covering a broad range of wellness spending, from nutrition to real estate to tourism.
For instance, in 2020, Americans spent on average $3,685 per person per year on wellness activities, products and food. This ranks the U.S. third per capita behind Switzerland and Iceland. In terms of total market size, the U.S. wellness market is $1.2 trillion, double the next largest wellness market economy, which is China.
Interestingly, the overall U.S. wellness market fell by 13.8% in 2020 compared to 2019. In fact, the data shows that wellness spending declined in nearly every country in 2020. This coincides with the greater difficulty many in the healthy home business have experienced in trying to penetrate the market this past year.
Looking for Wellness Beyond COVID
The report is a companion to GWI’s recently released “The Global Wellness Economy: Looking Beyond COVID,” a complete global update on all 11 sectors of the wellness market, finding that the world wellness economy is worth $4.4 trillion and forecast to reach $7 trillion by 2025.
“This last year, the GWI generated country-level data for all 11 wellness sectors. So now, for the first time, we can answer the question everyone asks: How big is the total wellness market for each country and who ranks highest?” said Ophelia Yeung, GWI senior research fellow. “Which nations are growing, which are shrinking? How do national wellness markets differ and why? This report is the first to answer these questions.”
Top 20 Wellness Markets
- US: $1.2 trillion
- China: $683 billion
- Japan: $304 billion
- Germany: $224 billion
- UK: $158 billion
- France: $133 billion
- Canada: $95 billion
- South Korea: $94 billion
- Italy: $92 billion
- Australia: $84 billion
- Brazil: $83 billion
- India: $78 billion
- Russia: $71 billion
- Spain: $63 billion
- Mexico: $46 billion
- Netherlands: $41 billion
- Taiwan: $38 billion
- Switzerland: $38 billion
- Indonesia: $36 billion
- Turkey: $35 billion
It’s no surprise the world’s most populous countries (e.g., China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia), or the wealthiest (e.g., Switzerland, Australia, Netherlands), or countries that combine size with wealth (e.g., the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, etc.), spend the most on wellness.
The US is by far the largest market, at $1.2 trillion–nearly double the size of the second-largest market, China, at $683 billion. In fact, the US accounts for 28% of the entire global wellness market, while the top ten markets represent 71% of the world total.
The report provides granular data on national wellness markets, from growth rates in the pre-pandemic years of 2017-2019 to how the pandemic has impacted each market.
Consumer Wellness Spending Per Capita
- Switzerland: $4,372
- Iceland: $3,728
- US: $3,685
- Austria: $3,568
- Norway: $3,346
- Australia: $3,771
- New Zealand: $2,969
- Denmark: $2,958
- Hong Kong: $2,943
- Aruba: $2,792
Consumers in the very wealthiest economies spend the most each year on wellness. The report provides data on how much the wellness market contributes to national GDP (what percentage of the economy it represents). Globally, the wellness economy represents 5.1% of total GDP, or, roughly 1 in every 20 “dollars” spent by consumers worldwide is on wellness.
Wellness Is Vital to Small, Tourism-Dependent Countries’ Economies
It may seem surprising to see Aruba rank in the top 10 for consumer spend on wellness, as it’s not as wealthy as the other ranked countries. This is the tourism effect, where high-spending inbound wellness tourists represent a disproportionate part of the wellness market.
The report ranks countries by the ratio of the size of their wellness economy to the size of their total GDP/economy, and the small, tourism-dependent countries really stand out. For those top five nations, the wellness market represents an eye-opening percentage of total GDP: Seychelles (16.5%), Maldives (14.5%), Aruba (11.9%), Costa Rica (11.4%), and St. Lucia (10%). This is a window into the powerful contribution that wellness tourism brings to their economies, but also shows how in these small countries wellness is more of an “export industry” and for the most part out of reach of locals.
Nutrition, Personal Care, Beauty Are Top Wellness Market Sectors
The report reveals how different wellness sectors dominate in different nations. Both worldwide and in most countries, the wellness market is concentrated in three sectors: 1) healthy eating, nutrition, and weight loss; 2) personal care and beauty; and 3) physical activity. These three segments account for more than 60% of the total wellness market.
There is however a wide national and regional variance in wellness markets. In Japan, personal care/beauty represents a much bigger share of wellness spending than in most countries; for China, India, Indonesia, Russia, and Turkey, it’s traditional/complementary medicine; in Germany, it’s wellness tourism, spas and thermal/mineral springs; while in Sub-Saharan Africa, public health and prevention spending dominates.
“These new rankings reveal the countries that spend the most on wellness–important information for governments and businesses. But the size of a wellness market does not necessarily capture which countries are most ‘well’: which nations have the best health outcomes or fair access to wellness,” says Katherine Johnston, GWI senior research fellow.
“There’s much research to do. Who is benefitting from the growth of the wellness economy in each country, and who is not? What’s the relationship between the wellness market and the health and well-being of a nation’s population? What can governments and policymakers do to bring more wellness to more people? This will be the focus of our November 2022 report on wellness and policy to be released at the Global Wellness Summit in Tel Aviv.”
Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister site CE Pro.
