In the Global Wellness Institute’s latest Global Wellness Economy Monitor report, now in its fifth edition, researchers at the organization said the wellness economy reached a global total of $5.6 trillion in 2022 with a compounded annual growth rate of 12.1 percent.
The sectors include spas, thermal/mineral springs, wellness tourism, workplace wellness, wellness real estate, physical activity and mental wellness as well as personal care and beauty, healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss, public health, prevention and personalized medicine, and traditional and complementary medicine. The largest sector is personal care and beauty at $1.09 trillion, followed by healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss at $1.08 trillion.
The report was prepared by the organization’s key researchers, Katherine Johnston, Ophelia Yeung and Tonia Callender.
To give the data some context, the authors said that, like most industries, “the global wellness economy has experienced major shifts and disruptions over the last few years in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to 2020, the wellness economy was growing strongly, and faster than overall economic growth, for many years.”
In 2019, the wellness economy reached $4.9 trillion, but in 2020, “it fell by 9.5 percent to $4.5 trillion due to the pandemic,” the authors said. “By comparison, global GDP fell by only 2.7 percent in 2020. The year 2020 has become a watershed year that will forever divide history — and the wellness economy — into ‘before’ and ‘after’ COVID-19.”
The report stated that the wellness economy has since recovered. “The global wellness economy and all of the wellness sectors are poised for strong ongoing recovery and growth in the coming years, fueled by a long-term trend of rising consumer interest in and need for wellness, which has only accelerated since the pandemic,” the authors said.
As a result, the global wellness economy is poised to see a compounded annual growth rate of more than 8.6 percent in the next five years. By region, North America is in the spotlight.
“In 2022, North America surpassed Asia Pacific to become the largest regional wellness economy, a shift that has occurred due to relatively slower growth and recovery in some major Asian markets,” the authors said. “North America ($1.9 trillion), Asia Pacific ($1.7 trillion) and Europe ($1.5 trillion) together account for 90 percent of the entire global wellness economy.”
The report’s authors said it is noteworthy that “some of the wellness sectors are ‘export industries’ (i.e., selling services to people who are not residents of the country where the business is located). For example, about 26 percent of all wellness tourism expenditures are from international travel; a significant portion of revenues in thermal/mineral springs and some types of spas come from international visitors.”
