The GWI just released the Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2025, its annual report packed with new data and insights on the wellness market and its 11 sectors. It’s a story of continued––and accelerating––growth. Since 2013, the wellness economy has doubled and saw a 7.9% increase from 2023 to 2024, reaching a new peak of $6.8 trillion. Over the last five years, it experienced 6.2% annual growth, and it’s forecast to accelerate to a 7.6% yearly growth rate through 2029, reaching $9.8 trillion. The wellness market is now almost four times larger than the pharmaceutical industry ($1.8 trillion) and 60% as large as ALL global health expenditures (including consumer and government spending) at $11.2 trillion.
RECENT GROWTH STARS: Ten of the 11 wellness markets—from wellness tourism to physical activity—saw powerful growth over the last five years. The #1 gainer was wellness real estate (19.5% annual growth), as the pandemic proved a turning point in people’s understanding of the outsized impact that external environments have on their health. Mental wellness was the second largest five-year gainer (12.4% annually). Because how could we be more stressed? And for younger gens mental wellbeing is non-negotiable.
The one stagnant market: workplace wellness. Global spending declined between 2023 and 2024, as employers moved away from “programmatic” approaches to employee wellness and the surge in remote and gig work resulted in a larger number of employees without access to any wellness benefits. Another year-over-year decline was seen in the “weight-loss services” portion of the market, as GLP-1s stormed in.
FUTURE LEADERS: Wellness real estate, again, is forecast to be the #1 gainer through 2029, with an annual increase of 15.2%. Notably, traditional/complementary medicine is predicted to be the second fastest-growing sector, partly because the category includes the spawning longevity/biohacking approaches––from infrared light therapy to cryo to hyperbaric oxygen pods––now ubiquitous in wellness centers. The hot springs market will really heat up, as hundreds of springs-based destinations are in the investment pipeline and social water-wellness destinations are a huge trend. Also to watch: the $147 billion personalized medicine market, with projected 9.3% annual future growth through 2029, as longevity-seeking consumers rush to pay for diagnostic services and more sophisticated concierge medical-wellness solutions.
The 140-page report is FILLED with new market data, sub-sector breakdowns and future projections for all wellness sectors—along with regional data and the top 20 national markets for each segment. New for 2025 (Chapter 2) is an exploration of the powerful market trends impacting the future of each wellness market and why they’re growing faster or slower.
Read the press release HERE.
Download the full report HERE.
Access graphs HERE.
