The non-profit Global Wellness Institute (GWI) today released its annual “Country Rankings” report, packed with data on the wellness markets of 145 countries. The new research identifies the countries and regions with the fastest growth rates and reveals the amount of money spent annually on wellness in each nation.
The US is by far the world’s largest wellness market, growing to $2.1 trillion. That’s a staggering one-third of the total global wellness economy. Americans report record levels of stress and a healthcare system in crisis, and it seems to just keep fueling the country’s wellness boom. On average, Americans now spend $6,293 a year on wellness. The US market grew by $130 billion+ just between 2023 and 2024—a gain roughly the size of Italy and Australia’s entire wellness markets.
The Middle East wellness market has seen remarkable growth over the last 5 years. The UAE (14.3% annual growth) and Saudi Arabia (12.2% annual growth) are the fastest growing wellness markets in the world since 2019.
Among the largest wellness markets, the other standout five-year growth leaders are India, Mexico, Poland, the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, the US and Australia.
For smaller markets, the growth stars include Croatia, Cuba, Romania, Costa Rica and Kazakhstan.
“One striking finding this year is the remarkable growth of the Middle East wellness economy over the last five years,” said Katherine Johnston, GWI senior research fellow. “This growth has mainly been driven by an explosive wellness market in the UAE and Saudi Arabia—the region’s largest markets and also the fastest-growing countries in the world since 2019. Rapid growth in wellness tourism is bringing new wellness spending into the region by visitors, while consumers, businesses and governments are all spending more on everything from wellness real estate to public health to healthy eating.”
The report is a companion to GWI’s 2025 Global Wellness Economy Monitor, which finds that the world wellness economy is worth $6.8 trillion and forecast to reach $9.8 trillion by 2029.
Download the report: here.
