This month the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) released the latest edition of the Global Wellness Economy Monitor, which reveals that the wellness economy has reached a new peak of $6.3 trillion in 2023 and has been expanding by 6% annually since 2019. GWI’s research team has been studying wellness, both as a concept and as an industry, since 2008, and first defined and measured the global wellness economy back in 2014. Since then, the GWI has become the authoritative source for research on the industry. We are the only organization that produces market data and analysis for all 11 wellness sectors and for over 200 countries worldwide. In this edition of the GWI Brief, we explore the important impacts and drivers of GWI’s efforts to quantify the wellness industry over the last decade—and why measuring the market is so important. READ MORE
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects global economic growth of an underwhelming 3.2% this year and next. In a world where economic growth is destined to be lower for longer, the GWI forecasts that the wellness economy will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3% between now and 2028, an even faster rate than the 5.9% annual growth registered between 2019 and 2023. Why is wellness now the economic exception? How can the wellness market perform (1) so well, (2) so consistently, and (3) so counter-cyclically to the overall slowing economy? Because...
A new randomized controlled trial (the gold standard) from the Cleveland Clinic studied two groups with back pain: one group did live-streamed group yoga classes (for 16 minutes, four times a week) and the other group continued medication as usual. The study found that just 12weeks of virtual yoga classes reduced back pain intensity (six times greater reduction in pain intensity scores for the yoga group), improved back-related function (a 2.7 times greater boost), reduced the use of pain medication (34% fewer members of the yoga group needed medication), and even improved quality of sleep (ten times improvement for the yoga-doers). The researchers concluded that yoga is a real alternative to drugs for back pain with wide-ranging benefits. ACCESS THIS STUDY on yoga.
Nearly three-quarters of US adults are now overweight or obese, double the rate from 1990. For girls and women aged 15 to 24, obesity rates have nearly tripled, to 29%.
