Every trip to the hair salon, or beauty parlour counts as “wellness”. This wellness market was worth $6.3 Tn in 2023 globally, about four times larger than the pharmaceutical sector worth $1.6 Tn and nearly 60% as big as all consumer health expenditures worth $10.6 Tn, revealed a report.

Wellness sector is now a larger market than many global mega-industries, including IT ($5 Tn), sports ($2.65 Tn), tourism ($4.65 Tn) and pharmaceuticals ($1.6 Tn). “Despite the rapid growth of green/sustainability businesses, the wellness market is more than 30% larger than the green economy worth $4.8 Bn,” said a report by Global Wellness Institute.

The global wellness market grew from $4.6 Tn in 2020 to $5.8 Tn in 2022 and reached a record high of $6.3 Tn by 2023 at a 9% annual growth rate. The report attributed the massive growth in the wellness sector to the importance given to health and wellness sectors following the COVID-19 pandemic that shook the world.

Wellness continues to expand its share of the overall global economy, now representing more than 6% of global Gross Domestic Product, up from 5.75% in 2019, it added.

The wellness industry overall grew 25% from 2019 to 2023 and by the end of 2024, it would reach another all-time high of $6.8 Tn, the report predicted.

Many sectors, such as personal care, beauty, weight loss, health, nutrition, and wellness real estate, all come under the wellness industry. The personal care and beauty industries alone accounted for $1.21 Tn on their own. 

Other industries that come under the purview of wellness are the $1.09 Tn weight loss, health, and nutrition category, and the $1.06 Tn physical fitness market, among others. 

Meanwhile, the global pharmaceutical market size was valued at $1,494.67 Bn in 2021. The market is projected to grow from $1,585.05 Bn in 2022 to $2,401.22 Bn by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period. 

The global pharmaceutical market was estimated at $1.6 Tn last year, a rise of more than $100 Bn compared to 2022.

The pharma sector had experienced higher-than-anticipated demand across all countries compared to pre-pandemic levels, though it was behind the wellness sector.