The American Wellness Consumer in 2026

U.S. health and wellness has stopped behaving like a category. It now behaves like infrastructure, a near-fixed line in the household budget that holds through economic cycles the same way rent and groceries do. That single shift reframes everything downstream of it, including how brands target, message, and earn loyalty from the consumers driving this market.

This report synthesizes the most current U.S. consumer data on the $2 trillion wellness economy: what has materially changed in the last 24 months, and what that means for how brands should show up in 2026 and beyond.

A $2 Trillion Economy, And What Has Materially Shifted

The U.S. wellness economy now sits at approximately $2 trillion (roughly one-third of the entire global wellness market) and it is compounding at 8.16% per year, outpacing both U.S. GDP and the global wellness average. Americans now spend more than $6,000 per person annually on wellness, and 84% consider it a “top” or “important” everyday priority.

The only consumer category with net-positive spending intent in 2026

In 2026, health and wellness carries a net purchasing intent of +18, meaning significantly more Americans plan to spend more than less in this category. Every other measured category (groceries, utilities, apparel, dining, travel, entertainment) sits in negative territory. Wellness is not just recession-resistant; it has historically grown through downturns. Supplement spend grew through both the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 contraction.

Three structural forces are reshaping this consumer in parallel: a redefinition of the goal itself (wellness as an input to wellbeing, not the destination), a credibility flip (clinical effectiveness now outranks clean labels as a purchase driver), and the GLP-1 gravity well (8-10% of Americans currently on GLP-1s, with 30-35% more interested, reordering adjacent categories far beyond pharma).

Who the Modern Wellness Consumer Is

The generational center of gravity most targeting plans haven’t caught up to

Gen Z and Millennials make up just 36% of the U.S. adult population, but they drive more than 41% of all annual wellness spend, per McKinsey. Their older counterparts, consumers 58+, account for 35% of the population but only 28% of spend. The youth skew is not a niche; it is the engine of this market.

Fitness participation reinforces the gap. 73% of Gen Z and 72% of Millennials actively use fitness facilities, compared to 54% of Gen X and 42% of Boomers. Gen Z alone accounted for 47% of all new gym joins in 2025, and early adoption of fitness as identity is intensifying, not leveling off.

Meet the WELLZoomer: the most engaged wellness buyer in the market

Adults 25-44 represent the first genuinely global wellbeing consumer, more similar to peers across borders than to older consumers in their own country. They are also the highest-engagement buyers in this market:

• 95% exercise regularly

• 79% track health metrics

• 71% use spa or alternative therapies

• 86% plan a wellness visit in the next 12 months

For brands, WELLZoomers represent both the highest opportunity and the highest bar for credibility.

How They Participate and Spend

Wellness participation is at all-time highs across nearly every major category. 81 million Americans held a fitness facility membership in 2025, a 26.1% penetration rate, the highest ever recorded. Counting pay-as-you-go and aggregator users, total fitness customers topped 100 million, generating nearly 7 billion facility visits in a single year. 76% of U.S. consumers now identify as physically active, up 10 percentage points since 2021.

Supplement use has expanded dramatically: 86% of U.S. adults now use dietary supplements, up from 74% in 2023, in a market worth $60 billion and projected to reach $96 billion by 2034. 43% of consumers name gut health as their number-one symptom priority, ahead of pain and allergies.

The supplement categories gaining and fading

The fastest-growing supplements by year-over-year dollar growth tell their own story about where consumer attention is moving: colostrum (+785%), sea moss (+208%), NMN (+179%), L-carnitine (+128%), and creatine (+78%). On the fading side: weight loss products, cleanse/detox, cold & flu, and joint health, a clear pivot away from reactive symptom management toward mood, longevity, and cognitive performance.

Where 2026 spending increases are headed

Among consumers who say they plan to spend more on wellness in 2026, the breakdown is: 50% increasing on healthy groceries and nutrition, 26% on mental health, and 26% on beauty and personal care. Biohacking is the fastest-growing sub-segment in North America, at an 18%+ compound annual growth rate with a current market size of $12.3 billion.

 Which Brands Are Winning, And Why

The commercial landscape of the U.S. wellness economy features a handful of dominant revenue leaders: lululemon ($11.1B FY2025), Peloton ($2.49B), Hims & Hers ($2.3-2.4B, +73% year-over-year), Planet Fitness ($1.325B), AG1 (~$600M from a single SKU), and Calm (~$596M). But scale alone is no longer a moat.

WeightWatchers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2025 with $1.15 billion in debt, on $780M in revenue. The same forces creating new winners (GLP-1s, clinical credibility, DTC) are the ones pushing legacy incumbents toward failure. The M&A market is voting with capital: global health-industries deal value rose 46% in 2025, with megadeals including PepsiCo’s ~$1.95B acquisition of Poppi, Celsius Holdings’ ~$1.8B acquisition of Alani Nu, and Hershey’s ~$750M acquisition of LesserEvil.

The loyalty vacuum: 53% have no preferred wellness brand

The most consequential finding in this dataset: despite near-universal participation in wellness, 53% of consumers expressed no brand preference when tested against 36 prominent wellness names. The top two most-cited brands (Six Senses and Canyon Ranch) were each named by only 10% of respondents. Category leadership for the generation that will define premium demand is, in WELLSurvey 2.0’s own words, “entirely unclaimed.”

For marketers, that is not a problem. It is an open lane.

What This Means for Marketers in 2026

01. Sell into the ecosystem, not the stack.

Wellbeing is now the operating system. Consumers judge products collectively against a single metric (emotional state) and adjust continuously. Standalone products will struggle to earn loyalty from ecosystem-oriented buyers. The goal is to become the obvious fit inside the system consumers are already building.

02. Lead with evidence; “clean” is table stakes.

Roughly half of consumers cite clinical effectiveness as a top purchase factor. The only claims a majority trust are “clinically proven” (71%), “recommended by a scientist or medical professional” (67%), and “evidence-based” (66%). Celebrity endorsement and trend language lack credibility.

03. The generational handoff is faster than your media mix.

Gen Z + Millennials drive 41%+ of wellness spend. Gen Z drove 47% of new gym joins in 2025. WELLZoomers are simultaneously the most engaged buyers and the most emotionally strained, making stress an accelerant toward the category, not a withdrawal from it. Reach them where they discover (social), while meeting the trust bar they apply to it (evidence).

04. Awareness no longer buys preference. Claim the vacuum.

With 53% expressing no brand preference and category leadership entirely unclaimed for the premium-driving cohort, broad awareness is necessary but insufficient. Brands that anchor to specific roles inside the consumer’s wellbeing ecosystem (and sustain the relationship beyond the point of sale) are best positioned to own what’s still wide open.

About This Research

The 2026 American Wellness Consumer Report is a Bigeye Mini Study, a synthesis of the most current publicly available U.S. consumer data on the wellness economy, compiled and analyzed by Bigeye’s strategy team. All primary statistics are drawn from publications within 24 months of May 2026. Data sources include McKinsey’s Future of Wellness Survey (2024-25), WELLSurvey 2.0 (Civano Advisors / Yesawich, April 2026), Mintel, SPINS, NielsenIQ, CivicScience, the Global Wellness Institute, the Health & Fitness Association, and company annual reports and earnings filings.

This is Vol. 02. Bigeye publishes original consumer research to help health and wellness brands make smarter, faster, more evidence-grounded marketing decisions.

Download the Full Briefing

The full 11-page report includes the complete data set, segmentation frameworks, brand revenue leaders, M&A analysis, and four strategic implications for the next 24 months.

FAQs

Data synthesized from: McKinsey Future of Wellness Survey (2024-25), WELLSurvey 2.0 (Civano / Yesawich, Apr 2026), SPINS, NielsenIQ, Global Wellness Institute, Health & Fitness Association, CivicScience, and company earnings filings. Data window: May 2024-May 2026.