As consumer spending on wellness has exploded into a multi-trillion market, it raises key questions.

Is all this spending even improving people’s wellbeing? Cynics would guess no, but new research released today by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) says, quite definitively, YES.

The research reveals that:

• For every $844 increase in annual wellness spending per person, the average happiness levels increase by nearly 7%.

• An increase of $769 in wellness spending per capita is associated with 1.26 years of extra life.

The analysis controlled for income, so this is not just true just for the “wealthy well,” but across the board. This is the first-ever quantitative analysis that determined the relationship between wellness spending, health outcomes, and happiness.

These findings bolster the case for wellness policy, the subject of GWI’s groundbreaking new report released today: “Defining Wellness Policy,” the first research to define wellness policy and make a compelling, evidence-backed argument as to why it’s so direly needed now.

It explains how wellness policy can complement–but also fill the glaring gaps left by–both current public health policy and new happiness and wellbeing policy efforts. As well as tackling the serious gaps in the sick-care-focused medical system and in the private sector wellness industry, too often exclusive and elitist, so clearly not bringing wellness to all.

As Katherine Johnston, GWI senior research fellow, put it: “As we dived into this research, it quickly became obvious that health and wellness should be embedded in the priorities for all policymaking. Sustainability has been key to policy conversations for so long – but it’s astonishing that no one has talked about wellness as a comprehensive, cross-cutting policy category in government circles.”

Download the free report here.

This first report sets the stage for a series of Wellness Policy Toolkits to be released in 2023, which will provide governments, non-profits and businesses a roadmap on how to take action in seven domains of wellness policy: physical activity, healthy eating, mental wellness, traditional/complementary medicine, wellness in the built environment, wellness at work, and wellness in tourism.