Countries With the Fastest and Slowest Growing Wellness Markets
Social Media Is About to Have Its Big “Tobacco” Moment
Wellness Real Estate Beyond the 1%: Case Study, Hope Lodge Houston
Mixing Up Exercise Linked to Longevity
Must-Reads from the Wellness World: From teen social media bans going global, to the importance of reading more, to how the longevity movement undid the death positive movement—and why we need it back

Countries With the Fastest and Slowest Growing Wellness Markets

GWI’s new “Country Rankings” report is packed with data on the wellness markets of 145 countries. It reveals which nations are the five-year growth leaders, and which wellness markets are experiencing the slowest growth. The Middle East is a big story: The UAE (14.3% annual growth) and Saudi Arabia (12.2%) rank first and second among all countries for recent expansion. Other growth stars: India, Croatia, Cuba, Romania, Mexico, Costa Rica and Kazakhstan. The nations with the weakest wellness market growth? Ecuador and Hong Kong.

READ MORE and view the 26 fastest, and seven slowest, growing wellness markets.

Social Media Is About to Have Its Big “Tobacco” Moment

By Thierry Malleret, economist

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez recently said that “social media has become a failed state,” echoing the rising concerns of more policymakers and experts about its dangers. The push to ban social media use for kids and teens is heating up all over the world (see article below). Many questions remain about how to enforce a ban and track its impact, but social media may soon have its big tobacco moment. And naturally, big tech is fighting back. Economist Thierry Malleret asks why the conversation is limited to children and teens, as all ages experience addiction and the resulting mental harm. How do we provide protection against social media overconsumption beyond age limits? How do we define a “wellness limit”?

READ MORE

New Wellness Real Estate Case Study Series

In September, GWI released Build Well to Live Well: Case Studies, Volume 1, presenting 13 case studies that illustrate a wide range of wellness real estate projects across the US and the UK. They show how wellness can be implemented in projects at any scale, for any kind of occupants, and at any price point. In 2026, this Brief will spotlight one case study to inspire others to think more creatively and inclusively—and to build projects of all kinds, for all people, in the future.

Wellness Real Estate Case Study: Hope Lodge Houston

American Cancer Society Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Hope Lodge
Houston, Texas, United States

Providing a wellness-inspired refuge, offering rejuvenation and hope for cancer patients and their caregivers traveling for treatment.

Cancer treatment is stressful, time-consuming, and expensive. For patients who must travel far from home to receive treatment, there is the added financial burden of lodging, food, and transportation. The ACS Hope Lodge program, founded in 1970, provides a free home away from home for cancer patients and their caregivers traveling for treatment.

Hope Lodge Houston, which opened in 2021, is a 64,000-square-foot facility located near the Texas Medical Center campus. It offers 64 one-bedroom suites free of charge, on a first-come basis, to qualified patients undergoing active cancer treatment. The design features several distinctive approaches that contribute to the wellbeing of patients and caregivers:

Emphasizing materials, design, and operational strategies that do no harm to cancer patients
Harnessing biophilia for physical, mental, and social wellbeing
Providing facilities for cooking and sharing food to promote healing and community

Wellness Evidence

GWI’s website (www.wellnessevidence.com) is the only resource dedicated to the medical evidence for wellness approaches.

Mixing Up Exercise Linked to Longevity

A 2026 study from Harvard, analyzing 30 years of data from 100K+ Americans, found that diversifying your movement may have a big impact on your lifespan. The researchers found that people that did the highest variety of exercise––whether walking, gardening or weightlifting––had a 19% lower risk of premature death compared to those who engaged in the lowest variety, even when total physical activity was held constant. The findings add a new dimension to the well-established link between exercise and longevity.

ACCESS THIS STUDY on exercise

Must-Reads from The Wellness World

From Paris to New Delhi, the Push to Ban Teens from Social Media Is Going Global
–The Wall Street Journal

Society Needs a Doctor’s Prescription for Nature
–Noéma

What Can We Learn from Death in the Age of Longevity?
–Time

A STRIKING STAT:

83% of workers globally report they’re now struggling with burnout. The top driver: 48% report “overwhelming workload,” up from 35% in 2025.

Source: DHR Global, Workforce Trends Report 2026