The supplement industry statistics show that despite the lockdowns and gyms closing down, the nutritional supplement industry is still one of the most prolific industries in the US, as well as worldwide.
People are paying more attention than ever before to their physical appearance and health, but is taking dietary supplements more beneficial to our bodies or our economy?
Which of the supplements are the most popular among consumers? What percentage of people take supplements? How much do we spend on them? What are the rising 2022 trends in the food supplement industry worldwide? These stats & facts will help you figure it out.
Top Ten Supplement Industry Statistics for 2022
- The average American spends around $56 per month on dietary supplements.
- 43.8% of gym-goers use nutrition supplements.
- The fitness industry is pulling the market for sports nutrition supplements upward by 9.1% annually.
- Americans spent approximately $2.1 billion each year on weight-loss nutrition supplements.
- The food supplement industry in the US was worth $42.6 billion in 2019.
- COVID-19 outbreak will slow down the annual growth rate of the dietary supplement industry from 1.9% to 0.5%, estimations show.
- Supplement industry statistics show that the average American spends around $56 per month on dietary supplements.
- The economic contribution to the national economy is $2.71 for every dollar that the nutritional supplement industry spends.
- Nature’s Bounty Co. is the top dietary supplement company by revenue in 2018.
- Italy has the largest European dietary supplement market.
Supplement Industry Demographics in the US
Having proper supplements is crucial for staying healthy and fit. However, this is highly individual and there is no universal approach. You should consult with a certified expert before making a final decision.
However, you should be well-informed before you walk into that meeting. What are the most popular supplements? Who uses them the most? Let’s find out!
1. 77% of American adults consume dietary supplements.
(Statista) (Nutrition Insight) (USA Today)
The American consumption of dietary supplements surpassed 60% of the population in the last 15 years, even though, as attested in the nutrition statistics, less than 10% of Americans are officially diagnosed with nutritive deficiencies.
The growing trend of supplement consumption is confirmed by the yearly surveys of the Council of Responsible Nutrition (CRN). Their latest survey revealed that supplement consumption among Americans has increased by 12 percentage points since 2009 (65%), whereas in 2015, 68% of the surveyed consumed supplements.
2. Dietary supplement industry statistics reveal that 78% of the US population that is 55 years old and older consume dietary supplements.
(Statista) (NIH)
The share of Americans that consume supplements is high in every age group, and above 50% are using them regularly. For example, 69% of those aged 18 to 34 years, and 77% of Americans aged 35 to 54 reported doing the same in 2018.
Besides, 12% of children and teens in the US were shown to complement their diets for health, weight loss, or bodybuilding. However, those over 55 are the ones that are most likely to use complementing supplements.
3. Dietary supplement industry statistics show that vitamins and minerals are the most popular nutritive supplements among adult Americans.
(Nutraceuticals World) (Statista)
98% of the adult supplement users were taking vitamins and minerals, the most popular type of nutritive supplements by far, according to a 2018 survey. 75% of these were taking multivitamins, 37% took vitamin D, and 34% used vitamin C.
Furthermore, recent data shows that specialty supplements are growing in popularity, with some 51% of supplement users taking them. Next by popularity were herbal and botanical food supplements (41%), sports nutrition supplements (32%), and supplements for weight management (20%).
4. Fitness supplement industry statistics show that 43.8% of gym-goers use nutrition supplements.
(BMC)
According to a 2020 study, the bodybuilding supplement industry statistics show that almost half of all gym-goers use dietary supplements. Those that use supplements were 62.7% male and younger than 41 years, as confirmed by the gym membership statistics.
Moreover, 80.1% of them have used protein supplements, and 36.8% of them have used branched-chain amino acids, exercise statistics show. Moreover, 38.3% have consumed multivitamins and minerals, and all of this in the hope of gaining muscles (55.7%), improving their sports performance (47.3%), and cutting on recovery time (52.7%).
5. Supplement industry statistics show that the average American spends around $56 per month on dietary supplements.
(My Protein) (Statista)
An average American aged 18 to 65 spends nearly $155 per month on health and fitness. More than one-third of this sum is spent on fitness food supplements, a 2019 survey conducted by My Protein reveals.
Other stats show that millennials in the US spend $62.7 per shopping trip on vitamins and other food supplements, whereas Americans belonging to the Greatest Generation spend the most – $130 per shopping trip.
On an annual level, Americans spend over $32 billion on dietary supplements like vitamins, minerals, botanicals, and other healthy-living enhancers.
6. 2019 weight loss supplement industry statistics show that Americans spend approximately $2.1 billion every year on weight-loss nutrition supplements.
(Business Wire) (US News) (Runners World) (My Protein) (NIH)
One of the top reasons why Americans take dietary supplements is to lose weight, and 15% of them have tried weight loss supplements in some form. 2019 study shows that Americans spend, on average, $6.12 per month on supplements that supposedly ease weight loss.
The total weight loss and diet control market in the US was worth $72 billion in 2019, and the global weight loss and diet control supplement industry is expected to reach $40 billion by the end of 2024.
Dietary Supplement Industry Statistics & Trends
Dietary supplements are almost necessary for most of us. With the hectic way we live in, we forget to take care of balanced diets, which provides a great basis for exhaustion and more serious problems.
Vitamin and supplement industry statistics indicate that this area is expanding more than ever, because recent events shifted our perspective back to health. This is how the supplement industry did in times of crisis.
7. The economic contribution to the national economy is $2.71 for every dollar spent by the nutritional supplement industry.
(NPR) (Nutraceuticals World)
According to CRN data for 2016, the US dietary supplement industry contributed $121.6 billion to the national economy that year, representing about 0.68% of GDP.
Also, more than 754,645 jobs nationwide are directly dependent on the supplement industry, along with wages worth $38.4 billion on an annual level.
The business taxes add another $15 billion to the US economy each year, making the food supplement industry one of the most important industries.
8. Supplement manufacturing generated a direct economic value of $31.3 billion in 2016.
(Statista) (Nutraceuticals World)
The manufacturing sector of the dietary supplement industry accounted for the biggest direct economic output in 2016, followed by retail with $11.54 billion.
Direct sales were accountable for $1.37 billion, whereas wholesaling resulted in $1.34 billion. In addition, 383,230 job positions were directly connected with this industry.
The total direct economic output was estimated at $51.25 billion in 2016, the indirect was estimated at $31.94 billion, whereas the induced impact was $38.39 billion.
9. The market size of the food supplement industry in the US was $42.6 billion in 2019, according to dietary supplement industry statistics.
(Statista) (Statista) (Globe News Wire)
Projections estimate that by 2022, the world’s dietary supplements market will reach around $220 billion in revenue, from $124.8 billion in 2018. The growth is expected with an annual increase rate of 8.2%, due to people paying more attention to their nutrition.
Following IBIS World data, by the end of 2020, in the US, the dietary supplement industry is expected to be worth $31.4 billion.
For FY 2018, the biggest profits were recorded in the vitamin market – $7.42 billion, whereas $3.74 billion were generated by the mineral supplements.
10. Italy has the biggest European market in the vitamin and supplement industry, statistics confirm.
(Statista) (Business Wire)
The total value of the dietary supplements and vitamin market in Europe was estimated at $33.68 billion in 2017.
Among the countries in the European continent, the nutritional supplement market in Italy, with an estimated value of $1.73 billion in 2020 is the highest, followed by the Russian market, as the second-largest market ($1.16 billion), and the German one with $1.06 billion.
The Italian market was 1st in 2015 also, when it was worth 1.42 billion.
11. Online sales in the US have increased by 40% for the nutritional supplement industry, trends for 2015-2016 show.
(Rakuten Intelligence)
The e-commerce retailing of vitamins and other dietary supplements is booming, and online purchase is increasing by an estimated rate that is 12% faster for this category of products than the average of e-commerce in general.
Figures also show that 54% of online dietary supplements shoppers in 2015 were women, and a third of all buyers were millennials.
12. 77% of the digital dietary supplement and vitamin supplement sales are dominated by Amazon, supplement industry statistics confirm.
(Rakuten Intelligence) (Amazon) (Euromonitor)
Owning more than four-fifths of the online retail market, Amazon is the absolute leader in the nutritional supplement e-market, Slice intelligence data for 2016 reveals.
In 2016, 14%(in purchase value) of the total sales in this category were sold digitally.
The most popular dietary supplement products on Amazon, as of May 2020, were apple cider vinegar, collagen peptides, Vitamin D3, and probiotics.
Besides Amazon, one of the specialized sellers, Vitacost, was holding 22.9% of the online supplement retail market in 2016, followed by Swanson Vitamins and Puritan’s Pride jockey.
13. The fitness industry is pulling the market for sports nutrition supplements upward by 9.1% annually, nutritional supplement industry trends reveal.
(Grand View Research) (Statista)
The US sports nutrition niche in the dietary supplement market had an estimated value of $2.6 billion in 2015.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, fitness industry statistics showed that they were contributing to the supplement market, which was expected to surpass the $60 billion mark by the end of 2020. In comparison, the protein powder market in the US only reached $4.24 billion in 2018.
However, as the active lifestyle is going “down the drain” amid the coronavirus outbreak, we might not see that great bodybuilding supplement industry statistics soon.
14. Nature’s Bounty Co. is one of the top supplement companies by revenue in the US, dietary supplement industry statistics for 2018 show.
(Forbes) (Dun and Bradstreet)
With annual revenue of minerals, herbs, health food, and vitamin supplement sales of $3.4 billion in the fiscal year 2018, Nature’s Bounty Co. is the biggest player in the US nutrition supplement industry as Forbes data suggests.
Nature’s Bounty Co was listed 138th by Forbes as one of America’s largest private businesses in 2019. This company manufactures and sells over 16,000 products encompassing the brands Sundown Naturals, Ester-C, Balance, Nature’s Bounty, and many more.
15. Bausch & Lomb PreserVision is the biggest seller in the US vitamin industry, statistics from 2018 show.
(Statista)
Bausch & Lomb PreserVision, by gaining $194.7 million in vitamin supplement sales in 2019, became the leading multivitamin company by revenue in the US, followed by Centrum Silver with $164.5 million in sales revenue for this year.
In 2019, Centrum Silver accounted for 8.6% of the multivitamin market.
In general, on the US food supplement market, private label multivitamins generated $315 million in sales in 2019. On the other hand, in Europe, the top sellers were Abbott, Amway Corp, Archer Daniels Midland, and GlaxoSmithKline.
16. The COVID-19 outbreak will slow down the annual growth rate from 1.9% to 0.5%, estimation based on the latest nutritional supplement industry statistics reveal.
(IBIS World) (Globe News Wire)
The global dietary supplements and vitamin market will not reach the predicted $230.73 billion by 2027, as estimated by the Global News Wire, but will suffer a slower growth as a direct consequence of the global coronavirus sanitary crisis.
With lockdown affecting supply chains and manufacturing plants, the US supplement industry is expected to grow with a CAGR of just 0.5% instead of the previously estimated compound annual growth rate of 1.9%.
Further backdrops for the supplement industry are expected to be the drop in confidence of consumers and their diminishing purchasing power.
17. Dietary supplement industry statistics for 2018 show that there were 54,085 consumer complaints made to the US regulatory body.
(Kantar US Insights) (Cosmetics Business) (IBIS World)
In 2018 the 1,453 businesses in the vitamins and supplement market together spent $900 million on advertising.
The most popular segment of the supplement market, the minerals, and vitamins market were advertised with $239 million, whereas some $640 million were spent on other nutritional supplements in 2018.
However, many of the marketing campaigns contained misleading messages. This has led to a record number of complaints made to the US regulatory body, surpassing every other product by tenfold.
18. FDA supplement industry stats exposed 776 adulterated dietary supplements in 2016.
(JAMA)
In the period from 2007 to 2016, the FDA found that in 776 dietary supplements that were on the American market, there were substances usually found in pharmaceutical drugs that were not even listed on the label.
For example, 45.5% of the adulterated dietary supplements were marketed as supplements for sexual enhancement, 40.9% were marketed for weight loss, and 11.9% were aimed at muscle building.
As much as 79.8% were found to contain one unapproved drug ingredient, and 20.2% were found to contain more than one pharmaceutical, some even containing three.
FAQ
How big is the nutritional supplement industry?
The global food supplement market in 2018 was worth $124.8 billion, reaching this value with an annual growth rate of 8.2%.
In the US, the supplement market was supposed to be worth around $31.4 by the end of 2020.
What are the most popular dietary supplements?
The biggest share of the dietary supplement market (30%) is held by the energy (mineral and vitamin market, and sports nutrition supplements.
Vitamins and minerals are by far the most popular dietary supplements in the US, where 98% of supplement users are taking vitamins and minerals. This percent is followed by herbal supplements (41%), and sports nutrition supplements (32%).
What is the function of dietary supplements?
(NIH)
Dietary supplements have the function of enriching the nutritive quality we take every day, by adding essential nutrients, which help in the management or prevention of health problems that are caused by malnutrition.
What percentage of Americans take dietary supplements?
(Nutrition Insight) (NCBI)
In 2019, 77% of adult Americans reported using nutritive supplements in a survey by the Council of Responsible Nutrition (CRN). The percentage of supplement users has been growing since the 1970s.
The number of supplement manufacturers and providers has been growing since the US Congress voted for the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act in 1994.
Conclusion
Even though some are taking advantage of the dietary supplement craze to profit from products with no effect or adding pharmaceuticals to the all-natural-labeled products, food supplements remain popular, and many confirm experiencing their beneficial health effect.
Nevertheless, supplement industry statistics confirm that the economic impact of supplements is far greater, which can be concluded by the fact that the industry is producing much and employing many, but also, along the way, is giving hope to many more.
Resources:
- Amazon
- BMC
- Business Wire
- Business Wire
- Cosmetics Business
- Dun and Bradstreet
- Euromonitor
- Forbes
- Globe News Wire
- Grand View Research
- IBIS World
- JAMA
- Kantar US Insights
- My Protein
- NCBI
- NIH
- NIH
- NIH
- NPR
- Nutraceuticals World
- Nutraceuticals World
- Nutrition Insight
- Rakuten Intelligence
- Runners World
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- Statista
- USA Today