The Global Healthcare Economy: Key Statistics for 2026

U.S. healthcare spending is projected to reach nearly $9 trillion a year by 2034. That’s 20.6% of the economy, or about $1 of every $5.

Costs are rising in most other countries, too. Insurers expect global medical costs to increase 10.3% in 2026. At the same time, Eli Lilly expects up to $87 billion in revenue in 2026, and biopharma companies spent $96 billion in upfront cash on acquisitions in the first half of the year.

Measuring the healthcare economy is difficult. In part, that’s because countries publish their data on different schedules, and complete global figures only arrive about two years later. It’s also because money moves between insurers, providers, and drugmakers, so it can’t simply be added up.

Here, we compile 37 of the latest statistics, projections, and surveys on the global healthcare economy in 2026.

Editor’s picks

• U.S. health spending is projected to reach 20.6% of GDP by 2034.
• U.S. health spending reached an estimated $5.7 trillion in 2025, up 7.3% on 2024.
• Global medical costs are projected to rise 10.3% in 2026, and 14% in Asia Pacific.
• The average U.S. employer health plan is expected to cost more than $18,500 per employee in 2026.
• Health care added an average of 31,800 U.S. jobs a month in the 12 months to August 2026, more than the average net gain for the entire U.S. economy.
• Global medicine spending is projected to reach about $2.6 trillion by 2030.
• Eli Lilly expects $85 billion to $87 billion in revenue in 2026.
• Biopharma M&A reached $96 billion in upfront cash in the first half of 2026.
• Healthcare private equity deal value hit a record estimated $191 billion in 2025.
• Healthcare venture financings fell to 618 in the first half of 2026, a multi-year low.
• The three largest U.S. pharmacy benefit managers processed nearly 80% of U.S. prescriptions.

The size of the healthcare economy

A U.S. market worth an estimated $5.7 trillion, and a global one worth more than $10 trillion.

U.S. health spending is projected to reach 20.6% of GDP by 2034 (Health Affairs)

CMS projects national health spending will reach nearly $9.0 trillion by 2034. In 2024, it was $5.3 trillion, or 18.0% of GDP.

That means about $1 of every $5 spent in the U.S. economy would go to healthcare.

U.S. health spending reached an estimated $5.7 trillion in 2025 (Health Affairs)

That’s an increase of 7.3% from 2024, and the third year in a row with growth above 7%.

Most of the growth came from higher use of care rather than higher prices. CMS expects health price growth to average about 2.5% a year through 2026.

And growth is projected to slow to 6.3% in 2026 (Health Affairs)

That would bring total spending to roughly $6.0 trillion. The slowdown is partly due to lower Marketplace enrollment and legislation affecting Medicaid.

CMS also projects the insured share of the population will fall from 91.8% in 2024 to 90.5% by 2034.

The world spent $10.6 trillion on health in 2023, the latest complete global count (WHO)

That’s equal to around 10% of global GDP, according to WHO’s December 2025 data release (WHO).

Put another way, about $1 of every $10 in the world economy goes to healthcare. The U.S. is on track for twice that share by 2034.

Real health spending per person grew around 2.5% across the OECD in 2025 (OECD)

Spending grew by more than 4% in 2024. According to the OECD, the 2025 rate is broadly in line with growth before COVID-19.

China spent an estimated CN¥9.09 trillion (≈$1.26 trillion) on health in 2024 (National Health Commission)

That’s 6.7% of GDP, according to preliminary figures from China’s National Health Commission.

Out-of-pocket spending rose to 27.5% of the total in 2024, while the government’s share fell to 24.9%. That means patients in China now pay more out of pocket than the government pays. China measures health spending differently from the OECD, so these figures aren’t directly comparable with other countries’.

U.K. health spending reached an estimated £345 billion (≈$455 billion) in 2025 (ONS)

That’s around £4,966 (≈$6,550) per person, and 11.4% of GDP.

Spending grew by 7.7% in nominal terms and 3.9% after inflation. The government pays for 81% of it. The 2025 figures are provisional.

Germany spent an estimated €579.5 billion (≈$655 billion) on healthcare in 2025 (Destatis)

That’s a 7.7% increase from 2024, when Germany spent €538.2 billion (≈$582 billion).

Germany’s national figures include investment by healthcare facilities. So they aren’t directly comparable with the U.K.’s figure, which covers current spending only.

Japan’s national medical care expenditure reached a record JP¥48.1 trillion (≈$342 billion) in fiscal 2023 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

That’s up 3% from the previous fiscal year, which runs from April to March.

People aged 65 and over accounted for about 60% of the total. The national figure excludes long-term care and some other items, so it’s narrower than the OECD’s measure.

Healthcare costs in 2026

Costs are rising close to 10% a year in almost every region. Drugs are a big part of it.

Global medical costs are projected to rise 10.3% in 2026 (WTW)

Global medical costs rose 10.0% in 2025 and 9.5% in 2024, according to WTW’s survey of 346 health insurers across 82 countries.

55% of insurers that expect higher costs think the trend will last more than three years. Aon’s separate survey projects a 9.8% increase for 2026 (Aon).

This isn’t unique to one region. “Rising medical costs are a consistent trend for all,” WTW’s Linda Pham said. Three-quarters of insurers also reported an increase in cancer among people under 40.

Medical costs in Asia Pacific are rising 1.7x faster than in Europe (WTW)

Medical costs in Asia Pacific are projected to rise 14% in 2026, up from 13.2% in 2025. That’s the highest of any region. In Europe, costs are projected to rise 8.2%.

Latin America has the sharpest acceleration, from 10.5% to 11.9%. North America comes in at 9.2%.

The average U.S. employer health plan is expected to cost more than $18,500 per employee in 2026 (Mercer)

That’s a projected increase of 6.7%, the largest in 15 years (Mercer). That’s more than double the roughly 3% increases employers saw each year over the previous decade.

According to Mercer, both healthcare prices and the amount of care people use are going up. “Right now, both are rising,” Mercer’s U.S. chief actuary for health and benefits, Sunit Patel, said.

Prescription drug spending rose 9.4% at large employers in 2025. 49% of large employers now cover GLP-1 weight-loss medications, up from 44% the year before.

Where the money goes

Outpatient care takes the biggest share. Medicine spending is growing fastest in the U.S.

Outpatient care made up 33% of OECD health spending in 2023 (OECD)

Inpatient care accounted for 28%. So more money goes to care outside a hospital stay than to care during one.

2023 is the latest year the OECD has broken this down.

Global medicine spending is projected to reach about $2.6 trillion by 2030 (IQVIA)

IQVIA projects the market will grow 5% to 8% a year through 2030. That forecast is unchanged from last year.

U.S. growth over the next five years is expected to exceed the growth of the rest of the world combined. In the U.S., rebates and discounts reduce the list price of medicines by about 46%.

The largest healthcare companies

Insurers, hospital groups, and drugmakers, with one growing much faster than the rest.

Eli Lilly expects $85 billion to $87 billion in revenue in 2026 (Eli Lilly)

Lilly has raised its forecast twice in 2026. Second-quarter revenue grew 48% to $23.0 billion.

Mounjaro and Zepbound generated $36.5 billion combined in 2025. That’s about 56% of Lilly’s $65.2 billion in revenue for the year (SEC filing).

As we discuss above, 49% of large U.S. employers now cover GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, up from 44% a year earlier.

UnitedHealth Group brought in $447.6 billion in revenue in 2025 (SEC filing)

Revenue grew about 12% from 2024.

UnitedHealthcare, the insurance business, generated $344.9 billion and served around 49.8 million people. Optum, the health services business, generated $270.6 billion. The two add up to more than the group total because some revenue flows between them.

Johnson & Johnson reported $94.2 billion in sales in 2025 (SEC filing)

AbbVie reported $61.2 billion in net revenue, up about 9% (SEC filing).

UnitedHealth’s revenue is almost five times J&J’s. The comparison isn’t like for like, though. Insurers count premiums as revenue, while drugmakers count product sales.

HCA Healthcare brought in $75.6 billion in revenue in 2025 (SEC filing)

That’s up about 7.1% from $70.6 billion in 2024.

HCA ended 2025 with 190 hospitals and around 2,500 ambulatory sites across 19 U.S. states and the U.K. That’s roughly 13 outpatient sites for every hospital.

Fresenius Helios generated over €13.5 billion (≈$15.3 billion) in sales in 2025 (Fresenius)

Helios is one of Europe’s largest private hospital operators, with around 140 clinics and outpatient facilities in Germany, Spain, and Latin America.

It treats around 27 million patients a year. Roughly 24 million of them are outpatients.

Healthcare jobs

Health care is adding more U.S. jobs than the rest of the economy combined.

U.S. health care added an average of 31,800 jobs a month in the 12 months to August 2026 (BLS)

The average monthly job gain for the whole U.S. economy over the same period was 31,000.

Without health care, net U.S. job growth over that period would have been roughly flat. It’s not just a recent trend, either. From March 2025 to March 2026, health care and social assistance added 680,500 jobs, while total U.S. employment barely changed (BLS). Health care hiring has slowed recently. The sector added 13,000 jobs in August 2026.

Private health care and social assistance is projected to add more than 2.2 million U.S. jobs from 2025 to 2035 (BLS)

That’s about 37% of all new jobs projected over the decade, more than any other major industry sector. BLS expects the growth to come from the aging population and more people living with chronic conditions like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Healthcare support jobs are projected to grow 13.3%, the fastest of any occupational group, and healthcare practitioner jobs 8.0%. Nurse practitioners are projected to be the fastest-growing single occupation, at 41%.

Private and self-pay healthcare

How much care is private depends on the country, and on what’s being counted.

40% of hospitalizations in Australia took place in private hospitals in 2024–25 (AIHW)

Australia recorded around 12.8 million hospitalizations in 2024–25, including about 5.1 million in private hospitals.

Private hospitals took 58% of planned admissions in 2023–24, while public hospitals treated most emergencies. 74% of private hospital admissions were same-day (AIHW).

Private hospitals accounted for 12.9% of Singapore’s acute hospital beds in 2025 (Singapore Ministry of Health)

Private hospitals had 1,649 of the country’s 12,767 acute beds.

This measures beds, not hospital stays like the Australian figure. The private share of a health system can look very different depending on what’s counted.

That could change. According to the Ministry of Health, a new not-for-profit private hospital, aimed mainly at Singaporeans, is planned from 2030 (Singapore Ministry of Health).

U.S. households paid $556.6 billion out of pocket for healthcare in 2024 (CMS)

That’s 11% of U.S. health spending, and 5.9% more than in 2023.

Not all of this is self-pay. Self-pay (also referred to as cash-pay in aesthetic and elective markets) refers to revenue paid directly by the patient without a third-party claim. Out-of-pocket spending also includes deductibles and copayments on insured care.

Just 28% of IVF cycles in the U.K. were NHS-funded in 2024 (HFEA)

The other 72% were funded privately. Around 53,000 patients had IVF in the U.K. in 2024.

NHS funding varies by country. It covered 25% of cycles in England, 54% in Scotland, 50% in Northern Ireland, and 35% in Wales. In other words, a cycle in Scotland was more than twice as likely to be NHS-funded as a cycle in England.

Healthcare M&A and private equity

A record year for private equity, and the strongest quarter for pharma deals since 2020.

Biopharma M&A reached $96 billion in the first half of 2026 (J.P. Morgan)

That’s upfront cash across 80 deals. $55.1 billion came in the second quarter, and 33 acquisitions were worth $1 billion or more.

Medtech M&A added $48.9 billion across 92 deals (J.P. Morgan).

The first quarter of 2026 was the strongest for pharma and life sciences deals since 2020 (PwC)

Deal value topped $65 billion, nearly double the first quarter of 2025. Sixteen deals were worth $1 billion or more.

Patent expiries are a key driver. PwC estimates more than $300 billion in branded drug revenue is exposed to patent expiry this decade.

Healthcare private equity deal value hit a record estimated $191 billion in 2025 (Bain & Company)

The previous high was set in 2021. Investors announced around 445 buyouts, the second-highest number on record.

Exit value nearly tripled, to an estimated $156 billion from $54 billion in 2024.

But healthcare private equity slowed in the first half of 2026 (Bain & Company)

Disclosed deal value fell 16%, to $51 billion from $61 billion in the first half of 2025. But the number of deals rose 6%, to 184 from 173. Based on disclosed values, the average deal got smaller.

Provider deals were the exception. Their value rose significantly, across both care delivery and healthcare IT.

Blackstone and TPG’s $18.3 billion take-private of Hologic was the largest healthcare private equity deal of 2025 (Bain & Company)

According to Bain, the deal accounted for about 9% of all healthcare private equity deal value in 2025. Hologic makes medical technology for women’s health.

The deal also made up more than half of all medtech buyout value that year.

Healthcare venture and innovation

Fewer deals, bigger checks, and a lot of the money going to AI.

Healthcare venture financings fell to 618 in the first half of 2026, a multi-year low (Silicon Valley Bank)

It’s the lowest number in several years. Investors are writing fewer, larger checks. At the start of 2026, SVB’s Megan Scheffel said that healthcare venture fundraising had “entered a reset” (Silicon Valley Bank).

Biopharma raised the most venture funding, at $12.6 billion. Isomorphic Labs’ $2.1 billion Series B accounted for about a sixth of that. 25 venture-backed biopharma companies were acquired, putting the sector on pace for its most active M&A year on record.

Biopharma IPOs are also picking up. A total of 13 companies raised $5 billion in the first half of 2026, more than in any full year from 2022 to 2025 (J.P. Morgan).

AI accounted for 46% of healthcare venture investment in the U.S. and Europe in 2025 (Silicon Valley Bank)

AI companies in healthcare raised almost $18 billion across the two regions.

More healthcare AI deals were worth over $300 million in 2025 than in any previous year.

79 novel drugs were launched worldwide in 2025 (IQVIA)

IQVIA counts these as novel active substances, meaning new molecules launched for the first time anywhere. 30 were first-in-class, and 30 were launched only in China.

China-origin assets also made up 42% of large-cap licensing deals with upfront payments of $50 million or more in the first half of 2026 (J.P. Morgan).

The U.S. had 53 launches in 2025, and 270 over the past five years.

Healthcare market concentration

In several parts of U.S. healthcare, three companies control most of the market.

The three largest PBMs processed nearly 80% of U.S. prescriptions (FTC)

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) run prescription drug benefits for health plans. The three largest are CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx. The FTC’s figure covers roughly 6.6 billion prescriptions filled at U.S. pharmacies in 2023.

Each of the three is part of a group that also owns a health insurer. So one company can manage the drug benefit, own the pharmacy, and run the insurance plan that pays for it.

The three largest group dental insurers held a median 66.8% market share across U.S. states in 2024 (GAO)

In individual dental insurance, the median share of the top three is 69.5%.

Concentration varies widely across healthcare, so there’s no single figure for the sector as a whole.

Future of health spending

Slower growth than before, but still faster than the economy.

OECD public health spending per person is projected to grow 2.6% a year through 2045 (OECD)

Between 2001 and 2023, public health spending per person grew an average of 2.9% a year.

Growth is projected above 3.5% a year in South Korea and Costa Rica, and below 2% in Austria and Germany.

Public health spending is projected to reach 8.4% of GDP across the OECD by 2045 (OECD)

That’s an increase of 1.5 percentage points under the OECD’s base scenario. Iceland, New Zealand, and Norway are each projected to add around 3 percentage points or more.

What the numbers show

Care is moving out of the hospital

Outpatient care accounts for 33% of OECD health spending, compared with 28% for inpatient care.

Large operators reflect this. HCA runs roughly 13 outpatient sites for every hospital, and close to 9 in 10 of the roughly 27 million patients Helios treats each year are outpatients. Most specialist and private clinics operate in the same settings.

And patients are paying more of the bill themselves

U.S. households paid $556.6 billion out of pocket in 2024, and many employers plan to raise deductibles and copays in 2026.

The trend isn’t limited to the U.S. In China, patients cover 27.5% of health spending, and the government’s share has fallen to 24.9%. In the U.K., 72% of IVF cycles were privately funded.

This matters most for self-pay services, where the patient both receives the care and decides whether to pay for it.

But the companies around providers keep getting bigger

Three PBMs process nearly 80% of U.S. prescriptions. In the typical U.S. state, the top three group dental insurers held about two-thirds of the market in 2024.

Deals are getting larger, too. Biopharma companies announced 33 acquisitions worth $1 billion or more in the first half of 2026, while the number of venture financings fell to a multi-year low.

Care is moving into smaller settings, while the payers and buyers around providers are consolidating. Independent providers often negotiate with companies many times their size. That’s one reason SANOR’s work focuses on narrow numbers: a specific service, in a specific market.

About the data

The figures in this article come from company filings and results releases; research from Aon, Bain & Company, IQVIA, J.P. Morgan, Mercer, PwC, Silicon Valley Bank, and WTW; and official data from CMS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the OECD, the WHO, national statistics agencies, health ministries, and regulators such as the FTC and GAO.

We used the most recent figures available. Where the latest data is older, we’ve included projections. Global totals from WHO lag by about two years, so 2023 is the latest complete year.

Figures in other currencies are shown as reported, with an approximate dollar conversion in brackets. Conversions use annual average exchange rates for the relevant year: European Central Bank rates for 2025 and IRS rates for 2023 and 2024.

We haven’t added company revenues or deal values into a single “healthcare market size.” Money often changes hands several times before it pays for care, so adding it up would count the same dollars more than once.

Sanor publishes for general information. This publication is not medical, financial, or investment advice.