17 U.S. Spa Industry Statistics Every Owner Should Know Before Comparing Their Business
Spa industry statistics are only useful when the market being measured is clear. A day spa, a hotel spa, a medical spa, a salon that offers facials, and a wellness resort may all use the word spa while operating under different definitions, classifications, and economics.
We read the original ISPA industry studies, the latest ISPA Big Five release, federal classification sources, Zenoti's benchmark, and Global Wellness Institute research. The result is a source-led baseline for the U.S. spa industry. It separates published figures from derived ratios, distinguishes operating segments from spa types, and shows where a public dataset is broader than the spa market itself.
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The ISPA definition requires a qualifying spa to offer at least two of three core services
The 2024 ISPA U.S. Spa Industry Study defines a spa as a place of business that enhances overall well-being through professional spa services. To qualify for the study, a business must offer at least two of three core services: full-body massage, skin care treatments such as facials, or body treatments such as hydrotherapy or body wraps and scrubs.
That threshold is the first boundary to check before quoting an industry total. A business that offers only hair services, only fitness, or only medical care may be relevant to wellness but should not automatically be added to the ISPA spa total. ISPA's public definition of spa also describes the category as professional services devoted to overall well-being, while its industry study supplies the operational qualification used for the benchmark.
| Term | Working definition | How to use it in a comparison |
| Spa | A qualifying business offering at least two of massage, skin care, and body treatments | Use the ISPA total only when the establishment meets the study threshold |
| Day spa | Offers spa services to clients on a day-use basis | Compare with other day-use businesses, not destination lodging revenue |
| Resort or hotel spa | A spa located within a resort or hotel | Keep the spa operation separate from the hotel's rooms and food revenue |
| Destination spa | Historically a stay of about seven days centered on a program for developing healthy habits | Treat the lodging and program model as part of the context, not as a day-spa ticket |
| Medical spa | Operates under the full-time, on-site supervision of a licensed health care professional and integrates medical and wellness care | Check whether medical revenue is being combined with spa services |
| Club spa | A fitness-first facility that also offers professionally administered spa services on a day-use basis | Do not count the fitness business as spa revenue without a defined allocation |
| Mineral springs spa | Uses an on-site source of natural mineral, thermal, or sea water for professionally administered hydrotherapy | Identify the water-based service and the broader hospitality operation separately |
| Salon spa | A mixed business label, not a separate named ISPA category | Define the primary activity and services before comparing it with spas |
| Membership spa | An operating segment based on how revenue is generated, not an ISPA spa type | Keep the revenue model separate from the physical spa category |
The category definitions above come from the ISPA industry-study framework and the operating distinction used by Zenoti. They should be treated as labels with a purpose, not as interchangeable synonyms. A hotel spa can also be a membership spa, and a day spa can also operate on a membership model.
Day spas represented 78.2% of U.S. spa locations in the latest detailed study
The 2024 ISPA U.S. Spa Industry Study, which measured the industry at the end of 2023, estimated 17,080 day spa establishments out of 21,840 total locations. That made day spas 78.21% of the detailed location mix. The number of day spas was slightly higher than the estimated 17,060 at the end of 2022.
This is the most useful answer to the question "what kind of spa is most common?" in the available detailed category study. It is not a 2025 or 2026 count, and it does not say that day spas produce 78.2% of industry revenue. The share is a location share, not a revenue share.
| ISPA spa type | Estimated locations at end of 2023 | Share of 21,840 locations |
| Day | 17,080 | 78.21% |
| Resort or hotel | 2,150 | 9.84% |
| Medical | 1,810 | 8.29% |
| Club | 650 | 2.98% |
| Destination | 100 | 0.46% |
| Mineral springs | 50 | 0.23% |
The detailed 2023 type mix and the latest 22,060-location total are different snapshots
The detailed type table above totals 21,840 locations at the end of 2023. ISPA's latest Big Five release reports 22,060 locations at the end of 2025, an increase of 0.4% from the previous year. Both figures can be correct because they describe different study years and levels of reporting detail.
This is a common source of accidental inconsistency in statistics articles. Use the 2023 full study when discussing the mix by spa type, and use the 2025 Big Five when discussing the latest national total. Do not combine the 2023 type percentages with the 2025 total as if the category mix had stayed unchanged.
The U.S. spa industry generated $23.5 billion in revenue in 2025
ISPA's 2026 Big Five release reports $23.5 billion in U.S. spa industry revenue in 2025, up 4.2% from the previous year. This is the latest public national revenue figure in the source set and is the right headline number for a general U.S. spa industry article.
The figure represents the ISPA-defined spa industry, not the entire wellness economy and not every business that uses the word spa in its name. It also does not describe the revenue of a typical location. A national total can grow because of more locations, more visits, higher revenue per visit, or a combination of all three.
| Metric | Value | Period | Geography | Category definition | Denominator | Source | Limitation |
| Industry revenue | $23.5 billion; up 4.2% | 2025 | United States | ISPA-defined spa industry | Total reported spa revenue | ISPA Big Five | Not a typical location's revenue or profit |
| Spa visits | 191 million; up 1.8% | 2025 | United States | ISPA-defined spa industry | Reported spa visits | ISPA Big Five | Visits are not unique customers |
| Spa locations | 22,060; up 0.4% | Year-end 2025 | United States | ISPA-defined spa establishments | Reported spa locations | ISPA Big Five | Does not show rooms, capacity, or revenue mix |
| Revenue per spa visit | $123.10; up 2.3% | 2025 | United States | ISPA-defined spa industry | Spa visits | ISPA Big Five | Not a local average ticket or profit per visit |
| Total employment | 376,900; up 0.2% | January 2026 | United States | ISPA-defined spa industry | Employees counted in the January measure | ISPA Big Five | Not an annual average or full-time equivalent count |
These five rows should be cited together when possible. The release calls them the Big Five: revenue, visits, locations, revenue per visit, and employment. They describe different parts of the same industry and do not all use the same period.
U.S. spa visits reached 191 million in 2025
ISPA recorded 191 million spa visits in 2025, up 1.8% from the previous year. A visit is an activity count, not a customer count. One person can generate multiple visits, and a spa with a strong repeat base can have more visits without acquiring as many new customers.
For an owner, the national visit number is most useful as a demand-scale reference. Translate it into local visits per active customer, visits by service type, first visits versus repeat visits, and completed visits per available treatment hour. Those local measures show whether a business is growing through acquisition, frequency, capacity, or pricing.
The U.S. had 22,060 spa locations at the end of 2025
ISPA reports 22,060 U.S. spa locations at the end of 2025, up 0.4% from the previous year. In this context, a location is an establishment in the study's spa universe. It is not a treatment room, a provider, a brand, or a hotel room.
The locations number is therefore a market-supply measure. It can be compared with total visits to understand broad demand per location, but it cannot tell an owner whether a particular competitor has more capacity, more staff, or a higher utilization rate. A single multi-room spa and a small one-room operation are both counted as locations.
Revenue per spa visit reached $123.10 in 2025
ISPA reports $123.10 in revenue per spa visit in 2025, up 2.3%. This metric connects the industry's $23.5 billion revenue figure with its 191 million visits, but it should not be read as a standard menu price. It is an industry-level revenue-per-visit measure across multiple spa types and service mixes.
For local use, calculate the same ratio with a documented numerator. A spa can use completed service revenue divided by completed visits, then report retail, tips, memberships, taxes, discounts, and packages separately where they affect the result. The local ratio is useful only when the revenue definition and visit definition remain stable from period to period.
Spa employment reached 376,900 in January 2026
The latest ISPA Big Five release reports total spa employment of 376,900 in January 2026, up 0.2% from the January measure a year earlier. ISPA also reports that full-time employment held steady, part-time roles expanded slightly, and contract positions declined, although the public Big Five release does not provide the full breakdown in the headline list.
The date matters. Revenue, visits, and locations in the release refer to 2025, while employment is measured in January 2026. Do not label all five figures as "2026 employment and revenue" or treat the employment value as an annual average. A workforce comparison should also state whether it counts employees, contractors, full-time equivalents, or active providers.
The Big Five metrics use different denominators and should not be merged into one score
Revenue is a dollar total, visits are an activity count, locations are establishments, revenue per visit is a ratio, and employment is a workforce count. The five metrics are intentionally complementary rather than interchangeable. A rise in revenue per visit can coexist with flat visits, and a rise in locations can coexist with lower revenue per location.
The cleanest way to use the release is to carry the scope with every number: U.S. geography, ISPA spa definition, reporting period, unit, and denominator. If a chart removes those fields, it becomes easy to quote a national revenue figure as if it were a local average ticket or a January employment count as if it were a full-year workforce.
The Big Five implies about $1.07 million in revenue per location, but ISPA does not publish that as an average
A simple derived ratio is $23.5 billion in 2025 revenue divided by 22,060 year-end locations, which equals approximately $1.07 million per location. This is a calculation from two published Big Five figures, not a separate ISPA benchmark.
The result is useful as a scale check but weak as a planning target. The revenue total and location count combine day spas, resort or hotel spas, medical spas, destination spas, club spas, and mineral springs spas. They also combine businesses with different sizes, occupancy, service mixes, and accounting boundaries. Use the ratio to ask better questions, then replace it with local revenue per operating location.
Salon spa is not a separate ISPA category
ISPA's named spa types include day, resort or hotel, destination, medical, club, and mineral springs spas. "Salon spa" is a useful business description for a salon that also offers spa services, but it is not a separate category in the ISPA type list. It should not be added to the national total as an extra category.
For a mixed salon, define the primary activity and the services included before comparing it with a spa. If the business reports hair, nail, facial, massage, retail, and body-treatment revenue together, the owner needs a service-level allocation before calculating a spa average ticket or comparing the location with the ISPA benchmark.
Membership and non-membership spas are operating segments, not separate spa types
Zenoti defines membership spas as locations where at least 30% of revenue comes from memberships. Its non-membership segment operates primarily on a per-visit basis. These are useful operating segments because recurring membership revenue changes the customer relationship and reporting questions.
They do not replace the ISPA physical category. A day spa can be membership or non-membership, and a resort spa can have memberships or primarily charge per visit. Keep both fields in a local dataset: physical type and revenue model. Otherwise, a comparison can mix category differences with membership behavior and make the result look more precise than it is.
Census counted 31,863 establishments in a broader personal-care category in 2023
The Census County Business Patterns table for NAICS 812199 reports 31,863 U.S. establishments in 2023 and annual payroll of approximately $5.65 billion. The code is called "Other Personal Care Services" and includes day spas among its illustrative examples.
This is not a 31,863-location spa total. Census 812199 also covers businesses such as depilatory or electrolysis salons, saunas, steam baths, tanning salons, tattoo parlors, and permanent makeup salons. The broader number is valuable for business and payroll context, but it must be labeled as NAICS 812199 rather than presented as a direct replacement for the ISPA spa count.
Medical services and lodging can sit outside the 812199 personal-care bucket
The Census classification cross-references medical skin care services, such as cosmetic surgery and dermatology, to Sector 62, Health Care and Social Assistance. It also cross-references health resorts and spas that provide lodging to NAICS 72111, Hotels and Motels. That is why a federal personal-care dataset can undercount or exclude parts of a business that consumers still call a spa.
This is also why an analyst should not add Census 812199, hotel data, and medical-care data together without a deduplication and service-revenue rule. The same property may contain a hotel, a spa, and a medical practice. The correct total depends on whether the question is about establishments, spa services, total property revenue, or employment in a particular activity.
BLS uses 812199 as an industry code, not as a pure spa workforce total
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages lists NAICS 812199 as "Other Personal Care Services." QCEW data from 2022 forward uses the 2022 version of NAICS, so the code and the classification year should be recorded beside any downloaded workforce number.
The code is useful for locating public wage and employment data, but its coverage is broader than spa services. Use BLS 812199 as a contextual comparison and state the code in the headline or table. Do not call every employee in that code a spa employee, and do not compare it with ISPA employment without acknowledging the category mismatch.
The $894 billion wellness tourism economy is not U.S. spa revenue
The Global Wellness Institute reports $894 billion in global wellness tourism expenditures in 2024. That is a broad, worldwide travel measure, not a U.S. spa revenue figure. It includes wellness-related travel activity and should not be added to the $23.5 billion ISPA spa total.
The statistic can still be useful for destination spas, resort spas, and hotel spas that compete for travelers seeking wellness experiences. Use it as external demand context, then keep the property's spa revenue, lodging revenue, and other wellness services in separate lines. A large global market does not establish the performance of a local day spa.
The best local dashboard mirrors the Big Five and stores the scope beside every number
An owner can make the national statistics useful by creating a local version with the same concepts and explicit definitions. The goal is not to force a small spa into the shape of the national study. It is to make the comparison fair enough that a change in one metric leads to a useful business question.
| Big Five concept | Local measure | Scope fields to retain |
| Revenue | Completed service revenue per month and year | Service revenue, retail, tips, taxes, discounts, memberships, period |
| Visits | Completed visits and visits per active customer | New or returning, service, customer ID rule, period |
| Locations | Operating locations and available treatment rooms | Physical location, rooms, open days, temporary closures |
| Revenue per visit | Completed service revenue divided by completed visits | Numerator, visit definition, packages, cancellations, period |
| Employment | Employees, contractors, and full-time equivalents separately | Worker type, active status, month, provider versus non-provider |
| Spa type and revenue model | Day, hotel, destination, medical, club, mineral springs, salon mix, membership status | Classification rule and allocated service revenue |
Before publishing a comparison, attach four labels to every statistic: geography, period, category definition, and denominator. That habit is what turns the Big Five from a collection of impressive numbers into a reliable research foundation for owners, journalists, and other writers looking for a statistic they can cite.
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