Personal Development Statistics for 2025

Stacey M. August 2, 2025 2552 0

Personal development is a huge industry that includes thousands of businesses. Among them are books, online courses, workshops, personal coaching, and more.

Highlights:

The value of the self-improvement market is $41.2 billion.

Consumers in the US spent $355 million on self-care mobile apps

Millennials are ready to spend $300 per month on self-development products

There are many factors that drive the personal development market but probably the main are rising consciousness among individuals around the world and the desire to increase the level of life. Moreover, there is high competition for job positions in prestigious companies, and pressure from social media to become a better version of yourself.

Meanwhile, companies utilize self-improvement programs to enhance the productivity of their employees, quality of communication, and increasing their overall performance.

What is personal development?

By definition, self-development is a process of gaining new skills, changing yourself, or changing your life to improve its quality.

The personal development market includes such main segments:

Mental health
Self-awareness
Skillset enhancement
Motivation
Physical health

The main forms of personal development content are:

E-platforms, both mobile and web applications
Traditional books, audio- and e-books
Personal training
Workshops and other online events

So, let’s dive into some of the personal development industry statistics of 2025 and further to understand this market and its trends better.

Personal development industry stats

The value of the personal development market is USD 41.2 billion.

The personal development market size value is estimated at USD 41.2 billion in 2023 and it’s forecasted to be USD 81.6 Billion by 2032. The expected growth rate is 8% from 2024 to 2032.

Having a revenue share of over 34%, North America is the leader in this industry.

Having a revenue share of over 36%, North America is the leader in this industry.

The leader in this market is North America which had the largest revenue share of over 34% in 2023. This region is expected to remain the top player in the personal development market from 2024 to 2030. This is enhanced by a very high demand for personal development content on one side and utilizing advanced technology as a response. The most popular forms of self-improvement content in North America are online platforms, e-books, and audiobooks.

The books segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of over 7% from 2024 to 2030.

The demand for e-books and audiobooks is rising slowly replacing traditional books.

Millennials are the main self-development customers

Probably the main consumer of self-development products are millennials being ready to spend $300 per month on average on them (in North America). Also, about 94% of millennials say they commit to personal growth goals.

More than 40% of U.S. adults have used a self-improvement app.

U.S. consumers spent $32 million on self-care mobile apps (Calm, 10% Happier, Headspace, etc). The most popular Apple App Store categories as of the 2nd quarter of 2022 are Education (takes 3rd position with a share of 9.5%), Health&Fitness (8th position, 4.8%), and Productivity (9th position, 4.6%).

Next, let’s move to the most popular domains of the personal development industry.

Psychology and mental issues

Around 4% of the population had depression or anxiety disorder

The two most common mental health issues worldwide are anxiety disorders and depression. In 2024, 4% of the global population had an anxiety disorder, while 3.8% suffered from depression. Rates of depression are higher among females than males, with some 6% of females suffering from depression, compared to 4% of men.

Stress management

With the high speed of life and high expectations within society, stress management has become quite a popular topic in many books and training. A job remains the most common reason for stress, especially for those who have managerial roles.

In 2024, 75% U.S. adults reported experiencing at least one physical or mental symptom of stress, according to a survey by the American Psychological Association.

The most popular activities for managing stressful situations are yoga, meditation, journaling, going for a walk in nature, exercise, or hobbies.

Meditation

When it comes to mental issues and stress management, meditation is believed to be very effective. The Meditation Apps market is projected to generate revenue of USD 5.11 billion in 2024, with an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2029) of 7.72%, leading to an estimated market volume of USD 7.41 billion by 2029.

14% of Americans meditate and over 10% of the US adult population has tried meditation at some point in their lives.

Age groups of people that meditate are as follows:

Age Distribution	At least once a week	Once or twice a month
18-29	29%	10%
30-49	38%	9%
50-64	44%	8%
65+	53%	7%

The Meditation Apps market is growing rapidly as more users seek convenient ways to incorporate mindfulness into their daily lives, with features like customizable meditation sessions and guided exercises.

Key trends include the integration of additional wellness tools like sleep aids and mood tracking.

Health and weight loss

Health and weight loss industries don’t lose the rising trend with the shift to online, with 34% of Americans citing losing weight as their New Year’s resolution in 2024.

The health, gym, and fitness club market is expected to grow to USD 202.78 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 8.83%.

Skillset enhancement

Skillset enhancement category dominates personal development application segment, holding approximately 33% of the share. This segment plays a significant role in the personal development industry, enabling individuals to build a variety of competencies.

In 2024, Americans are focusing on various specific skills, with cooking and baking (84%), budgeting (77%), and home repairs (72%) being the top areas of interest. Additionally, communication skills rank high among general skills, with over 53% of people aiming to improve in this area.