Med Spa Industry Statistics (2026): Market Size, Growth, Safety and Licensing Data

Industry size and growth

The US medical spa count grew 17.9% in a single year, from 8,899 locations in 2022 to 10,488 in 2023, and 18% of med spas operating in 2023 had opened within the previous year (AmSpa).

Grand View Research projects the US market will grow from $7.15 billion in 2023 to $17.59 billion in 2030. The Society for Dermatologic Surgery Association reports the industry has grown nearly six-fold since 2010.

Global market

The global medical spa market reached $24.2 billion in 2025 and is estimated at $27.8 billion for 2026, with Grand View Research projecting $78.2 billion by 2033 (15.9% CAGR).

North America holds 41.2% of the market. Facial treatments are 53.6% of services and body shaping and contouring is the fastest-growing segment.

Note the global female share (85.1%) is a different population from the US med spa patient share (89%) in the patients section; both are correct for their own datasets.

Operations, revenue and staffing

The typical med spa is a single location (81%) with 8 employees, $1.4 million in annual revenue, 245 patient visits a month and a 73% repeat-patient share.

Multi-location practices averaged 9 locations in 2023 (up from 6) with 12 employees at the primary site (down from 16). 84% of owners expected revenue growth in 2024 and 54% of those expected at least 10%.

Nearly half of med spas (48%) hired a new medical director in the prior year, a turnover figure that matters for anyone checking who supervises a practice today.

Ownership and supervision

Most med spas are owned and supervised by people outside the core aesthetic specialties.

67% of single-owner practices belong to someone other than a physician or surgeon, 74% of medical directors practice in a non-core specialty (not dermatology, plastic surgery or facial plastic surgery), and 81% of single-location practices are owned by non-core specialists (AmSpa, 2023 data). Only 4% of med spas are dermatologist-owned and 70% have no affiliation with a physician practice (ASDSA, 2022).

This is the structural reason credential verification matters: the person whose license governs a treatment is often not the owner and not on site.

Safety, complications and litigation

Between November 2023 and March 2024 the CDC recorded 22 people in 11 states harmed by counterfeit or mishandled botulinum toxin; of the 20 with data, 11 (55%) were hospitalized, all were women aged 25 to 59, and all were injected by unlicensed or untrained people in non-healthcare settings such as homes and spas (CDC HAN-00507).

In laser litigation from 2012 to 2020, 71% of claims (49 of 69) involved a non-physician operator, laser hair removal accounted for 64% of cases, and the mean indemnity when the plaintiff prevailed was $320,975 (Khalifian et al., Dermatologic Surgery 2022). Earlier data (2008 to 2011) found 80% of cosmetic-procedure lawsuits at med spas involved nonphysicians (AMA).

These figures describe who was named in claims, not the rate of harm per procedure; the only per-procedure figure available is a 0.24% laser complication rate reported by dermatologists in an ASDSA survey.

Procedure volume

Americans had 28.2 million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures in 2024, up 1.5% (ASPS).

Neuromodulator injections led at 9.9 million (up 4%), followed by hyaluronic acid fillers at 5.3 million (up 1%), skin resurfacing at 3.7 million (up 6%) and skin treatments such as laser hair removal and IPL at 3.1 million (flat).

Worldwide, ISAPS counted 37.9 million aesthetic procedures in 2024, up 42.5% since 2020, with the US first at 6.1 million.

Patients and how they choose

The typical US med spa patient is a woman (89%) between 35 and 54 (54% of female patients), with 24% aged 55 and over and 22% aged 18 to 34 (AmSpa, 2023).

Before booking, 63% compare two to five med spas, 55% are less likely to choose a med spa after finding incorrect information on its profile or website, and 59% call the About Us page the most important part of a med spa's site (Boulevard, 2025). Word of mouth (42.9%), referrals (41.4%) and online reviews (45.2%) each influence a large share of decisions (Georgia Southern, 2025).

McKinsey found 81% of consumers more accepting of non-invasive treatments than five years earlier, about 46% willing to switch to a lower-priced injectable brand, and only 7% who would stop treatment entirely in a recession.

M&A and consolidation

Consolidation is accelerating but still early. Private equity owned about 3% of med spas in 2023, and its acquisition pace grew roughly 30% a year from 2019 to 2021.

AmSpa's 2025 look-back reports EBITDA multiples of 3x to 6x for practices under $4 million in revenue, 5x to 8x from $4 million to $20 million, and 7x to 12x above $20 million, with deals typically structured as 60% to 80% cash at close and the remainder in rollover equity.

Buyers prefer platforms of 3 to 8 or more locations with centralized administration. Florida, Texas and California saw the most activity.