More than a third of American adults now use at least one complementary health approach, and the number has nearly doubled in twenty years. This page collects the most reliable usage statistics we could find, from national health surveys in the United States and abroad, with every figure linked to its original source. It is a chapter-level expansion of our full report, Holistic Health Statistics, which covers spending, the wellness economy, and the evidence landscape alongside usage.
Key usage statistics
- •36.7% of US adults used at least one of seven major complementary health approaches in 2022, up from 19.2% in 2002. Source: NCCIH, published in JAMA, 2024
- •Meditation is the most used approach at 17.3% of US adults, more than double its 2002 level of 7.5%.
- •Yoga more than tripled over twenty years, from 5% of adults in 2002 to 15.8% in 2022.
- •Among users, the share using these approaches specifically for pain management rose from 42.3% in 2002 to 49.2% in 2022.
- •In Australia, 63.1% of adults used some form of complementary medicine in the previous year, and 36% consulted a complementary practitioner. Source: Steel et al., Scientific Reports, 2018
- •Globally, traditional and complementary medicine is used in 170 of the WHO's 194 member states. Source: WHO
The US picture: twenty years of growth
The clearest usage data comes from the National Health Interview Survey, a large nationally representative survey analyzed by the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. The 2024 analysis compared 2002, 2012, and 2022 responses for seven approaches: yoga, meditation, massage therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, naturopathy, and guided imagery or progressive muscle relaxation.
Overall use of at least one approach rose from 19.2% of adults in 2002 to 36.7% in 2022. The growth was not evenly spread. Meditation moved from fifth place to first, rising from 7.5% to 17.3% of adults. Yoga went from 5% to 15.8%. Chiropractic care, the most used approach in 2002, grew modestly by comparison, which means the growth story of the past two decades is largely a mind-body story.
The same analysis found a shift in why people use these approaches. Among users of each approach, the share using it specifically for pain management rose from 42.3% to 49.2%, and the increase held across nearly every individual approach studied. People are not only exploring more, they are increasingly exploring with a specific purpose.
Outside the United States
Usage figures from other high-income countries suggest the US is not an outlier. A nationally representative Australian survey found 63.1% of adults had used some form of complementary medicine in the previous year. That headline figure includes vitamin and mineral supplements, so the more conservative and more comparable number is practitioner consultation: 36% of Australian adults saw a complementary practitioner in the year, most commonly massage therapists (20.7%), chiropractors (12.6%), and yoga teachers (8.9%).
At the global scale, the World Health Organization reports that traditional and complementary medicine is used in 170 of its 194 member states, and 67% of responding countries in its latest global survey estimated that between 40% and 99% of their populations use it. We break the global figures down further in our traditional medicine statistics chapter.
How to read these numbers
Two cautions make these statistics more useful. First, definitions matter: surveys that count supplement use report much higher figures than surveys that count practitioner visits, so always check what a headline number includes. Second, survey years matter: the best US figures describe 2022, and usage has been rising steadily, so older figures will understate the present.
What the numbers describe is breadth of use, not effectiveness. Evidence varies widely from practice to practice and purpose to purpose, which is why our platform labels evidence context for every one of the 641 modalities we map. That analysis has its own chapter in the full report.
About this data and how to cite it
External statistics on this page come from the NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the World Health Organization, and peer reviewed research, each linked at the point of use. You are welcome to cite this page with attribution:
Source: Gyfts, Alternative Medicine Usage Statistics (2026), gyfts.io/blog/alternative-medicine-usage-statistics