Traditional and complementary medicine is used in 170 of the World Health Organization's 194 member states, and in two thirds of surveyed countries somewhere between 40% and 99% of the population uses it. Yet the field receives less than 1% of global health research funding. This page collects the global statistics behind that contrast. It expands the global chapter of our full report, Holistic Health Statistics.
Key global statistics
- •Traditional and complementary medicine is used in 170 of the WHO's 194 member states. Source: WHO
- •67% of responding countries in the WHO's global survey reported that between 40% and 99% of their populations use it.
- •Less than 1% of global health research funding goes to traditional medicine, per the same WHO source.
- •In Australia, 63.1% of adults used some form of complementary medicine in a year. Source: Steel et al., Scientific Reports, 2018
- •The traditional and complementary medicine sector is forecast to grow 10.8% annually through 2029. Source: Global Wellness Institute
Usage that spans nearly every country
The WHO's reporting makes traditional and complementary medicine one of the most widely used forms of health practice on earth. It is present in 88% of member states, and in the organization's most recent global survey, two thirds of responding countries estimated that between 40% and 99% of their populations use it. For billions of people, particularly across Asia and Africa, traditional systems are not an alternative to care; they are a primary point of contact with it.
High-income countries follow the same pattern at lower intensities. In the United States, 36.7% of adults used at least one major complementary approach in 2022. In Australia, 63.1% of adults used some form of complementary medicine in a year, with 36% consulting a practitioner. Country-level figures are covered in more depth in our usage statistics chapter.
The research funding gap
Set against that breadth of use, the research investment is remarkably small: less than 1% of global health research funding goes to traditional medicine. That single statistic explains much of what people find confusing about this space. It is why the largest group of practices on our reviewed map, 193 of 641 modalities, carries a traditional use label rather than a clinical evidence label: for most of these practices, the studies were simply never funded or run.
The consequence is an evidence base that is uneven rather than absent. Some practices, particularly mind-body approaches like yoga and meditation, have accumulated substantial research. Many others rest on cultural history alone. Our evidence statistics chapter quantifies exactly how that landscape divides.
Where the field is heading
The WHO has run a traditional medicine strategy since 2014 and hosted its first global summit on traditional medicine in 2023, signs that the institutional attention is growing. On the economic side, the Global Wellness Institute projects traditional and complementary medicine to be among the fastest growing wellness sectors at 10.8% annually through 2029. Growth in use without matching growth in research would widen the gap this page documents, which is an argument for better information infrastructure, not a smaller one.
About this data and how to cite it
Figures on this page come from the World Health Organization, peer reviewed research, and the Global Wellness Institute, linked at the point of use. You are welcome to cite this page with attribution:
Source: Gyfts, Traditional Medicine Statistics (2026), gyfts.io/blog/traditional-medicine-statistics