Nutritional supplement industry statistics show a large and changing U.S. consumer market, with supplement use shaped by age, income and sex, while company sales and enforcement data illuminate only selected parts of the broader industry. The figures below identify their populations, periods and definitions so that survey prevalence, company revenue, adverse-event visits and agency actions are not mistaken for one another.
Key Nutritional Supplement Industry Statistics
The most useful headline figures include:
- In 2007–2018, 56% of U.S. adults and children used any dietary supplement, up from 50% in 2007.
- Among U.S. adults aged 19 years and older, 61% used any supplement in 2018, up from 54% in 2007.
- Among U.S. children aged 1–18 years, approximately 38% used any supplement across 2007–2018.
- In 2009–2010 to 2017–2018, past-30-day supplement use among U.S. adults rose from 49.5% to 57.4%.
- In the same U.S. adult trend, use of four or more supplement products rose from 7.8% to 14.1%.
- In 2017–2018, 57.6% of U.S. adults aged 20 years and older used a supplement in the past 30 days.
- In 2017–2018, 65.7% of U.S. adults at 350% or more of the federal poverty level used supplements.
- In 2017–2018, women’s supplement use was 63.8% versus 50.8% for men among U.S. adults aged 20 years and older.
- In 2017–March 2020, 58.5% of U.S. adults aged 20 years and older used at least one supplement.
- In 2017–March 2020, 34.8% of U.S. children aged 0–19 used at least one supplement.
- In 2007–2010, 45% of U.S. children aged 2–5 used any supplement.
- In 2011–2012, about 45% of U.S. adult supplement users took more than one product.
- Herbalife reported $4,993.1 million in fiscal 2024 net sales, compared with $5,062.4 million in fiscal 2023.
- Herbalife’s 2024 sales mix was 55.4% weight management and 29.7% targeted nutrition.
- Herbal or complementary nutritional products represented 65.9% of single-supplement adverse-event emergency visits after unsupervised child ingestion was excluded.
- The FDA record reported 31.8% of those single-supplement adverse-event visits involved micronutrients.
- The FTC says it filed 120 cases challenging supplement health claims over the prior decade.
- The FDA’s 2024 health-fraud page showed 15 dated warning-letter entries through December 10, 2024, a manual page count rather than all FDA warning letters.
Contents
- Market scale and company sales
- U.S. supplement-use trends
- Use by age, sex and income
- Categories and reasons for use
- Safety and adverse-event data
- Advertising enforcement and compliance
Nutritional Supplement Industry Statistics: Market Scale and Company Sales
There is no global industry-size estimate in the supplied primary evidence, so company revenue should be read as a business indicator rather than a market total. Herbalife’s annual report provides a clearly identified example for fiscal years 2022–2024.
| Herbalife measure | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net sales (USD millions) | 5,204.4 | 5,062.4 | 4,993.1 |
| Targeted nutrition share | — | 29.2% | 29.7% |
| Energy, sports and fitness share | 10.6% | — | 11.5% |
| Literature, promotional and other items | 1.9% | 1.7% | 1.7% |
Source: Herbalife Ltd. 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K. These figures describe Herbalife Ltd., not the global nutritional supplement industry, and its category definitions are company-specific.
For fiscal 2024, Herbalife reported a sales mix of 55.4% weight management, 29.7% targeted nutrition, 11.5% energy, sports and fitness, and 1.7% outer nutrition. The company also approximated Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix at about 26% of net sales, an estimate tied to one product and one company rather than an industry-wide product share.
Nutritional Supplement Use Trends in U.S. Adults and Children
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey analyses describe participation, not spending or market value. The 2007–2018 trend found any dietary-supplement use increased from 50% to 56% among U.S. adults and children, while micronutrient-containing supplement use rose from 46% to 49%.
The same study reported that multivitamin-mineral use fell from 70% to 56% among supplement users in its reported trend measure. That percentage is a category trend among users, not the share of all products sold.
| Population or measure | Earlier period | Later period | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adults and children using any supplement | 50% (2007) | 56% (2018) | Increased |
| Adults aged 19+ using any supplement | 54% (2007) | 61% (2018) | Increased |
| Adults aged 19+ using micronutrient supplements | 49% (2007) | 54% (2018) | Increased |
| Children aged 1–18 using any supplement | — | About 38% across 2007–2018 | Approximately stable |
Source: Trends in Overall and Micronutrient-Containing Dietary Supplement Use in US Adults and Children, NHANES 2007–2018. Estimates are survey-weighted, and definitions and assessment methods matter.
A separate NHANES analysis covering five continuous cycles found overall adult use rose from 49.5% in 2009–2010 to 57.4% in 2017–2018. Use of four or more products increased from 7.8% to 14.1%; the study reported a 1.94 trend ratio, and its analysis included 28,415 U.S. adults aged 19 years and older.
Source: Trends in Dietary Supplement Use Among US Adults Between 2009 and 2018. Product counts do not measure doses or spending.
Nutritional Supplement Use by Age, Sex, Income and Social Group
The CDC’s 2017–2018 QuickStats estimate was 57.6% for U.S. adults aged 20 years and older who had taken any dietary supplement in the past 30 days. Income and sex differences were substantial in the same reporting frame.
| U.S. adult group, 2017–2018 | Past-30-day use |
|---|---|
| All adults aged 20+ | 57.6% |
| Below 130% of the federal poverty level | 44.9% |
| 130%–349% of the federal poverty level | 56.2% |
| 350% or more of the federal poverty level | 65.7% |
| Women | 63.8% |
| Men | 50.8% |
Source: QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Aged ≥20 Years Who Had Taken Any Dietary Supplement in the Past 30 Days, by Sex and Family Income — NHANES, United States, 2017–2018. Federal poverty level is an income grouping, not a measure of household wealth.
The NIH Nutrition Research Report gave a related prepandemic estimate: 58.5% of U.S. adults aged 20 years and older used at least one supplement in 2017–March 2020, compared with 34.8% of U.S. children aged 0–19. The periods and age definitions differ from the CDC QuickStats estimate, so they should not be treated as a single uninterrupted series.
Source: NIH Nutrition Research Report 2022–2023.
Historical NHANES data show why measurement periods and definitions must remain visible: 32.9% of adults aged 25–74 used at least one supplement in 1971–1974, 34.9% of adults aged 18–74 did so in 1976–1980, 40% of adults aged 20 years and older used one in 1988–1994, and 52% of adults used one in 1999–2000.
Source: Federal Monitoring of Dietary Supplement Use in the Resident, Civilian, Noninstitutionalized US Population: NHANES. Earlier surveys used different age ranges and, in some cases, different use definitions.
Popular Supplement Categories and Reasons for Use
Age-specific estimates from U.S. children illustrate how participation varies within the population. In NHANES 2007–2010, any supplement use was 17% among children younger than 2, 45% among children aged 2–5, 35% among children aged 6–11, and about 23% among adolescents aged 12–19.
Among child supplement users, the reported reasons were not mutually exclusive: 41% cited improving overall health, 37% maintaining health, 23% supplementing the diet, 20% preventing health problems and 14% boosting immunity. These are reasons for use, not measured clinical outcomes.
Source: Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Micronutrient Supplementation.
Multiple-product use is also part of the industry picture. About 45% of adult supplement users took more than one product in NHANES 2011–2012, when the prevalence of taking at least one supplement was 52% among U.S. adults.
Source: Federal Monitoring of Dietary Supplement Use in the Resident, Civilian, Noninstitutionalized US Population: NHANES. Multiple-product use does not necessarily mean simultaneous dosing.
Nutritional Supplement Safety Statistics and Adverse-Event Visits
FDA publication records describe emergency-department visits for reported adverse events, not the incidence of harm among all users. After excluding unsupervised child ingestion, herbal or complementary nutritional products made up 65.9% of single-supplement adverse-event emergency visits in the reported U.S. study, with a 95% confidence interval of 63.2%–68.5%.
Micronutrients made up 31.8% of those visits, with a 95% confidence interval of 29.2%–34.3%. These shares cannot establish product risk per dose or a causal rate for the nutritional supplement industry.
Source: Emergency Department Visits for Adverse Events Related to Dietary Supplements.
Supplement Advertising Enforcement and Industry Compliance Statistics
Enforcement counts measure agency actions, not the number of noncompliant products in the market. The FTC says it filed 120 cases challenging supplement health claims over the prior decade, while its broader compliance guidance says it settled or adjudicated more than 200 cases involving false or misleading health-product advertising since 1998.
The broader more-than-200 total includes supplements alongside foods, over-the-counter drugs, homeopathic products, health equipment, diagnostic tests and apps. It therefore should not be presented as a supplement-only count.
Sources: Health Claims | Federal Trade Commission and Health Products Compliance Guidance.
The FDA’s 2024 health-fraud warning-letter page showed 15 dated entries visible in the opened table through December 10, 2024. One entry was labeled dietary supplement/adulterated, and one was labeled CGMP/finished pharmaceuticals/adulterated; these are page-level entries, not an industry-wide adulteration rate.
The Herbalife annual report also placed literature, promotional and other items at 1.7% of net sales in both fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023, versus 1.9% in fiscal 2022. That company-specific category provides context for reported sales composition but does not measure advertising compliance across the industry.
Source: Herbalife Ltd. 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K.