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UK Supplement Industry Statistics and What They Mean

E-COMMERCE BUSINESS MARKETING
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Ayo is the founder of Why Matters, a Shopify agency based in Brighton. With over 20 years of experience in ecommerce, digital marketing, and ROI-driven growth, he has helped hundreds of Shopify brands build, launch, and scale their online stores. Why Matters is a certified Shopify, Klaviyo, and Recharge partner.

September 17, 2026

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Checked 19 September 2026. Supplement data has weaker sourcing than most sectors, so every figure is labelled with its origin, and secondary reporting of panel data is identified as such.

Key Takeaways

  • UK vitamins, minerals and supplements were valued at around £1.5 billion in 2023, growing at an average 13.3% a year since 2018 (Palladium).
  • Usage figures range from 64% to 83% depending on the question, with the HFMA finding 64% taking a supplement daily and Which? finding around three quarters taking them at all (HFMA, Which?).
  • UK sports nutrition was reported at approximately £1.1 billion growing 19%, though this is trade reporting of Circana data rather than a published Circana report (Asian Trader).
  • Creatine is the standout category, at around £36 million with roughly 40% growth in the year to June 2025 on the same kind of secondary reporting.
  • Creatine also shows the claims ceiling. Great Britain authorises a physical performance claim requiring 3g a day, while a proposed cognitive function claim was assessed and not authorised (UKNHCC).
  • Supplements are exempt from the UK less healthy food advertising rules, but that exemption does not automatically cover every sports nutrition product (GOV.UK).
  • Hydration is visibly growing, with one retailer reporting electrolyte sales up 66% and searches for hydration tablets up 643% (Ocado), though no robust UK wide market value exists.
  • Several UK figures simply do not exist openly, including women's health, hydration and healthy ageing market values, and we say so rather than substituting US data.

Quick Answer

The UK vitamins, minerals and supplements market was worth around £1.5 billion in 2023 and has been growing at roughly 13.3% a year since 2018, with sports nutrition reported separately at about £1.1 billion growing 19%. Between 64% and three quarters of UK adults take supplements depending on how the question is asked. The categories growing fastest right now are creatine, hydration and electrolytes, and women's health. The constraint that shapes every marketing decision is the claims regime: only authorised claims, used within their conditions, and no disease claims at all.

Table of Contents

Supplements have the weakest data of any sector we cover. Current market values sit behind paid access, the most quoted growth figures are trade reporting of panel data rather than the panel itself, and usage surveys disagree because they ask different questions. This guide states where each number comes from, names the gaps rather than filling them, and then covers the regulatory ceiling that decides what a brand can actually say.

How to Read Supplement Statistics

Three distinctions prevent most errors. Consumer usage is not market size, because a survey finding that three quarters of adults take supplements says nothing about what they spend. Sports nutrition is not simply protein powder, covering powders, ready to drink products, bars, creatine, pre workout and hydration, which is why growth figures vary so much by definition. And functional food is a different market again, since a high protein yoghurt sits in grocery data rather than supplement data even when the customer buys it for the same reason.

One more caution specific to this sector. Several of the most quoted UK figures, including the sports nutrition and creatine numbers below, reach the public through trade press reporting of Circana data rather than through Circana itself. They are useful and we use them, labelled, but they are not the same as a published market report.

How Big Is the UK Supplement Market?

The most recent freely accessible UK market value we found puts vitamins, minerals and supplements at £1.5 billion in 2023, with average growth of 13.3% a year since 2018 (Palladium). That is a 2023 figure, and we would rather use a dated number with a source than a current one without.

Why not something newer? Mintel published a UK Vitamins and Supplements Market Report in December 2025 containing market size, forecasts, brand sales and consumer research, but the current market value is not disclosed on the freely accessible summary (Mintel). Broader dietary supplement estimates circulating online are often much larger, usually because they use a wider definition that includes sports nutrition, functional food or both.

Who Takes Supplements in the UK?

Four credible figures exist and they do not agree, which is a question design issue rather than a contradiction.

Three surveys, four different answers Mintel, under 35s use supplements 83% Which?, all adults take supplements 75% Mintel, over 55s use supplements 65% HFMA, all adults take one daily 64% Different questions, samples and frequency thresholds All four are defensible. None of them is the same statistic.
Each survey asked a different question of a different sample.

The HFMA’s 2025 Health of the Nation survey, conducted by Censuswide with 2,000 UK adults aged 16 and over between 7 and 10 April 2025, found 64% taking a supplement daily (HFMA). It also found 67% describing their lifestyle as healthy while only 22% ate five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and 21% reached the recommended 30g of fibre, which is a useful piece of context for anyone marketing supplements as a gap filler.

Which? surveyed 2,154 UK adults in March 2025 and found around three quarters taking supplements, with two thirds of those taking them at least daily, most taking up to three different products and about one in six taking four or more (Which?). Mintel’s September 2025 research with 1,963 UK internet users found 83% usage among under 35s against 65% among over 55s, while noting that high usage among younger consumers does not necessarily mean equally high daily usage (Mintel).

The UK Sports Nutrition Market

Asian Trader reported the UK sports nutrition category at approximately £1.1 billion growing around 19% year on year, attributing the data to Circana for the moving annual total to 24 November 2024 (Asian Trader). We use that figure because it is the best available openly, and we label it as secondary reporting rather than a Circana market report.

Protein remains the anchor. Euromonitor’s 2025 UK sports nutrition report identifies protein based products as central to category performance and says protein powders continue to dominate sales, though its detailed value tables sit behind paid access (Euromonitor). In grocery specifically, protein bars and shakes were reported at around £230 million growing 7.5%, with about £29 million through the impulse channel.

One caution on growth rates. Mintel reported UK sports nutrition growing almost 25% in 2023 and said much of that value growth was driven by inflationary price increases (Mintel). Value growth and volume growth are not the same thing, which is a theme across every sector statistics page we publish.

What Is Growing Now

Creatine

Secondary reporting of Circana data put UK creatine sales at approximately £36 million in the 52 weeks to 8 June 2025, with category growth of around 40% year on year, retail sales up about 43% and online up about 40% (Prolific North, Grocery Trader). Glanbia’s 2025 capital markets presentation, citing Circana data to September 2025, described Optimum Nutrition as the UK number one brand in both protein powders and creatine within measured channels.

Creatine is commercially interesting for three reasons: it is inexpensive to produce relative to price, it has a genuine authorised claim behind it, and it has crossed from gym use into general wellness. That last point is also where brands get into trouble.

The same ingredient, two different answers Authorised in Great Britain Creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short term, high intensity exercise Not authorised Creatine improves cognitive function The authorised claim also requires telling people the effect needs 3g a day GB Nutrition and Health Claims Register. Popularity does not create permission, and the committee found no proven link for cognition.
The same ingredient, one authorised claim and one that is not.

Great Britain authorises a claim that creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short term, high intensity exercise, provided the conditions of use are met and the communication tells consumers the effect requires 3g a day (legislation.gov.uk). A proposed claim linking creatine supplementation to improved cognitive function was assessed by the UK Nutrition and Health Claims Committee, which concluded the cause and effect relationship had not been established, and it is listed as non authorised (UKNHCC, GB register). Popularity does not create permission.

Hydration and Electrolytes

Ocado reported electrolyte sales up 66% year on year in December 2025, with individual brands up between 53% and 96%, searches for one US hydration brand up 733%, hydration tablets up 643% and electrolytes up 286% (Ocado). Those are one retailer’s figures and should never be described as UK market growth. We did not find a sufficiently robust, freely accessible UK wide market value for hydration and electrolyte supplements, which is a genuine gap rather than an oversight.

Women's Health and Healthy Ageing

Mintel’s 2025 UK women’s health research identifies supplement brands increasingly focusing on women’s health, with expansion in peri menopause and post menopause products and development targeting different life stages (Mintel). Its 2026 innovation research identifies healthy ageing and longevity as current development areas (Mintel).

One finding from the sports nutrition research is worth pulling out, because it is a marketing brief in a sentence. Almost half of exercising UK adults aged 55 and over found products supporting healthy ageing appealing, while only around one in ten agreed that brands usually explain the benefits clearly (Mintel). As with hydration, no robust open UK market value for either category was identified.

The US Comparison

US data is more detailed, and the usual rule applies: it is context, not evidence about the UK. Secondary reporting of Nutrition Business Journal data put total US dietary supplement sales at $72.88 billion in 2025, up 5.5%, with vitamins at 26.7% of sales, specialty supplements 22.4%, herbs and botanicals 19.2%, sports nutrition 15.6%, meal replacements 10.3% and minerals 5.8%, and US sports nutrition growing around 8%.

On usage, the Council for Responsible Nutrition’s 2024 survey, conducted online by Ipsos with 3,194 US adults, found 75% reporting supplement use, with median monthly spending of $50 among users, up from $48 in 2023 (CRN). That US usage figure is strikingly close to the Which? UK finding, which is reassuring for both.

The Claims Ceiling

This is the section that separates a supplement brand that scales from one that gets a ruling. Food supplements are generally regulated as foods rather than medicines unless licensed as medicinal products (ASA), and specific health claims used for foods in Great Britain generally need to be authorised and used within their conditions, on a register that applies to England, Scotland and Wales and was last updated on 19 May 2026 (GOV.UK).

  • Authorisation is required, and CAP Code rule 15.1 requires marketers making permitted nutrition or health claims to hold evidence that the product meets the conditions for using the claim (CAP Code).
  • General health references need specific support, so a reference to overall good health or wellbeing must be accompanied by an appropriate authorised specific claim.
  • Disease claims are prohibited. Foods and food supplements cannot claim or imply that they prevent, treat or cure human disease (GOV.UK).
  • Product names can be claims. A health claim contained in a product or brand name can still be treated as a regulated health claim (ASA).
  • Probiotic is not neutral. Use of the term can constitute a health claim depending on context and presentation (ASA).
  • Northern Ireland differs, because EU nutrition and health claims rules continue to apply there under the Windsor Framework.

Advertising Rules

The UK advertising restrictions for identifiable less healthy food and drink took effect on 5 January 2026, including a 9pm television watershed and restrictions on paid online advertising (GOV.UK). Legally defined food supplements are specifically exempt, which is genuinely good news for a vitamins brand.

The trap is assuming the exemption covers everything a sports nutrition business sells. It does not automatically extend to every product, and government guidance identifies protein powders among products that may fall within the prepared soft drinks category where the relevant conditions are met. Whether a protein shake, sports drink, powder, functional snack or bar is in scope depends on the legal classification and characteristics of the actual product, which our health and fitness guide covers in more detail.

What the Numbers Mean for Supplement Brands Online

Four conclusions follow, and the first is the one most supplement stores get wrong.

Servings are not days of supply 30 servings, once a day 30 days 60 servings, twice a day 30 days 60 servings, once a day 60 days A 60 serving pack is not a 60 day subscription Show servings, dose, days of supply and delivery interval together.
Work the interval from dose, not from pack size.
  1. Build subscriptions on days of supply. A 30 serving pack taken once daily is 30 days, and a 60 serving pack taken twice daily is also 30 days, so show servings per container, recommended serving, days of supply and delivery interval together (subscriptions guide).
  2. Treat compliance as product development, not copy editing. If the claim is decided at the end, the product page, the ads and the creator briefs all get rewritten, which our product page guide covers from the layout side.
  3. Give creators approved language, including permitted claims, prohibited wording, mandatory disclosures, usage instructions and an escalation route. An influencer making a disease claim is still your problem.
  4. Explain the benefit properly, since only around one in ten older exercising adults think brands do. That is a conversion problem as much as a marketing one (conversion rate guide).

Events and Trade Shows in 2027

Event2027 datesLocation
Vitafoods Europe18 to 20 MayFira Barcelona Gran Via
Natural and Organic Food Show22 to 23 SeptemberExCeL London
SupplySide Global17 to 19 NovemberLas Vegas

Sources: Vitafoods Europe and Natural and Organic Food Show. Vitafoods expects more than 30,000 attendees, over 1,600 exhibitors and visitors from more than 135 countries, covering ingredients, finished products, contract manufacturing and equipment. SupplySide Global focuses on ingredients, formulation, contract manufacturing and nutraceutical science.

Methodology and Update Schedule

Checked 19 September 2026. Vitamins and minerals, sports nutrition, functional food and broader dietary supplement datasets are kept separate because they use different category definitions. The £1.1 billion sports nutrition figure, the 19% growth rate, the £36 million creatine figure and the 40% creatine growth are all identified as secondary reporting of Circana data rather than directly published Circana figures. Retailer data is labelled as retailer data. US statistics are kept separate from UK ones throughout.

Where no robust, freely accessible UK figure exists, including women’s health, hydration and healthy ageing market values, we say so. We review this page annually and sooner when the HFMA, Mintel, Circana or the GB Nutrition and Health Claims Register publishes material new information. The regulatory detail, including labelling and FTC style substantiation for US selling, sits in our health and fitness ecommerce guide.

Why Matters Perspective

Supplements is the sector where the gap between marketing ambition and regulatory reality is widest. Creatine makes the point neatly: a category growing around 40% a year, with an authorised claim covering short, high intensity exercise and an explicitly non authorised claim covering the cognitive benefits half the internet is currently discussing.

So the brands that scale here are the ones that decide what they can say before deciding what to sell. That is not a brake on marketing, it is a competitive advantage, because a product page built on authorised claims and clear dosing can run paid media, brief creators and answer customer questions without a legal review every time. The ones that struggle are those who write the story first and discover the constraint afterwards.

Why Matters is a Shopify Select partner with Verified Skills across development and marketing. Our pricing is published, retainer clients are billed one month in arrears and never tied into long contracts, and every development project carries a 3 month guarantee. See our Shopify packages or email us to talk through your store.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is the UK supplement market?

The most recent freely accessible UK figure we found valued vitamins, minerals and supplements at around £1.5 billion in 2023, growing at an average of 13.3% a year since 2018. Current market values from the major research houses sit behind paid access.

What percentage of people in the UK take supplements?

It depends on the question asked. The HFMA found 64% of adults taking a supplement daily in 2025, Which? found around three quarters taking supplements, and Mintel found 83% usage among under 35s against 65% among over 55s.

How big is the UK sports nutrition market?

Trade reporting of Circana data put it at approximately £1.1 billion growing around 19% year on year, for the period to late November 2024. That is secondary reporting rather than a freely published Circana market report.

Is creatine growing in the UK?

Strongly, on the available evidence. Secondary reporting of Circana data put UK creatine sales at around £36 million with category growth of roughly 40% year on year in the 52 weeks to 8 June 2025.

What can supplement brands legally claim?

Only authorised health claims used within their conditions. Creatine has an authorised Great Britain claim for physical performance in short, high intensity exercise, while a proposed cognitive function claim was assessed and not authorised.

Can supplements claim to treat illness?

No. Foods and food supplements cannot claim or imply that they prevent, treat or cure human disease. Medicinal claims require a medicinal product authorisation.

Are supplements covered by the UK less healthy food advertising rules?

Legally defined food supplements are specifically exempt. That exemption does not automatically cover every sports nutrition product, and government guidance notes protein powders may fall within the prepared soft drinks category where conditions are met.

Are supplements suitable for subscriptions?

Yes, because usage is daily and predictable, but the interval must follow days of supply rather than pack size. A 60 serving pack taken twice daily lasts 30 days, not 60.

Final Thoughts

UK supplement data is patchier than the confidence of the articles quoting it suggests. The market value is a 2023 figure, the best sports nutrition numbers reach the public through trade press, and several fast growing categories have no open UK value at all. What is solid is the usage evidence, the direction of travel towards creatine, hydration and women’s health, and the claims regime. Work from what is authorised, be honest about which figures are secondary, and build subscriptions on days of supply rather than pack size.