A lot of money is spent worldwide on purchases which accelerate one’s self-confidence, appearance, and sense of superiority and prestige. According to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch report conducted a couple of years ago, vanity capital (or the money spent on beauty products and services) is estimated at about 4.5 trillion American dollars! How much attention does your expat destination pay to new shades of lipstick, anti-ageing creams, health supplements, and youth elixirs?
Vanity capital
Western Europe is the leader of global vanity with USD 748 billion per year spent on beauty products, services, materials and items (e.g. branded bags, expensive cars, etc.) the possession of which gives a particular social status. The United States follows with an expenditure of USD 663 billion, and China comes third with USD 661 billion. However, there isn't a single age group which defines the trends. Young people spend a lot on beauty products due to constant exposure via social media and instant access via online shopping, but older people contribute to the rise of vanity capital too as they are richer than their descendants and live longer than they used to, making them susceptible to any beauty products.
Surgical procedures
The top five countries, which account for about half (41.4%) of the world's total expenditure on cosmetic surgeries are the US, Brazil, Japan, Italy, and Mexico. Russia, India, Turkey, Germany, and France complete the top ten. And if you are wondering what the main reason healthy people opt to become patients is, the answer is breast augmentation, which accounts for 15.8% of all surgical procedures. Here, demographics play an important role, as women are much keener on lying on the surgical table than men. Almost 90% of plastic surgeries are conducted on female patients. Note that although the American people have the most plastic surgeries in numbers (20% of the world's procedures happened in the US), South Korea has the highest ratio of procedures per capita (20 procedures per 1,000 people).
Healthcare
But what would beauty be without health? While in some countries tons of money are spent on non-vital procedures for the sake of vanity, in other parts of the world there are families who must choose whether to spend money on healthcare or food and education. The US spends the most on healthcare (8.9% of their total GDP), according to the World Economic Forum, followed by Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and France. Generally speaking, the more a nation spends per capita on healthcare, the higher the life expectancy. However, this is not entirely true for Americans who live on less than the average set by the OECD countries and is not the healthiest nation.
