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What is the annual revenue of US wheelchairs market?
Hello! Thanks for your question about the annual revenue of the US wheelchair market. The most useful sources I found to answer your question are Statista.com and the PRNewswire. The short version is that the 2016 US market for wheelchairs was approximately $2.255 billion and the 2016 market for assistive disability items was approximate $45.8 billion. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY:
Initially, I looked for an exact figure on US wheelchair sales and was unable to find anything concrete. From there I found information on how many people use wheelchairs in the US (3 ,704,00 0), how much money is spent worldwide on manual and power wheel chairs ($2.9 billion and 3.9 billion, respectively), how often wheelchairs need to be replaced (Medicare replaces them up to every 5 years), and how much wheelchairs cost (manual: ~$1500 Power: ~$7,132). Based on this information, I was going to triangulate an estimate of how much the US spent on wheelchairs in 2016, however, in the midst of my searching I found global estimates of the wheelchair market that broke down the market by country. It included the US wheelchair market in 2010 and for 2018, which I discuss below. After ensuring that the source was reliable, it no longer made sense to triangulate a response.
THE NUMBERS
According to Statista.com the wheelchair market in the US was $1.476 billion in 2010 and is expected to be $2.515 billion in 2018. To figure out what it would be in 2016 I assumed that there would be an even climb between the years and found that each year the market was expected to increase by $129.875 million. I multiplied that times 6 and added it to the 2010 number ($1.476 billion) to get $2.255 billion in 2016.
I used the same principle to determine the the US market for assistive devices. In 2015, Research and Markets released the results of a study called "Disabled and Elderly Assistive Technologies." The study looked at "a broad range of devices, from 'low-tech' products such as eyeglasses...to technologically sophisticated products such as...Braille readers and wireless monitoring devices." As the report featured information on Invacare, Blue Chip Medical Products, and Pride Mobility Products, all of which are involved in the manufacture of wheelchairs, we are assuming that their study of assistive devices includes wheelchairs. The study revealed that the market for assistive products was "projected to grow from $40.6 billion in 2014 to $43.1 billion in 2015." They expected the market to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2015 to 2020, ending up at $58.3 billion. Therefore, using a CAGR of 6.2%, we can calculate the 2016 market for assisted devices to be $45.8 billon ($43.1BN+(43.1BN*6.2%)).
With these two calculations, we can then report that out of the $45.8 billon market for assistive devices in 2016, $2.255 billion, or 4.9%, is from the sale of wheelchairs.
SUMMARY
To wrap it up, the 2016 US market for wheelchairs was approximately $2.255 billion and the 2016 market for assistive disability items was approximate $45.8 billion.
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