LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for Health, Wellness & Fitness (2026)

Key Takeaways

In health, wellness and fitness, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 25.1%. Replies to the connection note average 2.5%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 9.9%. Those numbers come from 118,110 connection requests sent by 107 health, wellness and fitness accounts using Expandi between May 2025 and April 2026. All three sit below the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%.

Health, Wellness & Fitness vs. the platform average

Metric	Health, Wellness & Fitness	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	25.1%	28.5%	-3.4 pts	36th of 38
Connection-note reply	2.5%	3.0%	-0.5 pts	25th of 38
Message reply after acceptance	9.9%	10.4%	-0.5 pts	26th of 38

Across the 38 industries with at least 50 sending accounts, acceptance runs from 21.8% (telecommunications) to 36.5% (staffing & recruiting). Note replies run from 1.8% to 6.6%, and message replies from 7.2% to 18.9%.

What the numbers say about health and wellness outreach

Health, wellness and fitness is the hardest audience to connect with of the twenty largest samples. Acceptance of 25.1% ranks 36th of 38 and sits 3.4 points below the cross-industry average. Only media production and telecommunications accept less, and neither is large enough to carry a standalone case study.

The two reply measures are closer to ordinary: note replies of 2.5% rank 25th and message replies of 9.9% rank 26th, each within a point of the platform. So the sector is not broadly unresponsive. It is specifically hard to get past the connection request, and roughly normal afterwards.

That pattern matters for how effort is spent. End to end the sector converts at about 2.5 per 100 recipients against a cross-industry 3.0, and essentially all of the shortfall is acceptance. Across 107 accounts and 118,110 requests, an account here that reached the platform acceptance rate while leaving everything else alone would land above the cross-industry result.

If your numbers sit below these

The dataset says where an account sits, not why. From what we see in campaigns, three gaps come up most often in this sector, and they point at different problems.

Acceptance under 25.1%. The sector line is 36th of 38 already, so a number below it is very low. This is the binding constraint in health and wellness and the only measure where the sector carries a real handicap.

Message replies under 9.9%. The sector is close to ordinary here, so a shortfall has no audience explanation. It normally means the sequence is asking for a commitment the relationship has not earned yet.

Note replies under 2.5%. Slightly below platform. Because acceptance is the constraint, the useful test is whether the note is helping or hurting acceptance, rather than whether it is being replied to.

Further reading: 

• Improving your LinkedIn Sales Navigator targeting
• Personalising the message request without tripping limits
• The LinkedIn message follow-up formula

Frequently asked questions

What is a good LinkedIn acceptance rate in health and wellness?

25.1% is the sector average, 3.4 points below the 28.5% cross-industry figure and 36th of 38 reported industries. Anything at or above 28% is doing better than the sector and matching the platform.

Why is connection acceptance so low in health and wellness?

The dataset shows the rate clearly, 25.1% across 107 accounts and 118,110 requests, without establishing a cause. It does show the effect is confined to acceptance: note replies and message replies both sit within a point of the platform average.

How does health and wellness compare with other industries?

Acceptance ranks 36th of 38, note replies 25th and message replies 26th. End to end about 2.5 in 100 recipients reply to a follow-up, against roughly 3.0 across all industries, with nearly all of the shortfall coming from acceptance.

How this data was collected

Health, Wellness & Fitness is reported from 107 accounts and 118,110 connection requests sent between May 2025 and April 2026, drawn from the LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks 2026 dataset of 13.2 million requests across 13,302 accounts. That report carries the full methodology, along with the breakdowns by sender seniority, company size and month that are not repeated here.

Two things to hold in mind while reading any of these figures. The industry is the sender’s, taken from their company profile, not the recipient’s. And only industries with at least 50 sending accounts are reported at all: below that, a single unusual account moves the average by several points, which is why some of the most extreme numbers in the full appendix are not published here.

Related industry benchmarks

• Financial Services, 26.0% acceptance and 10.3% message replies
• Outsourcing / Offshoring, 26.1% acceptance and 9.2% message replies
• Computer & Network Security, 26.0% acceptance and 10.7% message replies
• All industry benchmarks

Grade your own outreach against these numbers

Enter your own acceptance and reply rates and grade your outreach against the health, wellness and fitness benchmark, plus see where you sit among all 38 reported industries. No signup.

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Data updated 19 August 2026. Refreshed quarterly against the source report.