According to a forecast from August 2023 on global podcast consumption, the number of podcast listeners worldwide has steadily increased and is predicted to rise even further. In 2023, the number of podcast listeners worldwide amounted to over 500 million internet users, while this number was predicted to grow to more than 650 million in 2027.

In 2018, the number of podcast listeners in the United States reached 75 million, and it is predicted that the number of monthly listeners will hit 164 million in the year 2024, with the compound annual growth rate between 2019 and 2023 pegged at 17 percent.

According to a study on podcast consumption in the United States as of May 2021, 14 percent of respondents stated that they listened to podcasts on a daily basis while 20 percent said they listened more than monthly. On the other hand, 40 percent said that they never listened to podcasts.

According to a survey held in early 2024 in the United States, 59 percent of respondents aged 12 to 34 years old had listened to a podcast within the preceding month, compared to 27 percent of those aged 55 or above. Adults in the latter age category have been increasing their podcast listening consistently for years, to a point where respondents aged 35-54 almost caught up on the younger age category. Podcasts are gaining popularity This increased monthly podcast consumption shows the growing prevalence of the format in the United States. A survey on podcast consumption found that in 2012 only 29 percent of U.S. respondents had ever listened to an audio podcast, but this figure increased annually and reached 57 percent in 2021. Although this rise in popularity is significant, it might also reflect the generational gap in podcast consumption, with younger consumers tuning in more regularly than their older counterparts. In 2021, the share of Millennial podcast consumers in Canada and the U.S. amounted to 48 percent, with Boomers only making up 23 percent. Podcast providers The recent controversy surrounding Spotify and the Spotify-exclusive podcast ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, in which Spotify sided with Joe Rogan despite complaints from artists, demonstrated the rising influence of podcasts and their importance for streaming platforms. In the United States, the main platform used to access podcasts among adults was Spotify in 2020, with 31 percent of respondents using the service. Slightly less popular was Apple Podcasts with 22 percent of respondents citing the platform as their preferred provider. Similarly, data on the most popular podcast providers in the United States according to users’ age showed that Spotify was the go-to choice for all adults in the survey, though Apple Podcasts also fared well and SoundCloud was also the preferred platform among 26 percent of those aged 18 to 34 years old.

According to a study from 2022, the share of Black and Hispanic podcast listeners has increased between 2020 and 2022. The share of Black consumers increased from 34 percent in 2020 by a whooping 26 percent to 43 percent in 2022. The same development can be observed with Hispanic podcast listeners.

In recent years, monthly podcast listening in the United States has gained in popularity, both with male and female consumers. The most recent data gathered in 2024 also showed that men have always been more likely to consume podcasts every month, since 2021. However, women caught up over time and in 2024, they were just three percent behind male listeners.

In 2024, a survey on podcast consumption revealed that 47 percent of U.S. adults had listened to a podcast within the last month, a figure which has more than tripled over the past decade. Weekly podcast consumption has also sharply increased, and some of the world’s leading podcast publishers achieve millions of unique streams and downloads per month. Podcast consumption in the U.S. Once a niche format, podcasts have now become part of the mainstream media landscape. Between 2009 and 2019, the share of Americans who had ever listened to an audio podcast more than doubled, growing from 22 to 51 percent. As podcasts have grown in popularity, so has the variety of content available in the format. Some of the more popular podcast genres are music and comedy, but tens of millions of U.S. households have fans of sports, science, news and arts podcasts too. Podcasts are often also used as part of marketing strategies or to generate engagement between bloggers, news publications, or even different departments within a company. Like most forms of modern media, podcasts frequently include ads, and podcast ad revenue reached almost 480 million U.S. dollars in the United States in 2018. By 2021, it is expected that advertising revenue in this sector will grow by around 200 million each year and will exceed one billion U.S. dollars in 2021. For U.S. consumers, podcasts are not just a source of inspiration or a way to escape from daily life but also an opportunity to educate themselves. In a survey held in early 2019, the majority of respondents said that their main reason for listening to podcasts was to learn new things. There are podcasts on philosophy, history, travel, and business, as well as much more including content aimed solely at educating children.

A survey conducted in the United States in 2023 revealed that younger generations are more likely to be daily or weekly podcast listeners. On top of that, 35 percent of Millennials stated to listen to podcasts daily. Only ten percent of the baby boomer generation stated the same. A similar picture drew itself concerning weekly listenership, with Millennials being the leading podcast listening generation.

Nearly half of American teenagers listened to a podcast in 2020, a recent survey found. Children aged 13 to 17 were the most likely to have listened to a podcast, with 48 percent of respondents in the age group having done so. However, younger children were also likely to use this media form, with one in five kids aged six to eight reporting listening to podcasts.

According to a study from November 2020 on the podcast audience in the United States, the diversity among podcast listeners was higher than in the average U.S. population. While Hispanic Americans made 16 percent of the total U.S. population, they made 19 percent of U.S. podcast audience.

According to a study from August 2022 on podcast consumption worldwide, 40.8 percent of internet users in North America listened to a podcast at least once a month. In comparison, podcast consumption in Western Europe was slightly lower with 28.1 percent during the same period. Overall, the share of podcasts consumers among internet users is to increase further until 2026.

It was estimated that in 2024 there will be 147 million podcast listeners in Latin America, which will put the region almost on par with North America that year and set it up to surpass it by the end of 2027. Interestingly, China is expected to see similar numbers to Latin America in 2027, albeit starting much lower in 2023 - at 111 million podcast listeners.

According to a study conducted in late March 2020, Gen Z adults were the most likely group to listen to podcasts more as a result of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, with 31 percent saying that their podcast consumption would likely increase, compared to 16 percent of Gen X respondents.

According to a survey on the overall audio penetration in Australia conducted in 2023, 54 percent of respondents aged 18-24 claimed they listened to podcasts weekly. In contrast, only 12 percent of Australians aged 65+ stated that they listened to podcasts every week.

According to a study on podcast consumption in the United States in 2022, the generation with the highest penetration rate was the group of millennials with 59 percent of respondents stating that they had listened to a podcast within the last month in December 2022. The format also proofed to be popular among Gen Z in 2022, with 63 percent of respondents saying that they had consumed a podcast within the last month in October. However, the survey also showed that the format was not as much consumed among the older generation of baby boomers.

This statistic shows the result of a survey on weekly podcast listening in the United Kingdom in the first quarter of 2020, broken down by age. According to the survey, more than one out of three respondents aged between 26 and 35 years said they listened to podcasts on a weekly basis.

According to data from February 2022, 32.5 million people in the United States were said to listen to podcasts on Spotify that year, while Apple had 28.5 million podcast listeners. Spotify's and Apple's figures were projected to add up to 42.4 million and 29.2 million by 2025, respectively.

The number of podcast listeners in the United States has been growing steadily. In 2023, the format reached an audience of 103.6 million listeners and is set to grow even more in the next years.

According to a study from 2023, podcast consumption in Canada had been steadily increasing until spring 2023, from 17 percent in spring 2016 to 50 percent in 2023 among 18 to 49-year-olds. However, as of fall 2023, the number fell to 44 percent again. While the consumption has been showing a similar development through all generations, there is still a gap between younger and older age groups, with only 33 percent of the general population consuming podcasts monthly.

According to the most recent data, 53 percent of the podcast audience in the United States was male, while 46 percent who had listened to a podcast in the last month were female. Podcasts were more popular among users in the 12-34 age group compared to older generations, and were predominantly consumed by White people.