Podcast Statistics (2023) – Newest Data + Infographic

How many podcasts are there? According to data from Apple Podcasts, right now, there are around 3 to 4 million podcasts in total, with more than 500,000 active podcasts and more than 70 million podcast episodes. 'Active podcasts' are ones that published at least one new episode over the trailing 12 months.

What about the total number of podcast listeners? Around 120 million people in the United States (roughly 42% of the population) listen to podcasts every single month. In other words, the number of active podcast listeners in the US is 120 million.

Based on numerous recent studies conducted by companies like Nielsen and Edison Research, we've put together the most comprehensive and up-to-date post on podcast statistics, breaking down the key findings in an easily digestible manner.

We've also designed a custom-illustrated infographic highlighting the most impactful podcasting stats and facts. Feel free to share it or post it on your site if you find it useful!

Embed Code for this Infographic for Posting it on Your Site:

We keep this post updated with new stats as and when they become available.
Last updated in: June, 2023

Podcast Statistics - Listenership, Demographics & Growth

Here are arguably the most interesting stats about podcasts, according to the most recent data from sources such as Nielsen and Edison Research, among others (complete list of sources).

Podcast Listener Demographics

83% of Americans are Familiar with 'Podcasting'

As high as 83% of the US population is 'familiar' with the word 'podcasting'. That's roughly 237 million people.

How Many People Listen to Podcasts?

According to the latest data from Edison Research, 64% of the US population, or approximately 183 million people, have listened to a podcast.

42% Americans are Monthly Podcast Listeners

42% (approx. 120 million people) listen to podcasts at least once a month (though many listen to one podcast or another much more frequently than that).

31% American People Listen to Podcasts Weekly

31% of Americans (approx. 89 million people) are weekly podcast listeners (i.e. listen to podcasts at least once a week).

Young People (18-44 Yrs) Make Up 67% of the Podcast Audience

Podcasting is way more popular among young people, with 67% of the total podcasting audience being between 18 to 44 years old.

Podcasts Attract Wealthier & Educated People More

It also attracts the educated and relatively wealthier sections of the society more. In fact, it's 45% more likely for a podcast listener to have a college degree, and 68% more likely to have a post-graduate degree. They are also much more likely to be HNIs (high net-worth individuals), with them having a 45% more likelihood of having a net household income of over $250,000, which is a quarter million dollars, annually!

Podcasting Audience is Amazingly Gender Balanced!

When it comes to gender balance, the podcasting audience is well balanced at the moment, with men leaning ever so slightly on the heavier side of the scale (51% vs. 49% for women, same distribution as the US population).

Podcast Consumption Habits

Smartphones are Most Popular for Consuming Podcasts

Smartphones are the #1 platform for podcast consumption. Given how popular iTunes' podcasts (now known as Apple Podcasts) are, and given the fact that there's a consistent decline in PC and tablet usage due to the rise of smartphones, it's hardly a surprise that smartphones are occupying the number one spot here.

'Society & Culture' is the Most Popular Podcast Genre

'Society & Culture' tends to be the most popular podcasting genre, followed closely by Business, Comedy, News & Politics, and Health.

The Average Listener Listens to 9 Different Shows Per Week

The average podcast listener listens to 9 different shows in an average week, and subscribes to 6 different shows.

Most People Listen to Podcasts at Home

Most people prefer to listen to podcasts at home (49%), while 22% said they also listen while driving. 11% listen while at work and only 4% listen while onboard a public transport vehicle.

80% of Listeners Listen to (Almost) the Entire Episode

When it comes to engagement, 80% of podcast listeners listen to an entire podcast episode or at least most of it. This is one of the best engagement rates, if not the best, among any consumption medium.

Weekly Listeners Spend 6 hrs 39 mins Per Week on Average

Weekly podcast listeners spend an average of 6 hours and 39 minutes listening to podcasts per week.

Podcast Download Numbers - Stats on Downloads

Even the most successful podcast episode got only 50,000 downloads in 30 days. If an episode gets more than 9,000 downloads, it's in the top 5% of the most successful podcasts. It only takes 3,400 downloads to get into top 10%. The average number of downloads in the first 30 days stands at 141.

This makes it evident that even though the most popular podcasts tend to get hundreds of thousands of 'listens', not too many people prefer to download it for offline consumption at a later time. This is not very surprising considering the growth of online streaming and constant availability of the internet.

Podcast Audience Growth & Monetization Statistics

Podcasting Spans Over 100 Languages Worldwide

Podcasting as a whole has been growing rapidly, and as a media format, it now spans over 100 different languages across the world.

Regular Podcast Listeners are Less Exposed to TV Ads

Regular podcast listeners are also less exposed to TV advertising, and they're far more likely to be subscribers of online video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Podcast Ad Revenue Growth is 1,000% in 5 Years!

Podcast ad revenue grew exponentially from 2015 ($69 million) to 2018 ($402 million), to around $659 million in 2020. That's roughly a jaw-dropping growth of 1,000% in just 5 years!

And it didn't stop there! Podcast ad revenue reached a whopping $1.8 billion in 2022. According to estimates, it's supposed to reach $4 billion by 2025!

Podcast Listeners are More Active on Social Media

Compared to the general U.S. population, podcast listeners are more active on social media, with 94% being active on at least one social media platform, vs. 81% for the entire population. They are also much more likely to follow their favorite brands on social media.

More Podcast Statistics

And here are the rest of the talking points from the infographic above:

  • Out of all podcast listeners who listen to podcasts on their smartphones, 54% are on Apple's iOS ecosystem (i.e. they are iPhone users), and 43% are Android users.
  • 19% listeners prefer to speed up the audio while listening to podcast episodes. This indicates that the majority of podcast consumers don't prefer to listen faster.
  • Podcast audiences are also more likely to own smart speakers like Google Home and Amazon Alexa / Echo, which is an extremely rapidly growing market.
  • 69% of the respondents agreed that podcast ads made them aware of new products and services.
  • Podcast ads lift the purchase intent for a variety of advertisers across a wide range of niches:
    Society & Culture: 9.2% lift
    News & Politics: 12.8% lift
    Comedy: 7.3% lift
    Sports: 9.3% lift
    Business: 14% lift
  • Podcast ads that were integrated or edited into podcast episodes accounted for 58% of the total number of ads.

Data Sources:

  • Edison Research (bit.ly/edison-podcast-research)
  • Nielsen (bit.ly/nielsen-podcasting)
  • IAB (bit.ly/iab-podcasting)
  • PwC (bit.ly/pwc-podcasting)
  • Pacific Content (bit.ly/pacific-content)

Miscellaneous Other Podcast Stats

Now, let's take a look at a few more podcast stats that didn't make it through to the infographic.

  • Smartphones are driving podcast consumption by demonstrating an 157% increase in usage for podcast consumption since 2014, compared to marginal increases in case of PCs, tablets, and laptops.
  • 35% podcast consumers listen to an entire episode, 45% listen to most of an episode, and only 12% listen to less than half of a podcast episode.
  • Podcast listeners spend an average of 6 hours and 39 minutes listening to podcasts every week. 16% listen to less than one hour of podcasts, and 25% listen between 1 to 3 hours of podcast content every week.
  • Podcast listeners' share of time spent listening to audio sources: 33% podcasts, 25% FM/AM radio, 15% owned music, 14% streamed music/audio, 5% TV music channels, and 8% others.
  • 77% of podcast consumers prefer to click on a podcast and listen immediately. 41% of them prefer to download podcast episodes manually and listen later. 27% of them prefer to subscribe to a podcast to download automatically to listen later.
  • 65% of monthly podcast listeners have been listening to podcasts for less than 3 years.
  • At 64%, right now more people know what a podcast is than knowing who the vice-president is (40%).
  • From 2019 to 2020, total number of monthly podcast listeners grew by 16%, breaching 100 million people for the first time.
  • Podcast listeners listen to an average of 7 shows per week, which is up 40% since 2017.
  • There are currently more than two million podcasts currently indexed on Google.
  • Podcast ad revenue is expected to reach $1.6 billion by 2022.
  • 61.2% of podcast listeners spend more time every week listening to podcasts than they do watching TV.
  • When it comes to podcast listening platforms, 52% people use Apple Podcasts, 19% Spotify, 4.6% Stitcher, and 21% use other platforms.

Global Podcast Statistics

  • South Korea leads the world in the percentage of people who have listened to a podcast in the last month (58%).
  • Chile, Argentina, Peru and Mexico are the countries where podcast consumption is growing the fastest. Chile with a podcast growth rate of 85%, Argentina with 55.28%, Peru with 49.1% and Mexico with 47.84%. The presence of a large Spanish speaking population is causing Latino podcasts to flourish in the United States.
  • China has the 5th highest podcast consumption growth with 43.62%
  • 83% of Australians are aware of podcasts, however only 30% of them have listened to a podcast episode. Among those 30% of people, 22% listen to podcasts monthly, and 15% listen to at least one podcast episode in a week.
  • 12% of the UK population (6.5 million people) listen to podcasts weekly, i.e. they listen to at least one podcast episode in a week. Podcasts are most popular with the UK millennials (21%) compared to baby boomers (5%).

Found this interesting? Why not help it reach more people who might also find it interesting? Feel free to share the infographic or link to this post.

More on Podcasting

Basics

  • The term 'podcasting' is thought to be an amalgamation of 'iPod' and 'broadcasting'. It was first suggested by Ben Hammersley, a BBC journalist. Some people prefer using the 'backronym' POD for 'portable on demand', to remove the brand-dependency of the term when it was originally coined. 
  • Podcasting is basically the form of recording and making audio-based 'episodes' available over the internet. These days, most podcasts can be both streamed online and downloaded for listening to it later.
  • Unlike what its name suggests (the 'pod' part), podcasts can actually be played across almost any internet-enabled device like smartphones, tablets, laptops, and even desktop computers.
  • There are tons of podcast platforms and podcast players, and many of them allow listeners to tweak various things like changing the speed of the podcast episode, for example.

Closely Related Forms

  • A 'podcast novel' is a literary format that bridges the gap between podcasts and audiobooks.
  • There's a less popular video-driven form of podcasting, known as 'vodcasts'. It's fundamentally the same concept, but utilizes video instead of being audio-only.

Engagement & Monetization

  • Podcasts are usually monetized by selling 'ad time' (roughly equivalent to the 'ad space' of print and digital media) to advertisers who are willing to get their brands and messages in front of a highly targeted and engaged podcast audience. Though mostly placed discreetly, some ads are integrated into the episode itself, so that they come off as more relevant.
  • Podcast audiences are usually extremely engaged, and according to Panoply, those who do get a chance to 'skip' an ad at the beginning or in the middle of a podcast, generally resume listening to the episode right after they skip the ad. The 'drop off' percentage, so to speak, is very very low compared to other digital mediums offering 'ad skipping', like online videos on platforms like YouTube, for example.
  • Because podcast listeners are very tech-savvy in comparison with the general population, targeting them via ads is relatively less costly, as you don't need to spend on non-targeted mediums of advertising like TV ads, which they're less prone to. You can take advantage of programmatic advertising and target way more relevant users with the help of retargeting and contextual analysis.

Podcast Consumption Trends

  • These days, smartphones are by far the #1 platform for consuming podcasts, owing to their portability, and the small form-factor not affecting the quality of media consumption, as podcasting is mostly an audio-only format.
  • Just like what happened with blog posts and then infographics in the past, podcasts are quickly becoming a viable alternative channel for content marketing enthusiasts. Very popular brands and identities in marketing and entrepreneurship space like Tim Ferris (author of The Four-Hour Workweek) and Copyblogger (one of the most reputable blogs on copywriting and blogging) have all recently embraced podcasts as a worthy channel for their content marketing efforts.
  • The fact that listening to podcasts mostly doesn't involve 'screen time' is very comforting to some people. It also helps people who have a difficulty with staring at a screen when they're moving in some sort of a transport vehicle.
  • Podcasts offer an opportunity to multi-task while you're listening to your favorite episode. You can listen to them while driving, biking or doing just about anything of which a major portion is accomplished by your reflexes. This is one of the reasons why podcasts are gaining popularity among practitioners of hobbies that require a lot of skill, for example skateboarding, singing and playing musical instruments like guitar, ukulele, piano, or bass.

Starting & Running a Podcast

  • It actually doesn't cost much (if any) money to start a podcast, if you don't have an extremely high ceiling of satisfaction. You can literally get started with either the default mic of your smartphone, external lapel mics, or a pair of affordable mic-equipped headphones and start uploading your episodes on a free service like SoundCloud.
  • Michael Wolf, who is the chief analyst of NextMarket Insights (and a notable podcaster himself), has suggested that podcasting is a much less 'crowded' space in comparison to blogging, and it also comes with a far more 'engaged' audience compared to blog post readers.
  • For established brands that have explored traditional forms of content marketing for a while, podcasting allows them to reach new audiences, while facing significantly lesser competition to reach them.
  • Podcasting can either be a one-man-show, or you can have one or more co-hosts with you. Or, you can also invite guests for your episodes. These days, it's very popular to bring knowledgeable guests from relevant fields on your show. Your audience gets some fresh insights this way, while they get the chance to reach a new audience.
  • According to a blog post by Buffer, the best schedule for publishing podcast episodes is once per week. It ensures a balance between total reach and engagement. They also mention Tuesday as the most favorable day to publish your podcast episode, with the same two goals in mind.
  • Transcription allows you to convert your podcast audio into text, which you can publish as a blog post along with show notes for a particular podcast episode. What this does is that it results in bonus content, and a LOT of content in comparison to regular blog posts, as podcast episodes tend to cover a lot more stuff in comparison within a relatively short time. This is a tactic that's employed by many smart content marketers these days. You're essentially generating two pieces of content (as the textual content isn't duplicate per se to search engines like Google) while putting in the effort of producing just one.

Tech Setup for Recording Podcasts

  • If you're ready to invest a little bit up front to ensure a better recording quality, the first thing you should invest on is a quality condenser mic instead of lapel or shotgun mics. The 'Blue Yeti' microphone is probably the most popular USB mic to have ever existed, and it does a pretty good job for recording podcast audio. You can also add a few other bells and whistles if you really want to - like a pop filter and a pair of quality-headphones for podcasting, or even better, studio-grade monitoring headphones.
  • For recording multiple people who are present at the same location with a single mic, dynamic mics are a better option than condenser mics (which are more popular for recording vocals at the studio).
  • If you're doing an episode with someone who's not physically present next to you, you can easily do it via something as simple as a Skype call, then record the call, and publish it after editing. For clearer audio, it's recommended to record on both the devices and stitching the recordings together in post-production, resulting in a hiccup-free audio.
  • As a beginner, if you want to edit your recorded podcast episodes, something simple and free like Garageband (Mac) or Audacity (Windows) will suffice. If you want a premium solution later, you can opt for something like Adobe Audition.

38 thoughts on “Podcast Statistics (2023) – Newest Data + Infographic”

  1. Good to see someone delving into the statistics of the podcast revolution.
    Do you have an idea of the proportion of music podcasts with little or no talking? I for one listen to ~10h of music podcasts per week and ~4h of speech podcasts, it’s become the best way to learn about new and interesting music, much smarter than recommender systems.

    Reply
  2. Great infographic!
    Can you tell me the original source for the section on Brand Lift? I’ve clicked through your links and can’t find it. (Worth noting, the Nielsen link does not work)

    Reply
  3. Hi Gavin,

    Thanks so much for putting together this article. I was wondering if you also have any data on how many % of the 85000 podcasts actually make money with their podcast?

    Thanks,
    Jonathan

    Reply
  4. Hi there,

    This infographic is so insightful and well done, great job!

    Can I include it in a blog post?

    I’ll give full credit of course.

    Thanks,
    Shane

    Reply
  5. Hi Gavin, thank you for coming up with this very informative post. This is absolutely fantastic info and very in depth. Just a curious question, what is the qualifying criteria to consider a podcast active? Most recent upload is from 30 days ago or a week ago?

    Reply
    • Though the effectiveness might vary between different niches/industries, my suggestion, in short, would be to go for it! 🙂

      Reply
  6. Hey!

    I am a college student using this infographic and sources for a presentation. Can you point me to the links or sources that you found this information from? I tried the ones provided with the bit.ly/ stuff but I couldn’t find the sources that way.

    Thanks,
    Bryan

    Reply
    • Hi Bryan, the bit.ly links seem to be working fine on my end. Alternatively, you can Google the names of the studies (for example: Edison Infinite Dial 2019) to locate them.

      Reply
  7. Thanks for all this work Gavin. There’s an extraordinary amount of detail in there. I am wondering though, is there any data that looks back at podcasting sources? I’m really keen to know see a breakdown of who’s creating/publishing the content. How much of the output comes from traditional media creators? How much from traditionally non-media companies? How much from dedicated, independent podcast companies? How much from individuals? And, of the traditional media sources, how much comes from more public-broadcasting, non-commercial organisations vs commercial broadcasters?

    Reply
  8. Great article! I’ve been podcasting for the last 5 years and I enjoy reading about how popular podcasting is becoming. I was looking for stats on how many plays and downloads the average podcast has. Do you happen to have this information?

    Reply
    • Thanks Anna! I unfortunately don’t. The numbers of plays and downloads vary wildly from podcast to podcast and sometimes even episode to episode, so it’s very hard to come up with ‘stable’ average figures.

      Reply
  9. Hello Gavin,

    I’m doing a Podcast Fellowship online course with Seth Godin, he’s linked your page in today’s lesson. Super helpful, and obviously geared towards U.S. students.

    I’m a London based interior designer, any thoughts on where I might find stats for UK podcasts, please?

    Thanks Tanya

    Reply
    • Hi Tanya, first of all, thanks!

      A quick Google search on ‘UK podcast stats’ yielded multiple decent articles on the topic from sites like Backtracks.fm and others. You may want to take a look into those.

      Reply
  10. Amazing and insightful infographic Gavin.
    And it’s very big of you to allow it for public use.
    I hope you don’t mind me using this on our blog, with proper credits 🙂

    Reply
  11. Great info! I’d love to include the graphic on my website but the embed code isn’t working for me. Does it by chance need to be updated?

    Reply
  12. I’ve spent so long trying to find listening figures for various podcasts
    Why can’t I find a chart for this?

    How many people listen to The Top Flight Time Machine Podcast
    Or the Peter Crouch podcast

    Where are these figures found?

    Thanks

    Andy

    Reply
  13. Gavin,

    The graphic states 80% listen to an entire episode, but then you scroll to the bottom where you listed 35% listen to an entire episode. Which is it?

    Reply
    • Hi Drew,

      80% who listen to ‘the entire or almost the entire episode’ = 35% who listen to the entire episode + 45% others who listen to almost the entire episode

      Reply
  14. Gavin – AWESOME graphic!!! Seriously, so informative and helpful. I’m in production of a new podcast, MADE To Be, featuring extraordinary women in business. Will share this infographic on a post about podcasting soon. Thank you!

    Reply
  15. Hi,

    Thanks for putting the info together, its a really insightful article. I didn’t even know some of the things myself. Is it okay to use on my website? I will include a link back to you.

    Thanks
    Dean

    Reply
  16. Hi Ryan – nice work on the infographic! Lots of really compelling insights on podcasts, and I really liked the bonus stats at the end. Well done! All the Best, Lisa

    Reply
  17. Hey Gavin! This is a great graphic. Thanks for putting it out into the world. I saw it over on Reddit and was wondering if you would be open to me incorporating it into a rather large blog post I have on podcasting?

    Reply
    • Hey Ryan,

      Thank you so much for your kind words.

      Feel free to use it. You can find the embed code right below the infographic.

      Reply

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