Have You Seen The Growth Of Podcasting

Podcasting made its debut around the early 2000s, but it experienced a dramatic growth spurt in the last decade or so. It’s quickly become a mainstream way for every business, church, or even brand to get their content out there in front of the world. Interestingly enough, it’s not just businesses that can reap the benefits, because individuals can as well.  Every year, various research sites such as Statistica and even Edison Research have chosen to run digital surveys so that they can measure some of the trends that are happening while also being able to understand user behavior. This also helps them to track podcast growth across the world.

What Demographic Listens To Podcasts The Most?

Studies have shown that 84% of podcast listeners are under the age of 55.

What Are The Demographics Of Podcast Listeners?

Researchers know that 56% of people who listen to podcasters are male.

How Do I Find Podcast Demographics?

Sites such as Statistica or Edison Research often post podcast demographic data.

How Popular are Podcasts?

As of April this year, it would seem that there are over 2 million podcasts online. There are also 48 million episodes. Thousands of podcasts are listened to every day, and 64% of the podcasts are currently defined as being active. Active is when a podcast has been posted in the last 90 days.

When you look at the early 2000s, you’ll soon find that only 22% of the adult population in the US was familiar with the term, podcasting. In the year 2021 on the other hand, this grew to 78%. It’s risen by over 3% from 2020.

Podcasts are Popular

Podcasts are very popular, partially because they are very convenient. The industry has grown alongside smartphones, speakers, and even dashboard entertainment systems. 88% of people in the US own a smartphone and this means that it has never been easier to listen to a podcast in the car or even on the go. The pandemic has also helped to give rise to smart speaker ownership too. This has grown by over 22%. This is partially due to the number of people who are now working from home. Even during the year 2020, which is a year of upsets and changing routines, it would seem that podcasts experienced a huge amount of unprecedented growth. This proves how durable it is and it also shows that it can be a medium in very uncertain times.

Who Listens to Podcasts?

Historically speaking, it would seem that white people tend to make up the majority of listens. Even though podcast customers are normally white, it’s safe to say that when 2021 came around, there was a lot of diversity. There were a lot more Latino, black, and even Hispanic listeners. This mirrored the diversity of the US population. Of course, right now, 57% of podcast listeners right now are white. 13% of them are African American and 16% are reported as being Hispanic. You also have 4% who are Asian, and then 10% who identify as being “other”. The US accounts for nearly 50% of podcast listeners, but the UK comes in at second. The UK statistic is 47.4%.

Americans who are aged between 12 and 34 make up around 66% of podcast fans and they are 7% more inclined to listen to a podcast from this year when compared to last year. According to studies that have been done by a network known as Midroll, 66% of listeners have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

International Statistics

Even though other countries may have a way lower listening rate when you compare them to the US- it’s interesting to see that a lot of countries are actually seeing their numbers every year. Half of Italians who are between the age of 18 and 34 have actually listened to a podcast in the last year or so. Music programs are the preferred genre for nearly 50% of listeners and this is second to news programs. In Australia, awareness went up by over 4% in the year 2020 and 25% of the country has listened to a podcast in the last month or so.

Behaviour Trends

According to a study that was done by Nielsen, it would seem that 94% of podcast listeners are actually active on social media. Podcast listeners tend to be highly engaged and it certainly makes sense that over 69% of them all agree that podcast apps help them to increase the total awareness of their services, their products, and their brands.  Podcast listeners tend to listen to way more audio in general. Even those who are podcast consumers listen to 10 hours of radio every week. This is around 43 minutes higher when you compare it to the average. On average, podcast listeners tend to consume around 7 shows every week. Even though other mediums tend to try and fight to get viewership or even listenership, it’s safe to say that podcast listeners tend to be very engaged and 80% of them listen to all or even most podcasts on the episodes that air.