New data from market research and data analytics firm YouGov shows that 30% of Americans listen to podcasts from at least once a week up to several times in one day.
Stats also show that the number of podcast listeners in the US overall has gone up by 8% since January 2020, as the number of responders who don’t listen to podcasts dropped to 47%.
The survey on US podcast listenership uses data derived from YouGov Profiles, which collects insights from rolling surveys on the website, during January 2023 with respondents aged 18+. In addition to the recent data, YouGov’s Global Media Outlook report in early January 2023 revealed 14% of Americans and 13% of Brits said that they expect to listen to more podcasts this coming year.
Podcast listening is also more popular with a younger demographic, with 53% of respondents aged 18-34 listening at least once a week, which is 8% higher than respondents aged 35-49. Of those 53%, just over a quarter of them listen to podcasts at least once a day.
One of the reasons podcasts are so popular with younger people is because they are easy to consume on the go or while multitasking. Doing household chores is the most common activity to do while listening to a podcast, with almost half of Americans doing so, while commuting is almost as popular at 42%. The latter is especially popular with respondents aged 18-34 (47%), which is 3% higher compared to listeners aged 50+.
Older generations are less likely to listen to podcasts at all, with half of respondents aged 50-64 saying they don’t and 62% of respondents aged 65+ saying the same. Respondents within that age group are more likely to listen to podcasts before going to sleep, with 27% of those aged 65+ saying that.
To learn more about the podcast consumption behaviours of younger and older listeners and help advertisers reach them more efficiently, market analytics firm Edison Research recently announced that it will be launching two new studies in the first quarter of this year titled titled ‘Hit Play, Boomer: Podcasting’s 55+ Opportunity’ with NPR and ‘The Gen Z Podcast Listening Report’ with SXM Media.
