Freaky Podcast Statistics - Is it here to stay or just a fad?

Freaky Podcast Statistics

So… if you thought podcasting was a fad, or maybe something just on the fringes that most people never listen to…

Guess again.

Podcasting is growing at a phenomenal rate, and it appears to be here to stay.

After all, a listener can be driving, doing the dishes or going for a run while they listen to your podcast. And since people LOVE to multi-task, podcasting is likely to keep growing.

Videos? Blogposts? Those are difficult to consume when you’re washing the car or making dinner.

Here are some podcasting stats from Edison Research, Nielsen, IAB, PwC and Pacific Content that might blow your podcasting conceptions out of the water…

There are 700,000 active podcasts, 29 million podcast episodes, including content in more than 100 languages.

The top 5 most popular podcasting genres are:

• Society and Culture
• Business
• Comedy
• News and Politics
• Health

51% of the US population have listened to a podcast.

32% of the US population listen to podcasts at least every month.

22% of the US population listen to podcasts weekly.

6% of the US population are avid podcast fans. And these numbers are growing.

• 18 – 24 year olds make up 18% of the podcasting audience
• 25 - 34 year olds make up 28% of the podcasting audience
• 35 - 44 year olds make up 21% of the podcasting audience
• 45 - 54 year olds make up 16% of the podcasting audience
• 55 - 64 year olds make up 11% of the podcasting audience
• 65+ year olds make up 06% of the podcasting audience

Podcast listeners are 32% more likely to have $75,000+ annual income.

Podcast listeners are 37% more likely to have $100,000+ annual income.

Podcast listeners are 45% more likely to have $250,000+ annual income.

80% of the listeners listen to all or nearly all of a podcast episode

Podcast listeners subscribe to an average of 6 shows.

Podcast listeners listen to an average of 7 different shows per week.

19% of listeners increase the speed of the podcast to listen faster.

Weekly podcast listeners spend an average of 6 hrs 37 mins per week listening to podcasts.

Podcast ad revenue for 2015 was $69 million

Podcast ad revenue for 2017 was $314 million

Podcast ad revenue for 2019 is projected to be $514 million

Podcast ad revenue for 2022 is projected to be $1.6 billion

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 37 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.

If you’re not podcasting yet, you might want to think about starting soon.