Podcast Statistics (2026): 78 Sourced Figures

This page collects figures on who listens to podcasts, how they listen and how much money the medium earns. Every number links to the document or dataset that first published it. Two sources are survey publishers that ran their own studies: Edison Research and Pew Research Center. Others are the UK regulator Ofcom, the IAB and PwC revenue report and an SEC filing. The rest are the official newsrooms of Spotify and YouTube and the open Podcast Index. Company figures are labeled as company-reported. The closing section explains what the figures mean for advertisers and podcast publishers.

Key figures at a glance

How many people listen to podcasts

Two US surveys measure podcast reach. Edison Research runs The Infinite Dial, an annual survey of Americans aged 12 and older that began in 1998. Edison now operates as Edison Research at SSRS. The 2026 edition was released on March 12, 2026, with support from SiriusXM Media. Since 2025 it counts people who listen to or watch a podcast as podcast consumers.

Edison described each of the 2026 reach figures as an all-time high. Monthly consumption rose from 55% in 2025 to 58% in 2026. In 2025, monthly listening was higher among men (57%) than among women (52%).

Pew Research Center asks a stricter question. It counts US adults aged 18 and older who say they listened to a podcast in the past 12 months. Its latest survey ran from August 18 to 24, 2025.

Age makes a large difference in both surveys. Pew found that adults aged 30 to 49 listened at a rate of 62%, and adults aged 50 to 64 at 50%. Every age group except the youngest rose between 2022 and 2025. The 18 to 29 group stayed at 67%. The Edison and Pew figures are not directly comparable. Edison covers ages 12 and up, counts video viewing and uses shorter time windows.

Video podcasts and platforms

Video is now a standard part of podcast consumption. Edison reports that 57% of Americans 12+ have both listened to and watched a podcast. That share was 48% in 2025. The IAB and PwC report states that roughly 71% of US podcast creators produce video versions of their shows.

The platforms publish their own audience figures. These are company-reported and use each company’s own definitions.

Edison Podcast Metrics asks US weekly podcast consumers which platform they use most often. In Q3 2026, YouTube had the highest share. Spotify followed at 17% and Apple Podcasts at 9%. Netflix ranked seventh at 3%. Edison’s published summary does not give the YouTube share for Q3 2026. In the 2025 Infinite Dial, Edison reported that 33% of US weekly podcast listeners used YouTube most often.

The YouTube figure for TV viewing matters for advertisers. Podcast hours watched on living room devices grew from 400 million to over 700 million in one year, according to YouTube. Spotify says its podcast catalog grew from 200,000 titles in early 2019 to over 7 million shows. The shows are available in more than 180 markets.

What listeners want

Edison Podcast Metrics publishes selected findings from its quarterly survey of US weekly podcast consumers. The figures below come from Edison’s weekly insight notes in 2026.

The topic and the host matter far more than packaging. The podcast trailer was important to only 12% of weekly consumers. The AI questions were added to Edison Podcast Metrics in Q1 2026. One-third of weekly consumers expect to feel “deceived” and another third expect to feel “upset”. Only 27% selected any positive emotion.

Audiences for individual shows move quickly. Edison compared weekly US audiences for large conservative podcasts between Q4 2024 and Q2 2026. The Megyn Kelly Show grew 115% and The Shawn Ryan Show grew 107%. The Dan Bongino Show fell 62%, which Edison partly attributes to the host’s break while serving as Deputy Director of the FBI.

Podcasts and news

Pew Research Center tracks podcasts as a news source. The figures below come from its survey of US adults conducted August 18 to 24, 2025.

Use of podcasts for news grew in every age group since 2020. Among adults under 50, 39% get news from podcasts often or sometimes. The share is 24% among those 50 and older. Trust differs by party. Among Republicans and Republican leaners, 31% trust podcast news more than news from other sources. The share among Democrats and Democratic leaners is 15%.

Podcast advertising revenue

The IAB and PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report is the standard measure of US digital ad revenue. The full-year 2025 edition was released in April 2026. It uses a traditional, audio-based definition of a podcast.

Podcast ad revenue was about four times the 2019 level in 2025. Growth slowed to 5% in 2023 and then returned to double digits. The IAB notes that the podcast definition “is rapidly expanding as video becomes the leading channel for podcast consumption”. Video podcast ad spend sold as video is possibly not in the podcast line.

Company filings show the same trend at the publisher level. iHeartMedia reports podcast revenue inside its Digital Audio Group.

iHeartMedia’s total company revenue in 2025 was $3,865.0 million, up 0.3%. Podcasting grew far faster than the company as a whole.

Podcasting in the United Kingdom

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, publishes an annual audio report. The 2026 edition was published on May 20, 2026. It uses RAJAR data for reach and Ofcom’s own Podcast Survey for habits.

BBC Sounds and YouTube followed Spotify, used by 45% and 38% of weekly listeners. In the UK, Spotify remains ahead of YouTube for podcasts. Most UK listening still happens as audio. Half of weekly listeners (49%) usually listen while at home relaxing. Many also listen while walking (38%), doing housework (37%) or travelling in a car (33%).

How many podcasts exist

Podcast Index is an open index of podcast RSS feeds used by many independent podcast apps. Its public statistics count every feed in the index, including inactive shows. The figures below were checked on October 14, 2026.

The gap between the total and the active count is large. Fewer than one in ten indexed shows published in the last 30 days. The active pool is the relevant market for advertisers and for podcast hosting and analytics tools.

Method

• Data window. Figures date from 2019 to October 2026. The page prefers the most recent release of each series. The 2019 to 2024 values serve as a baseline for trends.
• Primary sources only. Each figure links to the body that first published it. These are survey publishers that ran their own studies (Edison Research at SSRS, Pew Research Center) and a regulator (Ofcom). They also include an industry body with its research partner (IAB and PwC) and an SEC filing. The rest are the official newsrooms of Spotify and YouTube and the Podcast Index statistics page. Statistics aggregators, roundups and articles that re-quote figures were not used.
• Company figures. Spotify and YouTube figures are company-reported and use each company’s own definitions. They are not audited audience measures. The Infinite Dial 2026 was released with support from SiriusXM Media, a podcast advertising seller.
• Checks. StatWharf Editorial opened each source in October 2026 and checked that the figure appears there with the stated date. Figures not found on a primary source were left out. One is the YouTube share of weekly podcast consumers for Q3 2026, which Edison shows only in a chart. Another is the set of Infinite Dial Australia 2026 figures, because the primary page was not reachable.
• No modeling. The page reports published figures only. Statements such as “about four times” and “fewer than one in ten” are direct comparisons of two published values. No other value is calculated or estimated.
• Definitions differ. Edison counts listening or watching among Americans 12+. Pew counts adults 18+ who listened in the past year. Ofcom uses RAJAR weekly reach for UK adults. Comparisons are valid within one source, not across sources.

What the figures show

Three points stand out. First, podcast reach keeps rising. Edison measured monthly consumption at 58% of Americans 12+ in 2026. Ofcom measured UK weekly reach at 27%, up four points in a year.

Second, podcasting is now a dual-format medium. Most US consumers have both listened to and watched a podcast, and YouTube reports more than 1 billion monthly podcast viewers. Audio still leads in the UK, where more regular listeners prefer audio-only shows.

Third, money follows the audience. US podcast ad revenue reached $2.9 billion in 2025. iHeartMedia’s podcast revenue grew 25.6%. The IAB figure uses an audio-based definition. It possibly understates spend on video podcasts.

Where to go next

Other StatWharf data pages are listed in the research directory. The next update follows two releases: the IAB and PwC full-year 2026 report and The Infinite Dial 2027. Send corrections to any figure to the editorial address below.

Factual corrections are free: editorial@statwharf.com.