Share of people who listen to podcasts monthly in the U.S. 2017-2022, by age group

According to a survey held in early 2022 in the United States, 50 percent of respondents aged 12 to 34 years old had listened to a podcast within the preceding month, compared to 22 percent of those aged 55 or above. Adults in the latter age category have been increasing their podcast listening consistently for years, and the share of those who had listened to a podcast in the last month almost doubled between 2017 and 2021.

Podcasts are gaining popularity

This increased monthly podcast consumption shows the growing prevalence of the format in the United States. A survey on podcast consumption found that in 2012 only 29 percent of U.S. respondents had ever listened to an audio podcast, but this figure increased annually and reached 57 percent in 2021. Although this rise in popularity is significant, it might also reflect the generational gap in podcast consumption, with younger consumers tuning in more regularly than their older counterparts. In 2021, the share of Millennial podcast consumers in Canada and the U.S. amounted to 48 percent, with Boomers only making up 23 percent.

Podcast providers

The recent controversy surrounding Spotify and the Spotify-exclusive podcast ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, in which Spotify sided with Joe Rogan despite complaints from artists, demonstrated the rising influence of podcasts and their importance for streaming platforms. In the United States, the main platform used to access podcasts among adults was Spotify in 2020, with 31 percent of respondents using the service. Slightly less popular was Apple Podcasts with 22 percent of respondents citing the platform as their preferred provider. Similarly, data on the most popular podcast providers in the United States according to users’ age showed that Spotify was the go-to choice for all adults in the survey, though Apple Podcasts also fared well and SoundCloud was also the preferred platform among 26 percent of those aged 18 to 34 years old.