Nielsen Reports: Country Is Most Popular Format

In the U.S., country music is more popular than ever! It rules on radio—the format has with the largest listener share on the national level. And since 244 million Americans listened to radio each week in Fall 2013—that’s over 90 percent of listeners in nearly every demographic—the genre’s radio popularity is good news for the country music industry. So what songs are generating this popularity? And who’s listening to all this music?

In the U.S., country music is king of the airwaves. The Country format's 14.9 share of national listenership in Fall 2013 broke its previous high-water mark from earlier in the year. This isn’t big news for most radio folks—Country has been the No. 1 national format for more than eight years!

Year-after-year, Country has managed to grow its piece of the total listening pie in Nielsen’s National Regional Database, which captures radio listenership across more than 250 local markets in the U.S. And it seems to set a new record in each new survey. Nevertheless, its popularity and marketability has risen as the format has continued to increase its share of total listening across America since the mid-2000s.