Who Listens To Podcasts?

Podcasting has seen the most consistent growth over the last decade, with U.S. time spent on podcasts increasing over 350%, listener numbers surging (73% of Americans have tried podcasts by 2025), according to Edison Research.

Of course, all that growth in podcasting begs the questions: Who’s listening to podcasts? Is it the same demographic who listened when podcasting started about 20 years ago?

Podcasts are listened to and viewed by a broad audience, but are, not surprisingly, most popular with younger adults (12-34), who show the highest monthly listenership, followed by Gen X (35-54) and an increasingly engaged 55+ demographic, according to RiversideFM, a prominent cloud-based platform for recording, editing, and producing high-quality remote audio and video content.

Listenership is fairly balanced by gender, though slightly skewed towards men, with women showing strong growth, and audiences that tend to be educated and employed, making them valuable for advertisers. Diverse groups like Black and Latino listeners, and Gen Z discovering content via social media, are key segments.

According to Podcast Statistics, the share of Americans listening monthly more than doubled from around 17-21% in 2015 to over 50% (around 55%) by 2025, and even more people listening at least once in their lifetime, while women’s listenership specifically has tripled, driven by diverse content and increased access. The time spent listening has also surged, with one source noting a 355% increase in listening time over the last decade.

We can define podcast consumers in a few ways. First, they are, unsurprisingly, most often young adults – Millennial/Gen Z. Second, they are highly educated, with approximately 27% to 28% of podcast listeners holding a postgraduate degree (master’s or higher). You can see that played out in the growth of longform, narrative podcasts that appeal to those listeners.