According to Share of Ear®, daily audio listening has held steady at roughly four hours per day for several years, with Americans ages 13+ spending an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes listening each day in Q2 2026. This week’s insight will take a closer look at how that listening time measures up across generations, and which age groups over-index for daily audio share.
Share of Ear is a nationally representative survey, with a respondent age composition that matches the U.S. population 13+. The most recent data release shows that younger age segments account for a higher share of audio consumption relative to their population size.
- Zoomers, ages 13-29, represent one-quarter of the U.S. population age 13+ but have 28% share of the daily audio listening, resulting in an index of 112.
- Millennials, people between the ages of 30 and 45, represent a slightly higher percentage of the population as well as a slightly higher percentage of daily audio listening, earning them an index of 109. Gen X, people between 46 and 61, and
- Boomers, those 62 and over, account for a smaller slice of the listening pie than they do for the population pie.
Gen X has an index just below average at 97. Boomers are the lowest of the four groups, with an index of 80.