44 Must-Know Podcasting Statistics For 2026 (Detailed Analysis)
Looking for the latest podcasting statistics? We’ve got you covered.
In this post, we’ll be sharing interesting stats and facts about the podcast industry.
We’ll cover the number of podcasts and podcast listeners globally and in select countries, the size of the podcasting market, the most popular podcasts and podcasting platforms, and a lot more.
First, let’s take a look at our top picks…
Podcasting statistics – Editor’s picks
- There are more than 3 million podcasts and more than 189 million episodes (Listen Notes)
- There are more than 504 million podcast listeners around the world (Statista1)
- The average American listens to 9 podcast episodes every week (Edison Research)
- The most popular times to listen to podcasts are 8 AM and 5 PM (Spotify1)
- Apple Podcast is the number one podcast platform by downloads with a 36.9% market share (Buzzsprout)
- Anchor FM (Spotify) is the number one podcast hosting domain with 55.8% of the market share (Listen Notes)
- The podcast market is valued at around $23.75 billion (Grand View Research)
- 83% of people in the US are now familiar with podcasting (Edison Research)
- 64% of podcasts are from the US, and 61% are recorded in English (Tone Island, Listen Notes)
General podcasting statistics
We’ll start with some podcasting statistics that provide a general overview of how many podcasts there are and how fast the podcasting industry is growing.
1. There are over 3.3 million podcasts
That’s according to the Listen Notes database. It’s one of the most reliable sources as it does a good job of cleaning up the data to remove things like deleted podcasts and podcasts with no episodes.
However, it’s worth noting that other sources offer different figures. Podcast Index, for example, puts the total number of podcasts closer to 4.1 million.
Source: Listen Notes, Podcast Index
2. There are over 189.3 million podcast episodes
Again, this is according to the best data we could find, from Listen Notes.
Now we know how many total podcasts there are, and how many total episodes, some quick math tells us that…
Source: Listen Notes
3. The average podcast has around 57 episodes
That’s more than you might expect. But keep in mind that there’s a lot of variance. Some shows will have hundreds of episodes in their back catalog, while others might only have a handful.
Source: Tone Island
4. Over 222,000 new podcasts were started last year
That might seem like a lot, but it’s less than a fifth of the number of new podcasts that were started in 2020 (1.02 million).
The reason for the spike in 2020 probably had something to do with the pandemic, and it’s been falling ever since.
Source: Listen Notes
5. And over 38,000 podcasts ‘died’ last year
A podcast is classed as ‘dead’ if its RSS feed is deleted or if the podcaster hasn’t uploaded any new episodes for a sufficiently long time.
Source: Listen Notes
6. The podcast market is worth $23.75 billion
This is according to industry estimates as of 2023. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 27.6% and is projected to reach $130 billion by 2030.
Source: Grand View Research
7. 83% of US citizens are familiar with podcasting
The vast majority of the population of the US is familiar with podcasting—237 million Americans, or around 83%—which shows that podcasts have become a ‘mainstream’ form of media.
The table below shows the podcast familiarity in the US by year. As you can see, it’s grown steadily year-over-year for the past decade.
| Year | Podcast familiarity in the US (as a % of the population) |
| 2023 | 83% |
| 2022 | 79% |
| 2021 | 78% |
| 2020 | 75% |
| 2019 | 70% |
| 2018 | 64% |
| 2017 | 60% |
| 2016 | 55% |
| 2015 | 49% |
| 2014 | 48% |
| 2013 | 46% |
Source: Edison Research
Podcasting around the world
Next, let’s look at some statistics that tell us how popular podcasting is in different countries and regions around the world.
8. Around 64% of podcasts are from the United States
The US is the top country for podcasts with around 2.1 million in total. That’s significantly more than any other region.
See the table below for a full breakdown of the top 10 countries by number of podcasts.
| Country | Number of podcasts | Share of total podcasts (approx. %) |
| Brazil | 201,340 | 6% |
| Indonesia | 143,569 | 4% |
| Germany | 88,994 | 3% |
| France | 69,039 | 2% |
| UK | 55,055 | 2% |
| Spain | 47,451 | 2% |
| China | 35,626 | 1% |
| Japan | 35,597 | 1% |
| Italy | 34,704 | 1% |
Source: Tone Island, Listen Notes
9. Sweden has the highest share of podcast listeners
According to data from Statista, 47% of surveyed people in Sweden said they’d listened to at least one podcast in the year before the survey, which is a greater portion of respondents than in any of the other 54 countries in the study.
Ireland and Brazil also had a high podcast listenership share at over 40%.
Source: Statista2
10. Japan has the lowest share of podcast listeners
Only 5% of surveyed Japanese people reported listening to a podcast in the year before the survey, which is a lower portion of respondents than in any of the other 54 countries surveyed.
Source: Statista2
11. Around 61% of podcasts are recorded in English
There are almost 2 million podcasts recorded in English, which works out at around 61% of all podcasts.
You can see a full breakdown of the top podcasting languages in the table below.
| Language | Number of podcasts | Share of total podcasts (approx. %) |
| English | 1,998,723 | 61% |
| Spanish | 368,378 | 11% |
| Portuguese | 212,298 | 6% |
| Indonesian | 143,528 | 4% |
| German | 92,760 | 3% |
| French | 74,893 | 2% |
| Chinese | 66,305 | 2% |
| Japanese | 35,484 | 1% |
| Italian | 34,725 | 1% |
| Russian | 30,910 | 1% |
Source: Tone Island, Listen Notes
Podcast listener statistics
Next, let’s look at some statistics that tell us more about the people who listen to podcasts. These stats tell us how many podcast listeners there are, what the top listening demographics are, how/when listeners find and tune in to podcasts, and more.
12. There are 504.9 million podcast listeners globally
It’s often said that ‘there are more podcasts than podcast listeners’. Well, that’s nothing more than a myth, as this statistic shows.
There are actually over 100x as many podcast listeners as podcasts—504.9 million, according to industry estimations. That’s up from 464.7 million (+23.5%) year-over-year. And it’s almost double as many as there were five years ago in 2019 (274.8 million).
Source: Statista1
13. 64% of the US population has listened to a podcast in their lifetime
Almost two-thirds of the population of the US—around 183 million people—have listened to a podcast at least once before. That’s more than double the percentage of people in the US who had listened to a podcast a decade ago and shows just how rapidly the industry has grown.
The table below shows the change in listenership in the US over time
| Year | Podcast listeners in the US (% of the total population) |
| 2023 | 64% |
| 2022 | 62% |
| 2021 | 57% |
| 2020 | 55% |
| 2019 | 51% |
| 2018 | 44% |
| 2017 | 40% |
| 2016 | 36% |
| 2015 | 33% |
| 2014 | 30% |
| 2013 | 27% |
Source: Edison Research
14. 42% of the US population are monthly podcast listeners
In 2021, 41% of people in the US reported listening to podcasts monthly. In 2022, that dropped to 38%. But in 2023, it shot back up to 42%
Furthermore, 31% of the US population are now weekly podcast listeners, compared to 26% in 2022.
Source: Edison Research
15. Men are more likely to regularly listen to podcasts than women
That is, at least in the US.
