10 Podcast Statistics You Need To Know in 2020

As an ambitious podcaster you may want to understand the context that you exist in a little bit better.

How big is the podcasting community really? Is it growing or is it shrinking? Should I invest more time to my podcast?

As podcasts is an easy to consume format, there’s a lot of reasons people some times prefer them over blogging or video consumption.

People listen to podcasts for a lot of reasons, to learn more about their favorite hobbies, listen to interviews with authors, self improvement, learn more about marketing, get inspired or dive into more complex topics.

In 2020, podcasting, as an industry, is going to grow faster than even before, which is great news for everybody that wants to invest their time into building a show.

So, how big is the pie?

If you’re looking for up to date podcasting statistics, you’ve come to the right place.

1. How many people know about podcasts?

There’s been a steady growth in how many people know about what podcasting is.

In 2019 podcast is known among 70% of people in the United States.

In the previous year, 2018, 64% of the population knew about podcasting.

2. How many people listen to podcasts?

Does the above fact mean that podcasting becomes more mainstream?

Well, yes according to listener statistics.

32% percent (90 million people) in the US listen to podcasts at least once every month.

3. How many podcasts exist?

In 2019 there’s more than 800.000 podcasts active podcasts.

That includes shows ranging from one episode over to shows with hundreds of hours of content.

The previous year, 2018, there were 550.000 active podcasts on iTunes.

That’s a 45% increase in a single year!

In total, there’s over 2 million podcasts registered by Google.

4. How many episodes exist?

Estimating the number of episodes isn’t easy.

It’s known that there’s more than 29 million episodes published.

Compared to the previous year there’s a 36% increase in this statistic.

Stats from Apple WWDC 2018 showed that in 2018 there were 18.5 million episodes published.

5. What recording software podcasters prefer?

There are a lot of software options that podcasters can use to record and edit their shows.

Audacity comes in the first place with 48% usage. It’s a solid open-source, free to use, podcast recording and mixing option that is been developed since 2000.

Adobe Audition, which is a commercial, monthly subscription option, comes in the second place with 31% usage.

This is interesting.

You don’t necessarily need to pay for a fancy software to record your show. The free options are good enough!

6. Why do people listen to podcasts?

Edison Research reveals the following stats for Americans.

• 74% listen to learn something new
• 71% listen to episodes for fun
• 60% to stay in touch with news
• 51% listen to relax

7. How do people find new podcasts?

The Podcast Host’s Discoverability Survey revealed the following statistics.

• 43% via social media or online communities
• 23% directly ask other people
• 16% search podcast app directories
• 12% search on google
• 6% through a podcast chart

8. Where does podcasting growing faster?

Voxnest’s survey in 2019 showed some interesting facts about the countries that podcasting is growing faster.

• 83.9% growth in Chile
• 55.28% growth in Argentina
• 49.1% growth in Peru
• 47.84% growth in Mexico
• 43.62% growth in China

Having trouble making a podcast in English?

Starting one in your native tongue may be actually a good idea after all.

9. What percentage of the audience is male compared to female?

Buzzsprout’s podcast demographics reveal that men are more likely to listen to podcasts (56%) than women (44%).

10. How many podcasts are been listened weekly on average?

Most listeners follow many different content creators.

The statistics go to show that on average, a person consumes 7 different shows per week.

Also 80% of the listeners listen to all or the majority of each episode.

Even though it is time consuming, many of the listeners put the episodes on a higher speed to get through them.

The number is down since 2019 (86%) meaning that people attention spans are getting shorter.

Make sure that you draw your listeners attention early on and making them know they will be missing out if they don’t stay tuned.

Wrapping up (plus some extra facts)

In 2020 the podcasting industry is going to be taking off more than ever before and more people are going to start preferring audio content and make it a daily habit.

Growth is accelerating, and that’s good news for advertisers.

There’s no signs of plateauing.

54% of consumers say that they’re thinking about buying advertised products and businesses spent $497 million in advertisement in 2018, with a 14% rise in purchase intent.

Also big companies like Spotify are starting to invest heavily in the medium and it seems that their work in the industry have a big effect in this last year. 53% of monthly Spotify listeners are listening to podcasts, compared to 53% the year before.

So… Thinking about starting your podcast? This may be the best time!