You’ve got a Facebook page; you have a website; you may even have a blog that you update regularly. How else can you reach out to prospects, connect with your community, and show your expertise in your field? The answer, increasingly, is podcasting.

If you’re looking at using podcasting in your marketing efforts, you’re not alone. Not only is it growing in popularity among the general population, but businesses are also increasingly using podcasting either as an advertising channel or creating their own podcast, such as a legal podcast for a lawfirm.

What do you need to know before starting a podcast, and how can you create an effective one? Here are 36 podcast listener statistics to get you up to speed.

Creating/maintaining a successful podcast for your marketing needs can be difficult when you don't know where to start. We've made it easier with 36 vital podcast listener statistics to get your audience listening.

36 podcast listener statistics you need to know:

1.) 75% of the US population is familiar with the term “podcasting,” up from 70% in 2019. (Edison Research)

2.) 162 million people, or 57% of the US population, have listened to a podcast, up from 51% in 2019. (Edison Research)

3.) 41% of Australians listened to a podcast in the last month, up from 32% in 2019. (Edison Research)

4.) Nearly a quarter of all listeners started in the past 6 months. (Reuters)

More types of people are listening than ever before.

5.) 24% (68 million) listen to podcasts weekly – up from 22% in 2019.(Edison Research)

6.) Podcast listeners’ gender matches Australian distribution—51% male, 49% female. (Edison Research)

7.) 27% of Australian podcast listeners have a 4-year college degree. (Listen Notes)

8.) 50% of listeners under 35 have listened to a podcast in the last month. (Edison Research)

9.) 16 million people in Australia identify as “avid podcast fans”. (Revenue Rocket)

10.)Age of monthly podcast listeners versus Australian population. (Edison Research):

12-34: 48% (vs 37%)

35-54: 32% (vs 40%)

55+: 20% (vs 23%)

11.) The overall monthly podcast listening audience is now more diverse than ever: 57% of monthly podcast listeners are white, 16% Latino, 13% African American, 4% Asian, and 10% of some other background. (Edison Research)

People have all sorts of listening styles.

12.) 19% of listeners increase the playback speed. (Statista)

13.) 41% of podcast listeners make $75k a year or more, compared to 29% of the general population. (Reuters)

14.) 70% of listeners say that, at least sometimes, they do nothing else while listening to podcasts. (Reuters)

15.) While 49% of podcast listeners tune in from home, 22% listen in the car. (Podcast Insights)

16.) 52% of monthly listeners listen to the entirety of each episode. (Reuters)

17.) Roughly 50% of customer service reps have listened to a podcast at work. (HubSpot)

18.) Podcasts are the number one audio source by time of consumption among podcast listeners. (Edison Research)

Podcast listeners are looking for different things.

19.) 74% say they listen to podcasts to learn new things. (Reuters)

20.) 71% say they listen to be entertained. (Reuters)

)Edison Research)

31.) Podcast advertising revenue is expected to pass $1 billion by 2021. (IAB)

32.) In late 2018, premade edited-in podcast ads made up 51% of placements. However, dynamic ads rose from making up 44% of ad placements in 2017 to 48% in the following year. (IAB)

33.) NPR notes that 75% of its podcast listeners will respond or take action after hearing sponsored content. (National Public Media)

A few more podcast statistics to get you thinking:

People want in-depth content.

34.) The average podcast is 43 minutes long. (Small Biz Genius)

35.) However, 50% of surveyed Australians say that podcasts are “too long.”>

36 podcast statistics to get your audience listening.

Ready to grow?