Wireless audio spans Bluetooth-enabled devices, earbuds, speakers, smart speakers, streamed content and accessibility technologies. The figures below distinguish global forecasts from UK survey results and global health estimates, with periods and populations stated explicitly.
Key Wireless Audio Statistics
The most broadly useful wireless audio figures include:
- 7.5 billion Bluetooth-enabled devices are forecast to ship annually by 2028 worldwide.
- Bluetooth-enabled device shipments are forecast to grow at an 8% CAGR over the five years to 2028 globally.
- 448 million Bluetooth earbuds are forecast to ship worldwide in 2024.
- 712 million Bluetooth earbuds are forecast to ship worldwide in 2028.
- Bluetooth earbud shipments are forecast to increase 59% from 2024 to 2028 globally.
- 262 million Bluetooth speakers are expected to ship worldwide in 2024.
- 2.5 million public locations are forecast to deploy Auracast broadcast audio worldwide by 2030.
- 3 billion LE Audio-enabled devices are forecast to ship annually worldwide by 2028.
- 72% of UK radio listening hours came through an analogue or DAB radio set in RAJAR Q4 2023.
- 79% of UK adults aged 16–34 used an online music service weekly in the Ofcom Audio Survey 2024.
- 47% of UK adults reached YouTube weekly as an online audio service in the Ofcom Audio Survey 2024.
- 42% of UK households had a smart speaker in 2023.
- 60% of UK smart-speaker users used the device for music through a streaming service in the Ofcom Audio Survey 2024.
- 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss worldwide by 2050.
- Over 1 billion young people are estimated to be at risk of hearing loss from recreational sound exposure worldwide.
- WHO estimates nearly US$16 in return over 10 years for every US$1 invested in ear and hearing care globally.
Contents
- Bluetooth device scale and wireless audio shipment trends
- Wireless earbuds and speaker shipment data
- Wireless audio listening habits, streaming and radio
- Smart-speaker and connected-audio usage
- LE Audio, Auracast and accessibility forecasts
- Wireless listening exposure, hearing loss and safe-audio data
Bluetooth Device Scale and Wireless Audio Shipment Trends
Bluetooth statistics provide a useful measure of the ecosystem around wireless audio, but the broadest figures include phones, computers, peripherals and other categories. The Bluetooth SIG’s 2024 Bluetooth® Market Update, reproducing ABI Research forecasts, estimates the following global shipment trajectory.
| Measure | Period | Global figure |
|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth-enabled devices shipped annually | 2028 forecast | 7.5 billion |
| Bluetooth-enabled device growth | Five-year forecast to 2028 | 8% CAGR |
| Single-mode Bluetooth LE devices | 2024 forecast | 1.8 billion |
| Bluetooth devices expected to include LE | 2028 forecast | 97% |
The 2028 total is a forecast for all Bluetooth-enabled devices, not wireless audio alone. Single-mode Bluetooth LE shipments are forecast to more than double over the five years after 2024, while 100% of key new smartphones, tablets and laptops support Bluetooth Classic plus Bluetooth LE according to the 2024 report’s global market estimate.
The same forecast places Bluetooth peripheral shipments at 3.5 billion in 2024 and 5.5 billion in 2028, with a 12% CAGR over the five years to 2028. Peripherals include non-audio products, so these values describe the addressable connectivity environment rather than a direct speaker or headphone market total.
Source: 2024 Bluetooth® Market Update. The figures are forecasts or category estimates, not a retail-sales audit.
Wireless Earbuds and Speaker Shipment Data
Audio-specific Bluetooth forecasts narrow the view to earbuds, speakers and the wider audio-streaming-device category. The Bluetooth SIG forecasts that annual Bluetooth audio-streaming device shipments will be 1.38 times the 2024 level by 2028, a shipment measure rather than a revenue or ownership measure.
| Bluetooth audio category | Period | Global shipment figure |
|---|---|---|
| Earbuds | 2024 forecast | 448 million |
| Earbuds | 2028 forecast | 712 million |
| Earbud shipment change | 2024–2028 forecast | 59% increase |
| Share of Bluetooth wireless headsets represented by earbuds | 2024 forecast | 59% |
| Speakers | 2024 forecast | 262 million |
Earbuds are forecast to reach 712 million annual shipments in 2028, compared with 448 million in 2024. These are units shipped, not unique users or the installed base, and the 59% increase is the percentage stated by Bluetooth SIG for the forecast period.
The 2024 estimate that earbuds represent 59% of Bluetooth wireless headsets applies within that headset category and should not be read as a share of all headphones. Likewise, the 262 million Bluetooth speaker forecast does not cover every wireless speaker design or indicate revenue.
Source: 2024 Bluetooth® Market Update. Bluetooth SIG attributes the forecasts to ABI Research.
Wireless Audio Listening Habits, Streaming and Radio Data
UK audience research shows how listening channels coexist rather than measuring wireless-device ownership directly. RAJAR Q4 2023 found that 72% of UK radio listening hours were through an analogue or DAB radio set.
At home, online radio represented 32% of listening hours, compared with 26% for AM/FM. In cars, vans and lorries, 93% of radio listening remained digital or analogue through the radio set, split between 55% DAB and 38% AM/FM.
Ofcom’s Audio Survey 2024 reported these weekly behaviors among UK adults aged 16–34:
- 79% used an online music service.
- 67% used online music video for background listening.
- 55% listened to personal music stored on a digital device.
Music radio remained prominent among older groups: 67% of UK adults aged 35–54 and 66% of those aged 55 and over listened to music radio weekly. These are self-reported survey results, and the questionnaire definitions differ by activity.
| Online service | Weekly UK adult reach | Weekly reach among ages 16–34 |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 47% | 62% |
| Spotify | 37% | 63% |
| BBC Sounds | 21% | Not stated |
| Apple Music | 11% | 22% |
The same Ofcom report found that 35% of monthly music-radio listeners used online music services to discover new music, while 16% of music-radio listeners said radio helped them discover new music. The populations are different monthly-listener groups, so the percentages are not a head-to-head device comparison.
Source: Ofcom Audio Report 2024. Results are UK survey or audience-measurement figures, not global estimates.
Smart-Speaker and Connected-Audio Usage Statistics
Smart speakers connect wireless audio with voice interfaces and household routines. Ofcom’s Technology Tracker measured 42% of UK households with a smart speaker in 2023, while the Ofcom Audio Survey 2024 measured how users reported using those devices.
| Reported smart-speaker activity | UK smart-speaker users |
|---|---|
| Music through a streaming service | 60% |
| Live radio | 58% |
| Searching for answers | 37% |
| Weather reports | 36% |
| Alarms and reminders | 35% |
| News | 26% |
On voice-activated devices, IPA TouchPoints 2023 Superhub measured online live radio at 55% of listening time and streamed music at 36%. Catch-up radio, podcasts and audiobooks each represented between 2% and 3% of listening time; the report supplied a range rather than a separate exact value for each category.
The survey also shows the importance of defaults and recognition. Among 614 smart-speaker users who used the device for news updates, 48% had at least some awareness of the original source, while 73% had never changed the default news-update provider; among 1,023 smart-speaker users, 68% had never changed the default music provider.
Among smart-speaker radio users, 49% said the device had played the wrong thing in response to a station or programme request, while 48% said they had not experienced that problem. These are self-reported experiences, not laboratory measures of recognition accuracy.
Source: Ofcom Audio Report 2024. Bases vary by question.
LE Audio, Auracast and Wireless-Audio Accessibility Forecasts
LE Audio and Auracast extend wireless audio beyond personal listening into shared broadcasts and assistive use. The Bluetooth SIG forecasts 3 billion LE Audio-enabled devices shipping annually by 2028, across audio and assistive categories.
Auracast deployment is forecast to reach 2.5 million public locations by 2030 worldwide. This is a deployment forecast, not a count of completed installations, and the cited industry context says more than 1.5 billion people with hearing loss today could potentially benefit from LE Audio hearing-aid support.
WHO’s global health projections establish the scale of the underlying accessibility need:
- 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss by 2050.
- More than 700 million people are projected to require hearing rehabilitation by 2050.
- About 95.1 million children aged 5–19 live with hearing loss worldwide in the current WHO fact-sheet estimate.
- More than 5% of the world’s population, or 430 million people, require rehabilitation for disabling hearing loss in the current WHO estimate.
- Nearly 80% of people with disabling hearing loss live in low- and middle-income countries.
- More than 25% of people older than 60 are affected by disabling hearing loss.
The Bluetooth-related population figure is an industry estimate of potential addressability, not measured adoption or treatment benefit. WHO’s figures are health estimates and projections, not evidence that wireless audio causes or cures hearing loss.
Sources: 2024 Bluetooth® Market Update and Deafness and hearing loss.
Wireless Listening Exposure, Hearing Loss and Safe-Audio Data
Wireless listening is one part of recreational sound exposure, so global safety statistics should not be presented as Bluetooth exposure rates. WHO estimates that over 1 billion young people globally are at risk of hearing loss from sound exposure in recreational settings, a category broader than personal wireless listening.
WHO describes normal hearing as thresholds of 20 dB or better in both ears. It defines disabling hearing loss as hearing loss greater than 35 dB in the better-hearing ear; this is a clinical threshold, not a recommended wireless listening volume.
The health and economic measures are substantial:
- Unaddressed hearing loss has an annual global cost of almost US$1 trillion.
- An additional annual investment of less than US$1.40 per person is estimated to be needed to scale up ear and hearing-care services globally.
- WHO estimates nearly US$16 in return over 10 years for every US$1 invested in ear and hearing care.
These estimates describe health-system needs and economic outcomes, not consumer wireless-audio prices. They also should not be interpreted as proof that wireless transmission itself creates hearing risk; the supplied WHO risk estimate concerns unsafe recreational sound exposure broadly.
Sources: Deafness and hearing loss and WHO global standard for safe listening venues and events.