Audio technology now spans podcasts, connected cars, smart speakers, broadcast radio, streaming subscriptions and personal listening devices. The measures below distinguish reported adoption, listening reach, listening-time share, industry revenue, exposure risk and modeled health outcomes across the United States, the United Kingdom and global populations.
Key Audio Technology Statistics
The most broadly useful figures are:
- 70% of Americans aged 12 and older had ever listened to a podcast in 2025 in the United States.
- 73% of Americans aged 12 and older had consumed a podcast in audio or video form in 2025, an estimate equivalent to 210 million people.
- 55% of Americans aged 12 and older were monthly podcast consumers in 2025.
- 79% of Americans aged 12 and older listened to online audio monthly in 2025, estimated at 228 million people.
- 33% of weekly U.S. podcast listeners used YouTube most often to listen in 2025.
- 64% of UK podcast listeners spent more than three hours per week listening in 2025.
- 74% of UK podcast listeners had binge-listened to podcasts in 2025.
- 40% of UK households had a smart speaker in Q1 2025.
- 63% of UK smart-speaker owners used the device for music streaming in 2025.
- 56% of weekly listening time on UK smart speakers was online live radio in 2025 among adults aged 15 and older.
- DAB represented 56% of UK in-car radio listening in Q1 2025, compared with 38% for AM/FM.
- Global recorded-music revenue grew 4.8% in 2024.
- Streaming accounted for 69.0% of global recorded-music revenue in 2024.
- 752 million paid music-subscription accounts existed globally at the end of 2024.
- Nearly 50% of people aged 12–35 were estimated at risk of hearing loss from excessive loud sound in 2019, or about 1.1 billion young people globally.
- More than 900 million people were forecast to have disabling hearing loss by 2050 in the 2019 WHO projection.
- Nearly 2.5 billion people were projected to have some degree of hearing loss by 2050 in the WHO 2026 fact sheet.
Contents
- Digital audio and podcast adoption
- Podcast listening behavior and discovery
- Smart speaker adoption and use
- Radio technology trends
- Music streaming market scale
- Safe listening and hearing outcomes
Digital Audio and Podcast Adoption Statistics
Edison Research’s The Infinite Dial 2025 measures U.S. adoption among people aged 12 and older. Its figures separate ever-use, monthly use and broader online-audio behavior, so they should not be treated as interchangeable audience totals.
- In 2025, 70% of Americans aged 12 and older had ever listened to a podcast, an Edison national-survey measure of lifetime reach.
- 51% had watched a podcast in 2025, measuring video-podcast consumption rather than audio-only listening.
- 73% had consumed a podcast in audio or video form, estimated at 210 million people; the population count is an estimate based on the survey result.
- 55% were monthly podcast consumers, which measures monthly consumption rather than unique annual reach.
- 48% had both listened to and watched a podcast, an ever-use measure across the two formats.
- 79% listened to online audio monthly, estimated at 228 million people; online audio is broader than podcasts.
The same survey reports a gender breakdown for monthly podcast consumption: 57% among men and 52% among women in the United States in 2025. These are survey percentages, not evidence that the difference represents a causal pattern.
Source: The Infinite Dial 2025.
Podcast Listening Behavior and Content Discovery Data
Ofcom’s Media Nations 2025 – UK Report describes how UK podcast listeners spend time, find value and engage with genres. The figures below are survey-reported behavior and attitudes, while the named-program figure is a ranker reach measure rather than total downloads.
| UK podcast measure | Result | Population and period |
|---|---|---|
| More than three hours listening weekly | 64% | Podcast listeners, 2025 |
| At least ten hours listening weekly | 17% | Podcast listeners, 2025 |
| Spend more time listening than a year earlier | 60% | Podcast listeners, 2025 |
| Have binge-listened | 74% | Podcast listeners, 2025 |
| Value listening whenever convenient | 87% | Regular podcast listeners, 2025 |
| Value the range of available content | 82% | Regular podcast listeners, 2025 |
| Would be happy to pay for a favorite podcast | 38% | Podcast listeners, 2025 |
Among regular UK podcast listeners, 23% said podcasts encouraged them to listen to radio more, while 28% said they listened to radio less. A further 31% said they listened to music streaming services more often because of podcast listening; these are perceived associations, not causal experiments.
Genre reach varies by age. Entertainment podcasts reached 57% and comedy podcasts 53% of weekly listeners aged 18–34, while news and current-affairs podcasts reached 48% of those aged 35–54 and 46% of those aged 55+; respondents could select multiple genres.
The Joe Rogan Experience reached 10.0% of weekly UK podcast listeners aged 15+ in the Edison Podcast Metrics ranker for Q2 2024–Q1 2025. This is weekly reach, not a total-download estimate.
Source: Media Nations 2025 – UK Report.
Smart Speaker Adoption and Audio Use Statistics
Smart speakers connect household device ownership with multiple audio and information activities. Ofcom reported that 40% of UK households had a smart speaker in Q1 2025, and 81% of smart-speaker households had at least one Amazon Echo with Alexa; brand presence does not mean exclusive ownership.
Reported activities among UK smart-speaker owners were:
- 63% used the device for music streaming in 2025.
- 58% used it to listen to radio in 2025.
- 43% used it to search for information online in 2025.
These percentages can overlap because owners may use one device for several activities. Ownership, reported use and listening-time share are therefore separate measures.
Source: Media Nations 2025 – UK Report.
Radio Technology Trends Across Smart Speakers and Cars
UK listening data shows different patterns by platform and location. Among adults aged 15 and older using smart speakers in 2025, online live radio represented 56% of weekly listening time and streamed music 35%; among smart-speaker users aged 15–34, streamed music represented 63% and online live radio 29%.
| UK radio or audio measure | Result | Period and scope |
|---|---|---|
| Smart speakers’ share of at-home radio listening | 14% to 26% | Q1 2022 to Q1 2025 |
| Adults listening to radio in vehicles weekly | 7.8m to 11.5m | Q1 2020 to Q1 2025 |
| Live-radio listening in cars, vans and lorries | 26% | Q1 2025 |
| DAB share of in-car radio listening | 56% | Q1 2025 |
| AM/FM share of in-car radio listening | 38% | Q1 2025 |
| Live radio share of in-car audio time | 51% | 2025 |
| Music-streaming share of in-car audio time | 39% | 2025 |
Ofcom also reported that UK in-car radio listening grew 54%, from 171 million weekly hours in Q1 2005 to 263 million in Q1 2025, while at-home radio listening fell 13%, from 733 million to 635 million weekly hours. These long comparisons span pandemic-era fieldwork and methodology changes, so Ofcom advises caution when interpreting them.
Source: Media Nations 2025 – UK Report.
Music Streaming Technology Market Scale and Growth
IFPI’s industry data concerns the recorded-music industry, not every category of audio technology, device sales or unique listening audience. Within that defined market, streaming was the dominant revenue channel in 2024.
- Global recorded-music revenue grew 4.8% in 2024.
- Streaming represented 69.0% of global recorded-music revenue in 2024.
- Global streaming revenue increased 9.5% in 2024.
- There were 752 million users of paid music-subscription accounts globally at the end of 2024; the account count is not necessarily a count of unique individuals.
These revenue and account measures describe market scale differently: revenue records money received by the recorded-music industry, while paid accounts indicate subscription access. Neither figure is a complete measure of all audio technology adoption.
Source: Industry Data – IFPI.
Audio Technology, Safe Listening and Hearing Outcomes
WHO evidence places listening technology within a wider hearing-health context. Exposure risk, diagnosed or estimated hearing loss, rehabilitation need and economic burden are different measures and should not be combined into one trend line.
| Hearing measure | Result | Period, population and definition |
|---|---|---|
| Young people at risk from prolonged excessive loud sound | Nearly 50%, about 1.1bn | Global age 12–35, 2019 estimate |
| Disabling hearing loss | 466m, including 432m adults and 34m children | Global, 2019 estimate |
| Disabling hearing loss by 2050 | More than 900m, or one in ten | Global forecast published in 2019 |
| Annual cost of unaddressed hearing loss | US$750bn | Global, 2019 economic estimate |
| Unsafe personal-audio exposure | Nearly 25% | Age 12–35 in middle- and high-income countries, 2019 evidence summary |
| Potentially damaging club and bar exposure | Around 40% | Age 12–35, global evidence summary, 2019 |
| Some degree of hearing loss by 2050 | Nearly 2.5bn | Global projection in WHO’s 2026 fact sheet |
| People requiring hearing rehabilitation by 2050 | More than 700m | Global projection in WHO’s 2026 fact sheet |
The 2026 WHO fact sheet estimates that around 95.1 million children aged 5–19 live with hearing loss worldwide and that more than 1 billion young adults are at risk of permanent avoidable hearing loss from unsafe listening practices. It also estimates that over 5% of the world’s population, or 430 million people including 34 million children, require rehabilitation for disabling hearing loss, defined there as greater than 35 dB in the better-hearing ear.
Nearly 60% of childhood hearing loss is attributed to avoidable causes in the 2026 WHO estimate, but avoidability covers multiple causes and is not limited to audio exposure. The 2019 and 2026 figures use different estimates, definitions and methods; the later figures should not be presented as a single uninterrupted series with the earlier ones.
Sources: New WHO-ITU standard aims to prevent hearing loss among 1.1 billion young people and Deafness and hearing loss.