News podcast audiences differ substantially by market and demographic group. In 2025, weekly news-podcast reach ranged from 15% in the United States to 3% in Japan across the markets reported by the Reuters Institute. U.S. data from Pew Research Center also shows a persistent age gap, while podcast listeners’ exposure to news varies by gender, race, education and income.
Contents
- Weekly reach across markets
- Age differences in the United States
- Who hears news on podcasts
- News formats by audience segment
- News-organization podcast audiences
- Trust and perceived accuracy
Weekly reach across markets
The Reuters Institute’s The changing landscape for news podcasts across countries reports the share of people in selected markets who consumed a news podcast in the last week in 2025. The United States recorded the highest share in this set, at 15%. Denmark followed at 12%, Sweden at 11% and Norway at 10%.
| Market | People consuming a news podcast in the last week, 2025 |
|---|---|
| United States | 15% |
| Denmark | 12% |
| Sweden | 11% |
| Norway | 10% |
| Italy | 6% |
| Argentina | 4% |
| Japan | 3% |
The reported figure was 6% in Italy, 4% in Argentina and 3% in Japan. These are country-level measurements for 2025, not a single global audience estimate. The spread between the highest and lowest listed markets is therefore best read as a difference in reported weekly reach across markets, rather than as a forecast of future adoption.
Across 20 tracked markets, 2% of respondents said podcasts were their main source of news in 2025, according to the same Reuters Institute source. That measure is narrower than weekly consumption: a person may listen to a news podcast without treating podcasts as the main source of news.
Age differences in the United States
Pew Research Center’s Podcasts and News Fact Sheet tracks how often U.S. adults said they got news from podcasts. In 2020, 22% of U.S. adults said they often or sometimes got news from podcasts. The share was 31% among adults ages 18–29 and 12% among adults ages 65 and older.
The reported adult share increased to 30% in 2023. At that point, 41% of adults ages 18–29 and 35% of adults ages 30–49 said they often or sometimes got news from podcasts, compared with 17% of adults ages 65 and older. The 2023 figures show that podcast news use was not limited to the youngest adult group, although the oldest group remained lower than the other reported age groups.
In 2025, 32% of U.S. adults said they often or sometimes got news from podcasts. The share was 39% among adults ages 18–29, 39% among those ages 30–49, 29% among those ages 50–64 and 18% among adults ages 65 and older.
| U.S. adult group | 2020 | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| All adults | 22% | 30% | 32% |
| Ages 18–29 | 31% | 41% | 39% |
| Ages 30–49 | — | 35% | 39% |
| Ages 50–64 | — | — | 29% |
| Ages 65 and older | 12% | 17% | 18% |
The available measurements use different reported years and age group coverage. They show the level reported in each survey period; they do not establish a continuous year-by-year trend. The 2025 result still places adults ages 18–29 and 30–49 at the highest reported levels, while adults ages 65 and older remain at the lowest.
Who hears news on podcasts
Pew Research Center surveyed U.S. podcast listeners December 5–11, 2022, in Podcasts as a Source of News and Information. Overall, 67% said news was ever discussed on the podcasts they listened to. The result varied by gender: 76% of male podcast listeners said news was ever discussed, compared with 58% of female podcast listeners.
The race and ethnicity figures also differed. News was ever discussed on the podcasts listened to by 67% of White podcast listeners, 76% of Black podcast listeners and 64% of Hispanic podcast listeners. These figures describe whether news appeared at all in the podcasts people listened to, not whether news was their primary podcast interest.
Education was associated with a gradual difference in the reported shares. News was ever discussed for 63% of listeners with a high-school education or less, 65% of those with some college education and 70% of those with a college degree or more.
Income differences were present as well. The share was 65% among listeners with annual incomes below $30,000, 64% among those with incomes of $30,000–$79,999 and 71% among those with incomes of $80,000 or more. Among Democratic or Democratic-leaning podcast listeners, 69% said news was ever discussed on the podcasts they listened to.
The demographic groups are not mutually exclusive in this presentation. For example, a listener can be represented in an age group, an income group and a political-identification group at the same time. Each percentage describes the subgroup named by the source.
News formats by audience segment
The same December 5–11, 2022 Pew Research Center survey measured how frequently U.S. podcast listeners used several news-oriented formats. Overall, 20% listened at least a few times a week to podcasts that primarily summarized the day’s major news stories. Nineteen percent listened at least a few times a week to podcasts that primarily explained a news topic or issue in depth, and 17% listened to podcasts that primarily featured hosts offering opinions about the news.
Format preferences differed by gender in the reported results. Among male podcast listeners, 25% listened at least a few times a week to major-news summaries, 25% to in-depth explanations and 23% to opinion-focused shows. Among female podcast listeners, the corresponding figures were 15%, 13% and 11%.
For listeners ages 18–29, 20% listened at least a few times a week to podcasts primarily summarizing the day’s major news stories. The share was 21% for in-depth explanations and 18% for podcasts primarily featuring hosts’ opinions about the news.
These measures distinguish the format’s primary editorial emphasis. They should not be treated as exclusive audience categories: the supplied figures do not state that a listener used only one of these formats.
News-organization podcast audiences
News-organization connections represent another way to describe the audience. In the December 5–11, 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 20% of U.S. podcast listeners said at least one podcast they listened to was connected to a news organization.
The share was 23% among male listeners and 17% among female listeners. By age, 16% of listeners ages 18–29 said at least one podcast they listened to was connected to a news organization, compared with 21% of listeners ages 30–49 and 24% of listeners ages 65 and older.
Education and income also showed differences in the reported results. Twenty-six percent of listeners with a college degree or more said at least one podcast they listened to was connected to a news organization. The share was 18% among listeners with annual incomes below $30,000 and 25% among those with incomes of $80,000 or more. Among Democratic or Democratic-leaning listeners, 26% reported at least one such connection.
The age pattern here differs from the age pattern for getting news from podcasts in 2025. The measures come from different periods and ask different questions: one concerns a podcast’s connection to a news organization in 2022, while the other concerns whether adults often or sometimes got news from podcasts in 2025.
Trust and perceived accuracy
Podcast news exposure was common among podcast listeners in the 2022 Pew Research Center survey: 67% said news was discussed on the podcasts they listened to. Among those who heard news discussed, 87% expected that news to be mostly accurate. The accuracy figure applies to listeners who heard news discussed, not to every U.S. adult or every podcast listener regardless of exposure.
Pew Research Center’s Podcasts and News Fact Sheet provides a later view of comparative trust. Among U.S. adults who got news from podcasts in 2025, 53% said they trusted that news about the same as news from other sources. Twenty-three percent said they trusted it more, while 23% said they trusted it less. The survey period for these trust comparisons was August 18–24, 2025.
The 2022 accuracy expectation and the 2025 comparative-trust results measure different concepts. Expecting news to be mostly accurate is not the same as ranking trust against other sources. Together, the figures show why audience research should separate exposure, perceived accuracy and comparative trust when describing news podcast demographics.