Pew Research Center: Over Half of U.S. Adults Now Listen to Podcasts as News Consumption Grows

A new fact sheet from the Pew Research Center reveals that 54% of U.S. adults have listened to a podcast in the past year, marking a steady increase in the medium's reach. News consumption via podcasts is also on the rise, with 32% of Americans now getting information from the format at least sometimes. This shift highlights the growing importance of audio as a primary news source, particularly for younger demographics who are twice as likely to engage with podcasts as their older counterparts.

According to the Pew Research Center’s August 2025 survey, podcasting has solidified its position in the American media diet, with 54% of adults reporting listenership in the last 12 months, up from 49% in 2022. This growth is heavily driven by younger audiences, as 67% of those aged 18 to 29 engaged with the medium compared to just 33% of those 65 and older. The trend extends to news specifically; the share of Americans getting news from podcasts has jumped from 22% in 2020 to 32% today, with 10% of the population now doing so frequently.

Trust in podcast news remains a complex issue for the industry, as 53% of listeners trust the medium about the same as other sources, while the remaining audience is split evenly between trusting it more (23%) or less (23%). Notably, there is a significant partisan divide in trust levels; 31% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents trust podcast news more than other sources, which is double the 15% reported by Democrats. Listeners are engaging with various formats, favoring in-depth explanations of news topics (69%), followed by opinion-based shows (61%) and daily news summaries (58%).

Despite the rising consumption rates, direct monetization through listener support remains a challenge for news-focused audio creators. Only 6% of U.S. adults reported paying for or donating to a news podcast in the past year, significantly lower than the 17% who paid for news across all media types. The data also suggests that education plays a role in consumption habits, with college-educated Americans more likely to turn to podcasts for news. These findings, compiled by researchers Elisa Shearer and Emily Tomasik, underscore a growing but financially untapped potential for the podcasting sector as it competes for a larger share of the information market.