Twenty-five percent of Latinos in the U.S. are Monthly Podcast Listeners

The Latino Podcast Listener Report from Edison Research finds that 25% of U.S. Latinos age 18+ have listened to a podcast in the last month, and 45% of U.S. Latinos age 18+ have ever listened to a podcast. The study also shows increases in podcast listening for over half of U.S. Latinos age 18+ since the outbreak of COVID-19.

The Latino Podcast Listener Report is the first and only comprehensive research on Latino podcast listeners in the United States; it was conducted by Edison Research and commissioned by Adonde Media, Lantigua Williams & Co., Libsyn, NPR, and Pandora.  Findings from the study debuted in two webinars on June 30, one in English and one in Spanish, presented by Gabriel Soto, Manager of Research at Edison Research, and Martina Castro, CEO of Adonde Media. 

Although U.S. Latinos (61%) overall are less likely to be familiar with the term “podcasting” than the total U.S. population (75%), there are hardly any Spanish-language dominant Latinos in the U.S. who are familiar with the term podcasting and aren’t already listening.

The study shows that 36% of U.S. Latinos have listened to a podcast in English and 24% of U.S. Latinos have listened to a podcast in Spanish. Language dominance, in general, does not seem to correlate with the likelihood to be a monthly or weekly listener to podcasts, though: 25% of all U.S. Latinos in non-Spanish-language dominant households have listened to a podcast in the last month compared to 26% of those in Spanish-language dominant households. Also, 20% of all U.S. Latinos in non-Spanish-language dominant households have listened to a podcast in the last week, which is the same number (20%) as those in Spanish-language dominant households.

Among podcast listeners, however, there are some differences based on language dominance. Notably, podcast listeners in Spanish-language dominant households are much more likely to have begun listening to podcasts recently than those in non-Spanish-language dominant households. Seventy percent of Spanish-language dominant listeners have started listening in the last year, compared with 47% of non- Spanish-language dominant listeners. Of all U.S. Latino podcast listeners, 52% are listening to podcasts more since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of U.S. Latino monthly podcast listeners, 55% are male, 50% are 18-34, and 47% identify as the first generation in the United States.

“Today we learned that the majority of Latinos have only started listening to podcasts within the last year, and yet many are still unfamiliar with the term podcasting,” noted Gabriel Soto, Manager of Research at Edison Research. “Latinos have been and will continue to be essential for the sustained growth of podcast listening,” said Soto.

“It is so validating to see the data bear out what many of us have long known about the tremendous potential of the Latino podcast listening audience in the U.S., both in English and in Spanish,” said Martina Castro, Founder and CEO of Adonde Media. Now, the industry has the data that shows why making content for Latinos isn’t only the right thing to do, but is also simply a smart investment.”

Other key findings about U.S. Latino monthly podcast listeners include:

• 80% say they are listening to podcasts more now than compared to one year ago
• 26% say they source they use most for podcast discovery is social media posts, followed by recommendations from friends and family at 22%
• 73% listened to an English podcast in the last month and 49% listened to a Spanish podcast in the last month
• 47% agree it is “somewhat important” or “very important” that the podcasts they listen to include stories about and perspectives from their countries of origin

The Latino Podcast Listener Report may be downloaded at https://www.edisonresearch.com/latino-podcast-listener-report/. For more information on the partners in this study, please visit, Adonde Media, Lantigua Williams & Co., Libsyn, NPR, and Pandora.

How This Study Was Conducted

2,500 online interviews were conducted May 5 – May 27, 2020. The survey was offered in both English and Spanish and is nationally representative of Hispanic/Latino adults age 18+. The data is weighted to match age/sex/country of origin of U.S. Hispanic/Latino population and The Infinite Dial 2020 podcast listening statistics. Share of Ear® is based on data from 4,000+ respondents through a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population age 13+. The survey is offered online and offline, and in English and Spanish. Share of Ear data included in this report was updated through Q1 2020, before the COVID-19 disruptions.

About Edison Research

Edison Research conducts survey research and provides strategic information to a broad array of clients, including Activision, AMC Theatres, Disney, Dolby Laboratories, Google, Oracle, the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, Pandora, Samsung, Siemens, Sony, The Gates Foundation, and Univision. Edison is the leading podcast research company in the world and has conducted research on the medium for NPR, Slate, ESPN, PodcastOne, WNYC Studios, and many more companies in the space. Another specialty for Edison is its work for media companies throughout the world, conducting research in North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Edison is also the leading provider of consumer exit polling and has conducted face-to-face research in almost every imaginable venue. Since 2004, Edison Research has been the sole provider of Election Day data to the National Election Pool, conducting exit polls and collecting precinct vote returns to project and analyze results for every major presidential primary and general election.