Who Really Listens to Podcasts? Why Audience Assumptions Can Mislead Advertisers

The report also shows that 35–44 remains a major part of the audience in several markets, especially France and the UK, suggesting stronger adoption among older Millennials and Gen X listeners there. At the same time, AUS and the UK stand out for their higher engagement among younger listeners, especially <18 and 18–24.

This matters because it changes how advertisers should think about age targeting. Podcasting is not simply a “young” medium. It is a medium where different age groups engage through different categories, moments, and cultural cues.

The age-category breakdown makes that especially clear:

• Teens skew Sports globally
• Comedy peaks at 18–34
• Society & Culture becomes prominent at 35–44
• Education rises around 45–54
• True Crime dominates 55–64
• News leads 65+
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That is a very different picture from the idea that ‘podcasting is only for younger audiences’.

Seniors are not an edge case

One of the most useful truths the report brings to light is about older audiences. In many advertiser conversations, seniors are treated as peripheral in podcasting. The data says otherwise.

The US is the clearest example. It is the main market where 65+ listeners significantly over-index, pointing to a more mature adoption curve and broader appeal among older audiences. More broadly, the report’s personas show that 55–65+ listeners appear across markets with strong signals around seasonal shopping, travel, recipes, grocery, and wellness. These are not passive audiences. They are active, intent-rich, and often tied to high-value consumer moments.

This is especially important because the report also notes that older demographics remain under-targeted in campaign activity despite their strong presence in consumption data. That creates a gap between who is actually listening and who advertisers assume is worth targeting.

For brands in travel, retail, home, pharmacy, finance, or food, that should be a wake-up call.

Gen Z matters too, but not always in the ways advertisers assume

If older listeners are underestimated, younger ones are often oversimplified.

The report shows that Gen Z is not just present. It is market-specific in how it engages. Australia and the UK both show stronger youth participation than the cross-market baseline. France’s 18–24 audience is particularly concentrated in Sports, while UK 18–24 listeners lean strongly into Comedy. In Australia, 18–24 is led by Comedy, followed by Society & Culture and Sports. These are not interchangeable patterns. They suggest that planning for Gen Z in podcasting needs to reflect local content habits, not just broad generational assumptions.

The personas in the report make that more tangible. In the US, “Gen Z Starters” are tied to interests like auto intenders, retail spenders, fitness, pets, and micro-holidays. In France, “Eco-Minded Young Adults” connect sustainability, grocery, family, and election-season content. In Australia, “Urban Gen Z Trendsetters” lean into fashion, fitness, summer getaways, Pride, and public transport. These are very different planning signals. Treating Gen Z as one global block misses that richness entirely.

Gender balance is more stable than many advertisers think

Another common assumption is that podcasting is heavily male. That may once have been directionally true in some markets, but it is no longer a reliable blanket rule.

The cross-market baseline in the report is 52% female and 48% male, showing a broadly balanced gender profile overall. The real insight lies in the deviations. France and the UK stand out with significantly higher female shares than the cross-market average, while the US, Germany, and Australia sit close to baseline.

That means advertisers should not treat gender assumptions as universal. Planning for podcasting in France or the UK may require a different starting point than planning for the US, because audience composition is not the same across markets. Using country-level audience benchmarks helps advertisers avoid carrying assumptions from one market into another where they may not apply. 

Category patterns reinforce this. Across markets, True Crime consistently skews female, while News and Sports skew male. Comedy and Society & Culture provide a broader, more balanced reach. The UK is especially notable because female listeners there over-index to Comedy more than anywhere else in the comparison set, while French women show the strongest True Crime skew.

For advertisers, that is the practical lesson: gender in podcasting is not just about audience share. It is also about how gender interacts with category and market.

A major mistake is using the wrong benchmark

All of this leads to the most important takeaway from Chapter 2: podcast planning becomes misleading when advertisers use the wrong baseline.

If the medium already skews toward Millennials, then reaching Millennials is not, by itself, a differentiator. If a market already has a female-heavy podcast audience, then a female-skewing show may not be as distinctive as it looks without comparison to the local podcast baseline. And if 65+ listeners are more active in podcasting than advertisers assume, then strategies built on general-market media habits may overlook real opportunity.

That is why podcast-native benchmarking matters so much. It allows advertisers to ask better questions:

• Is this show actually unusual for Gen Z, or just normal for podcasts?
• Is this audience truly female-skewing, or just typical for this market?
• Is this older-skewing show a niche exception or part of a larger pattern?
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Those distinctions are what make demographic insight useful rather than misleading.

What advertisers should take from this

The real lesson from Chapter 2 is not that podcasting has one predictable audience. It’s that the medium is both broader and more uneven than many planners assume.

Millennials still lead, but Gen Z and older listeners matter more than stereotypes suggest. Gender is broadly balanced, but not evenly distributed by country or category. And the most effective targeting decisions come from comparing shows and audiences against the podcast ecosystem itself - not against the general population.

For advertisers, that means fewer shortcuts and better questions. 

• Not “Are seniors relevant here?” but “Where are older listeners already active, and why are we not planning for them?”
• Not “Is podcasting young?” but “Which age cohorts are strongest in this market and category?”
• Not “Does this show skew female?” but “Does it over-index female relative to the local podcast baseline?”
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That is the difference between audience assumptions and demographic strategy.

If you’d like to optimize your audience strategy, NumberEight can help you identify the most relevant personas for you. Book a call to find out what Affinity Audiences can do for you.