Despite the popularity of podcasts, most US adults still listen to radio

1 in 5 Americans get local news from the radio

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center report, radio remains the second most popular medium for local news, remaining a vital source for local concerns. Audiences for national public radio, however, have declined, with listenership for NPR-affiliated stations down 10%.

A map of religious radio stations in the US

A Pew analysis of 440,000 hours of broadcasts found more than 4,000 faith-based AM/FM stations reach 98% of American adults (out of a total of 17,000 licensed stations). Ownership is highly concentrated, with the top 30% of stations belonging to large groups; Educational Media Foundation's K-LOVE and Air1 networks alone hold hundreds of licenses nationwide.

Although no longer the dominant format, CDs are increasingly popular with younger people

The compact disc now only accounts for about 3% of all music industry revenue, but those who still purchase CDs are, generally, much younger than most would expect. A 2023 YouGov poll found that 53% of Americans were willing to pay for music on CDs. When broken down by generation, those under 45-years-old were more likely to express interest in CDs and vinyl.

Nearly a quarter of the US's 451 top-ranked podcasts belong to the true crime genre

Perhaps, Pew Research Center proposes, this popularity stems from the fame of "Serial," the 2014 hit series about a 1999 murder in Baltimore. Politics and government is the second top genre. Outside typical genre divides lie series such as fictional radio stories and Dungeons & Dragons podcasts, which account for 12% of top-ranked podcasts.

A professor explains how podcasts built on radio's strengths

When podcasts were first produced in the early 2000s, they were often recordings of radio shows aimed at listeners who wanted to listen outside of the broadcast windows. Siobhan McHugh, an associate professor of journalism at Australia's University of Wollongong, argues that the form is built on radio's intimacy, amplifying the connection listeners feel with their favorite hosts.

40% of Americans didn't read a book in 2025

The median American only read two books in 2025. Most of the books Americans read are consumed by a small segment of the population, with 4% of readers accounting for nearly half of all books read.

As of 2025, about 9 in 10 Americans use the internet daily

Polling finds that while most Americans have home broadband and smartphones, digital divides persist. Young adults, Hispanic adults, and lower-income households are significantly less likely to subscribe to home broadband and more likely to rely on smartphones as their primary means of internet access.

More than half of Americans polled prefer rewatching comedies to other genres

Although streamers and networks are producing fewer sitcoms than ever before, they still have a large audience. About 59.1% of Americans polled by YouGov in a 2023 survey said "Comedy" was their favorite genre to rewatch.

17% of US adults said they had invested, traded, or used cryptocurrency in 2023

A survey from the Pew Research Center found that 63% of US adults have “little to no confidence that current ways to invest in, trade, or use cryptocurrencies are reliable and safe.”

US depression rates at historic high among adults

More than 18% of US adults reported that they currently have or are being treated for depression in both 2024 and 2025. In the 2025 survey, more than 11,000 adults were surveyed. The numbers have ticked upward since 2015—by about 8 percentage points—with most of the increase occurring from the 2020 pandemic onward.

More than half of American adults believe in the afterlife

It’s hard to find actual data regarding ghosts, but a survey conducted by Pew Research Group in 2023, revealed that around half of the US adult population believes ghosts can interact with the living, with most thinking that spirits can help rather than harm us.

Around 32% of American adults have at least one tattoo

Tattoos have waxed and waned in popularity over the centuries, depending upon the social standing of their wearers. Throughout US history, they were often considered taboo. However, growing acceptance of tattoos means they’re more visible in the public eye.

The states in America that drink the most beer

Americans, in 2020, drank on average almost twenty-six gallons of beer per adult aged twenty-one or over, over the course of the pandemic.

Radio quiz shows took off in the '40s

The concept took hold during the Great Depression, with 50 shows on the air by 1940, because they allowed families to imagine a financial windfall was just a few questions away. Although the genre had a slight downturn during World War II, it experienced a resurgence by the end of the decade, with 200 shows on the air.

Roughly 62% of US adults under 30 say they use TikTok

A Pew Research Center publication reports that most members of Gen Z use the app. That's significantly more than other age groups: 39% for those ages 30 to 49, 24% for those 50 to 64, and 10% for those 65 and older.

Spotify's most-streamed albums to date

Interested in people's listening habits? Look through this up-to-date list to find out the most streamed albums on Spotify. See which musicians top the list by year, decade, or even all-time.

More than 90% of American deaf children are born to hearing parents

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders have collated top statistics about hearing loss in the US including differences by age, racial groups, and other factors.

Only 3% of workers 18 and older had a 25+ year tenure at their current job as of 2024

Surprisingly, this statistic hasn't changed significantly between 1996 and 2024, despite news about job hopping becoming more common in recent years.

Social Security is one of the most popular government programs

In a recent Pew Research Center survey of US adults, 79% said Social Security benefits shouldn’t be reduced in any way. This view is broadly shared across ages, races, political affiliations, and income brackets.

'Rock 'n' roll' eventually became 'classic rock'

As the 1980s arrived, rock radio began pivoting to the term “classic rock,” allowing them to focus on the Baby Boomer demographic and ignore the still-evolving genre. Since then, “classic rock” remains, though it’s constantly being redefined, due in no small part to its slippery name.

Listen to the official weekly podcast of Davos

Produced by the World Economic Forum, "Radio Davos" is the forum's weekly podcast, featuring interviews with global leaders, policymakers, executives, and thinkers on issues ranging from climate change and inequality to technology, work, and geopolitics.

As of 2024, approximately 44% of Americans support fracking

This makes the method less popular than carbon-free forms of energy production, such as solar, wind, and nuclear power, but more popular than coal mining. Support for fracking increased 7% from 2020 to 2024, primarily due to increased support from Republicans and older Americans.

Amazon accounts for roughly 40% of all US online retail sales—a much larger piece of the pie than its competitor Walmart

Although Walmart is roughly 30 years older than Amazon, the e-commerce giant has a significant lead in online US retail sales: Walmart's share is roughly 7%. Season 33 of the podcast "Business Wars," hosted by David Brown, is all about one of the most intense rivalries in all of retail.

A podcast on America’s coming demographic crisis

This podcast explores how America’s coming demographic crisis is bad for employers. According to Bloomberg, businesses still need humans to make the economy work. However, too few workers in the US are actually working, and too few people are...

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Testing the internet speed of the US's wireless providers

The US ranked 26th in the world for mobile speeds and eigth for fixed broadband speeds during April 2022. See this ranking of mobile and fixed broadband speeds from around the world on a monthly basis.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Between 10 million and 50 million people in the US develop rashes from poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison oak each year.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day