Podcast Listening among Women [REPORT]
March 25, 2021
According to Nielsen’s recently released Podcasting Today report, the top genre among female podcast listeners in the U.S. is ‘kids and family,’ with a 77% audience composition. While that may not be surprising, what may be is the fact that among the top ten most popular podcasts that are listened to by women, the category of ‘true crime’ comes in at a whopping 60%! Fiction podcasts are evenly split among male and female listeners. Perhaps what this tells us is that regardless of 
characteristics such as gender, podcasts listeners are a diverse group with diverse interests and that women are among the most voracious consumers of podcasts of all types and subjects.
As we celebrate Women’s History Month, Nielsen’s research into consumer behavior allows us to connect with women, hear their voices and learn more about their daily media and purchasing patterns.
Women are savvy consumers of news, information, and other media across devices. They also make up 45% of all podcast consumers over-indexing in podcasts across all genres. This is a coveted demographic for marketers and advertisers, as female-led households in the U.S. increased 41% in the last five years. No matter what media they’re consuming, truth, transparency, and real representation matter.
Among the top ten most popular podcasts that are listened to by women are true crime (60%), religion and spirituality (58%), education (54%), society and culture (53%), fiction (50%), and TV, film, and music (48%).
While kids and family is the most popular podcast genre among women, for men, the top podcast genres with the highest audience composition by far are sports (81%), technology (80%).
Source: Nielsen Scarborough Podcast Buying Power, November 2020 (Listeners Only) Adults 18+
When looking at top podcast genre usage among women ages 25-54 based on percent of all podcast usage, comedy, and true crime were tops (9%), followed by news and society and culture (8%). For men in the same age demographic, news was the most preferred genre (13%), followed closely by comedy (12%).
To download report, CLICK HERE
