Canadian Podcast Listener Trends: What the 2025 Data Says About Your Audience

The 2025 Canadian Podcast Listener report is one of the most comprehensive snapshots of how Canadians consume podcasts. For any Canadian show trying to build and retain an audience, the data points worth knowing aren't buried in the methodology — they're directly actionable.

The Headline Numbers

Monthly podcast listening in Canada reached approximately 46% of adults 18+ in 2025, up from around 39% in 2023. Weekly listening sits at roughly 32% of adults. These numbers have been on a consistent upward trend for several years and show no sign of plateauing.

The average weekly podcast consumer listens to approximately 7 hours of podcast content per week — more than two hours per day. For creators worrying about competition for listener time: dedicated podcast listeners are consuming a lot, and the pie is growing.

Where Canadians Listen

YouTube has emerged as the most used podcast platform in Canada, which is a significant shift from even two years ago. Spotify is the dominant pure-podcast platform. Apple Podcasts remains strong among older and more dedicated podcast consumers.

The YouTube finding is the most operationally important for creators. It means that shows without video presence are missing the platform most Canadians are using for podcast discovery and consumption. The implication — invest in video — is one of the clearest signals in the data.

Who's Listening

Podcast consumption remains more concentrated among younger, more educated, and higher-income Canadians than it is in the general population. 18–34 year olds lead in both reach and intensity of listening. University-educated Canadians listen at nearly twice the rate of those without post-secondary education.

This demographic profile matters for content strategy and for sponsorship positioning. A Canadian show targeting educated, professionally active adults in the 25–45 range is pointing at the core of the podcast-consuming population.

Discovery Patterns

Word of mouth and social media clips are the dominant discovery mechanisms for new Canadian listeners finding new shows — significantly outperforming search in podcast directories. For show growth strategy, this means social clips and organic conversations matter more than aggressive directory optimization.