Matt Hird
Nine years of Canadian insights
2018 was the second year of The Canadian Podcast Listener and the first year that I worked on the study. Since then, CPL has been the project I look forward to most each year. Being the largest and longest-running look at the Canadian podcast market makes it a source of pride for Signal Hill Insights. But on a personal level – as a podcast listener in Canada myself – I love seeing the diversity of opinions and consumption patterns, discovering shows I hadn’t heard of, and challenging my own preconceptions about the industry each year as we track the evolving podcast ecosystem.
The 10,000-foot (3,048 metres) view
Before launching the full study each year, we conduct a large-sample calibration study using Harris Poll’s nationally representative panel. Not only does this help us identify the incidence of podcast listening across age, gender, region, language and education divides, it also provides “The Big Numbers” for podcast consumption every year, which are always a source of great interest for our subscribers and supporters.
This year I’m pleased to announce that The Big Number is quite a bit bigger than in 2024. In fact, it’s the biggest ever.
Between 2024 and 2025, an additional 7% of the entire Canadian adult population has become monthly podcast consumers. Now 46% are tuning in to podcasts. For contrast, the largest single-year jump we had seen previously was a 4-point rise from 2021 to 2022. Weekly consumption is up as well, from 29% last year to 33% in 2025.
Notably, 2025 also saw a rebound of listening in French Canada, also reaching a new high. I’d previously written about how the dip in monthly listening from 28% to 24% among French Canadians was the most common subject of questions we were asked about the 2024 study. With the incidence of podcast listening up to 33% among French Canadians this year it appears that the 2024 drop was a deviation from a continuing trend, rather than the start of a new, downward one.
Welcoming new Canadians… and new podcast listeners
In the 2024 Canadian Podcast Listener we spent more time than in the past examining the podcast habits of newcomers to Canada – those who have been in the country fewer than five years. In this year’s calibration study we continue to see Newcomers indexing extremely high for podcast listening, with 76% listening to podcasts monthly and 64% consuming weekly. Part of this is due to their age skew – younger Canadians are more likely to be podcast listeners, and 81% of Newcomers are between the ages of 18 and 34. This compares to only 27% of the Canadian adult population.
This year we’ll have even more insights about the podcasts Newcomers consume, including the shows’ languages and country of origin.
Keeping pace with change
The podcast landscape is constantly evolving, and as a result The Canadian Podcast Listener evolves every year along with it. While there are a number of evergreen questions we like to keep an eye on for trending purposes – discovery, platform use and the like – this year we’ve added additional questions around watching versus listening behaviour for podcasts, consumption of podcast content on other media, and examining the reasons why paid subscribers who stopped subscribing made that decision. All of these are intended to address the dynamically shifting contours and priorities of the industry.
Our supporters and subscribers can expect to get their hands on this new data in Late Q4.
We’d love to have you on board
Our 13 subscribers and supporters make the Canadian Podcast Listener possible, allowing us to share the news of the medium’s growth in Canada every year. They also receive even deeper insights, including individual podcast-level data, detailed intelligence on podcast discovery and a breakdown of factors influencing podcast watching versus listening. Get in touch to learn how you, too, can receive the most comprehensive view on podcasting in Canada.
