As a person who loves both audiobooks and statistics, I wondered, hey, what do we actually know about this: Who listens to audiobooks, how many books does the average audiobook listener go through in a year, and how many new audiobooks are published? So, I looked at all the audiobook statistics I could find to give you a summary here.
Audiobooks are a quickly growing market. And while many more people read ebooks than listen to audiobooks, the latter might actually become the second-highest book-selling format. But we will get to that in a bit…
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Who listens to Audiobooks?
What do we know about the average audiobook listener?
Audiobooks are most popular with women between 30 and 49 years old. This group has the most audiobook listeners. [Source] Women only recently overtook men though. The average listener used to be businessmen who listened to audiobooks in their cars. Now it’s… well… people like me. And you, I assume! This info really matches up with the readers and subscribers of Lovely Audiobooks.
Audiobooks aren’t particularly popular with people 65 years and older. Ebooks are a little more popular in this age bracket. Both formats are helpful for people with failing eyesight so we might see some growth here in the future. [Source]
While we should always keep in mind the importance of audiobooks for disabled people, it seems they are most gaining in popularity among very active people who listen to audiobooks during work, commute, sports, or chores. On average, people listen to 8.1 audiobooks per year. [Source] Quite frankly, that does not match with Lovely Audiobooks readers, haha! We are listening to A. WHOLE. LOT. MORE. Aren’t we?!
Given the number of audiobooks people listen to and their high price compared to ebooks and even print books, I suppose it isn’t that much of a surprise that the average audiobook listener comes from a higher-income household. In a 2019 survey, 30% of participants with a 75k yearly income said they had listened to at least one audiobook in the previous year. [Source] Quite frankly, that made me a bit sad to see. Everyone needs books! I hope my blog posts about free audiobooks and unlimited audiobook subscriptions can make just a tiny bit of a difference here in helping to make audiobooks affordable for everyone who enjoys them.
The Audiobook Industry
In a 2019 survey, 65% of readers said they picked up a print book in the previous year, while 20% had listened to at least one audiobook. For now, print books remain vastly more popular than audiobooks. [Source] But audiobooks are a huge growth market that, according to Chris Lynch, co-chair of the APA’s Research Committee and President & Publisher of Simon & Schuster Audio, has seen double-digit revenue growth for 8 years in a row. [Source]
In 2020, audiobooks in the US were a 1.3 billion dollar industry! [Source] Ebooks, however, had a revenue of 1.1 billion US dollars. While more people read ebooks than audiobooks and ebooks sell more units, the higher price of audiobooks makes them the bigger industry. [Source]
For the time being, print books have nothing to fear and there is no reason to believe that they are a dying format. Speaking for myself, I love having a bookshelf, even though I consume my books in audiobook format. And when I love an audiobook, I will buy the print version as well, just to see it on my shelf and to do my little part in supporting the author.
The number of audiobooks released per year has increased immensely in the last 10 years. In 2011, 7237 audiobooks were published. That jumped up to 16309 in the following year, 2012. In 2016, 2017, and 2018, the numbers were stable at over 42000 before growing again in 2019. And in 2020, 71000 new audiobook titles were released. [Source]
And what about you? Would you consider yourself the average audiobook listener? Do the statistics say you are? And how many audiobooks do you listen to per year?
Eline Blackman (pronouns: she/they) fell in love with books as a child – with being read to and reading herself. 10 years ago, she bought her first Audible book. It was love at first listen! An average of 250 audiobooks per year has become the new normal and you will rarely see Eline without a wireless earbud. Romance and Fantasy are the go-to genres for this audiobook fan.
I have been listening to audiobooks since the early 90’s and I am in my 50’s. I started with Audible in 2004. I probably listen to 120-150 books a year easily. I listen practically any where I can. I have a 45 min drive to and from work, a little bit at work (during breaks and what not) and at home while doing chores. I still use my mp3 player when outside with my horse because I’d rather risk breaking it than my phone, same with out door chores in general. I find its a great way to fill in the time that is fun and entertaining.
Thank you for sharing how you listen to audiobooks 🙂