Contents
- Music listening by age statistics: how often different age groups listen
- Music listening by age statistics: daily listening time and intensity
- Music listening by age statistics: streaming, radio, and stored music
- Music listening by age statistics: devices and listening settings
- Music listening by age: age differences in music discovery, sharing, and genre preferences
- Sources
Music listening by age statistics: how often different age groups listen
Music frequency figures describe different behaviors depending on the survey: listening several times per day, listening to a particular service that often, or listening at least once over a longer recall period. Those measures are useful when kept in their original context. They do not combine into a single cross-country ranking because populations, age bands, questions, and recall windows differ.
In the UK Audio Survey in 2026, 48% of adults ages 16–34 said they listened to online music services several times a day. The reported share was 22% among adults ages 35–54 and 7% among those age 55+. These are frequency responses about online music services, not about all music listening. The survey’s reported bases were 962 participants ages 16–34, 1,063 ages 35–54, and 1,444 age 55+; the overall age-16+ base was 3,469. Ofcom used mixed telephone and online methods in 2022–2024, then online-only methods from 2025. Participants define what counts as music radio. Source: Ofcom, Audio listening in the UK 2026, p. 4
The same UK report shows a different age pattern for music radio. Several-times-a-day music-radio listening was reported by 10% of adults ages 16–34, 21% ages 35–54, and 20% age 55+. The older groups’ reported daily frequency is therefore more prevalent for music radio than for online music services, while the younger group has the higher reported frequency for online services. These are separate categories and do not measure how much total time people spend listening. Source: Ofcom, Audio listening in the UK 2026, p. 4
Québec’s 2024 cultural-practices survey asked about music listening during the preceding 12 months among residents age 15+. Among ages 15–29, 65% listened to music several times per day. This is a broad music-frequency measure, rather than a response tied to a particular platform. Source: Institut de la statistique du Québec, Faits saillants sur les pratiques culturelles au Québec en 2024 : la musique
Frequency and intensity can also mean listening on at least one day in a recall period. In Finland’s August 2026 survey, 72% of respondents ages 13–75 had listened with focused attention at least once in the past week. Focused listening was reported by 49% for the day before the survey. Those percentages use different recall windows, so the weekly figure is not a daily rate. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 15
Music listening by age statistics: daily listening time and intensity
Finland’s 2026 survey gives a snapshot of both focused listening and music used as background. Among Finnish respondents ages 13–75, 49% had listened with focused attention on the day before the survey, while 72% had done so at least once during the past week. For background music, 72% reported listening yesterday and 89% at least once in the past week. The paired daily and weekly results describe the survey’s stated time windows; they should not be treated as mutually exclusive modes. A person could listen attentively at one time and have music on in the background at another. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 15
| Finnish listening measure, respondents ages 13–75 | Yesterday | At least once in the past week |
|---|---|---|
| Focused attention | 49% | 72% |
| Background music | 72% | 89% |
The survey reports a mean music-listening time of about 1.5 hours a day. That is a mean across respondents, not a claim that each person listens for that duration. The same report separately gives a median of approximately one hour a day, so the mean and median represent different summaries of the distribution. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 15
The Finnish survey was conducted by Norstat in August 2026, interviewing 1,094 people and weighting findings to Finland’s age and gender structure for ages 13–75. The listening-time figures describe that survey population and period. They do not provide age-specific daily-hour estimates, so the time average should not be assigned to individual age groups. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, pp. 2, 15
Music listening by age statistics: streaming, radio, and stored music
A 2024 survey of Hungarian internet users age 16+ reports the music-listening methods they used at least monthly, by age group. The data show that traditional radio, free video-sharing services, online radio, and free music-streaming services all appear across the age bands. The figures below preserve the survey’s age categories and monthly threshold. They do not mean that each respondent used only one method.
| Hungarian internet users, 2024: method used at least monthly | 16–20 | 21–35 | 36–50 | 51–65 | 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional radio broadcast | 42% | 54% | 60% | 60% | 59% |
| Free video-sharing service | 55% | 67% | 48% | 28% | 21% |
| Online radio broadcast | 38% | 49% | 43% | 31% | 28% |
| Free music-streaming service | 65% | 58% | — | — | — |
The first three rows contain complete age-band series for the reported measures. The fourth row includes only the two checked age-group values: 65% among ages 16–20 and 58% among ages 21–35. The source figures available here do not include checked values for the other age bands in that row, so no broader pattern is inferred for them. Source: NMHH, Media Market Report 2025: Online audio services, Figure 38
Traditional radio listening for music was reported by 42% of ages 16–20, 54% of ages 21–35, 60% of ages 36–50, 60% of ages 51–65, and 59% of those age 65+. The measure is at least monthly use among Hungarian internet users, not the share of all Hungarian residents who listen to radio. Its age pattern is relatively close across the three oldest groups in the figures shown. Source: NMHH, Media Market Report 2025: Online audio services, Figure 38
Monthly use of free video-sharing services for music was 55% among ages 16–20 and 67% among ages 21–35. The reported figures were 48% for ages 36–50, 28% for ages 51–65, and 21% among those age 65+. Online radio was used at least monthly by 38% of ages 16–20, 49% of ages 21–35, 43% of ages 36–50, 31% of ages 51–65, and 28% of those age 65+. Each row is a distinct listening method, with the same internet-user population and 2024 reference period. Source: NMHH, Media Market Report 2025: Online audio services, Figure 38
Music listening by age statistics: devices and listening settings
Finnish device figures for the week before the August 2026 survey show how the reported listening equipment varies across three age groups. Phone use for music was reported by 92% of ages 13–18, 83% of ages 36–45, and 38% of ages 66–75. Because these figures refer to device use during the past week, they do not indicate exclusive device preference or the share of listening time spent on a phone. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 8
| Finnish respondents who used each device for music in the past week | Ages 13–18 | Ages 36–45 | Ages 66–75 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone | 92% | 83% | 38% |
| Car radio | 72% | 72% | 71% |
| Streaming in the car | 61% | 47% | 9% |
| Separate radio device | 21% | 32% | 57% |
Car radio use was reported by 72% of ages 13–18, 72% of ages 36–45, and 71% of ages 66–75. By comparison, streaming music in the car was reported by 61%, 47%, and 9% of these same age groups, respectively. The report’s device categories are not exclusive: a respondent could have used a phone, car radio, and another device during the same week. These figures capture whether respondents used each option, not how often or for how long. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 8
Use of a separate radio device was reported by 21% of ages 13–18, 32% of ages 36–45, and 57% of ages 66–75. Taken alongside the phone results, the table shows different reported device-use patterns across the three selected age bands. The findings do not establish why those patterns differ, and they do not cover every age group in the Finnish population. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 8
The survey also connects music listening with activities and social platforms. During the past week, 52% of Finnish respondents ages 13–18 listened to music while playing a computer game, compared with 13% of ages 36–45. In a separate activity table, 54% of ages 13–16 had listened to music on a computer while playing a game in the past week; that age band and measure are specific to the report’s activity question. The two figures should remain distinct because their age bands and table presentations differ. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, pp. 8, 10
Listening to music on TikTok or Instagram during the past week was reported by 82% of Finnish respondents ages 13–18. In the activity table, the report also identifies 13–18 as the age group in which this activity was most prevalent, at 82%; the all-respondent figure was 43%. The age-specific percentage is therefore clearly higher than the overall figure in the report, but the survey does not say that social-media listening replaces other devices or listening methods. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 10
Music listening by age: age differences in music discovery, sharing, and genre preferences
Music listening appears in the Finnish survey as part of social interaction and identity, not only as time spent with audio. In music-related situations or events, listening to music helped 53% of respondents ages 19–25 make new acquaintances; the figure was 51% among ages 26–35. The report gives 45% for Finns overall. These are survey-reported effects associated with music in social settings, not evidence that listening by itself caused new relationships. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 42
Sharing music through TikTok was reported by 55% of Finnish respondents under 18. The report’s overall figure for sharing music on TikTok was 15%. Since the subgroup is defined as under 18, it should not be conflated with the 13–18 age band used in other device and activity measures. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 39
Music taste was described as part of one’s personality by 66% of Finnish respondents ages 19–25 and 67% of those ages 26–35. These age-specific results point to a strong reported connection between music preferences and identity in those surveyed groups. The claim measures a personal view of music taste; it is not a measure of genre preference or listening frequency. Source: Teosto and IFPI Finland, Music Listening in Finland 2026, p. 45
Québec’s survey provides a different view of preference: the origin and language of music among listeners. Among Québec residents who had listened to music during the 12 months before the 2024 survey, 69% of listeners ages 15–29 mostly listened to artists from outside Québec. The reported share was 50% among listeners ages 30–44. These figures describe artist origin, not a language choice or genre. Source: Institut de la statistique du Québec, Faits saillants sur les pratiques culturelles au Québec en 2024 : la musique
Song language also varied by age in Québec. Among residents who listened to music during the preceding 12 months, 5% of people ages 15–29 most often listened to songs mainly in French, compared with 47% of those age 75+. These two reported groups illustrate an age difference in the language of songs most often heard. The figures do not fill in unreported percentages for every intervening age band. Source: Institut de la statistique du Québec, Faits saillants sur les pratiques culturelles au Québec en 2024 : la musique
Across these sources, age-related differences depend on what the survey asks: frequency by service, daily listening intensity, monthly method, device use, social sharing, identity, or music origin and language. Each result belongs to its stated population and time period. Taken together, they show varied listening patterns without implying a single universal progression from one format or preference to another.