Contents
- Music listening time statistics: global weekly hours over time
- Music listening time statistics by country
- Music listening time statistics by age and gender
- Music listening time statistics for music streaming services
- Music listening time statistics for UK on-demand music
- Sources
Music listening time statistics: global weekly hours over time
IFPI’s reports offer a series of global weekly listening estimates, but the figures are snapshots from surveys with varying market coverage. They show the reported hours in each edition; they are not a perfectly consistent measurement of one unchanged population over time.
In its 2019 report, IFPI said respondents typically spent 18 hours per week listening to music, compared with 17.8 hours in 2018. The online survey represented people aged 16–64 across 21 territories, with fieldwork in April and May 2019. Source: IFPI, Music Listening 2019
IFPI’s 2021 global snapshot recorded 18.4 hours per week, up from 18 hours in 2019. The survey covered 21 leading markets and represented online respondents aged 16–64 in 19 territories. China and India were excluded from the global figure. Fieldwork was conducted in June and July 2021, while some pandemic restrictions remained. Source: IFPI, Engaging with Music 2021
The 2022 report put global weekly listening at 20.1 hours, compared with 18.4 hours in 2021. The 2022 global figure excluded China, India, Indonesia and Nigeria. Fieldwork ran from June to September 2022; IFPI says the 2021 comparison uses the same countries except Russia. Source: IFPI, Engaging with Music 2022
For 2023, IFPI reported 20.7 hours per week, up from 20.1 hours in 2022. This was the estimate for the report’s core 18 countries, drawn from a 26-country survey. Country-focus results for China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Vietnam were outside that core figure. Fieldwork took place from August to October 2023. Source: IFPI, Engaging with Music 2023
| IFPI report | Weekly music listening | Coverage detail |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 18 hours | Respondents aged 16–64; 21 territories |
| 2021 | 18.4 hours | Global figure excludes China and India |
| 2022 | 20.1 hours | Global figure excludes China, India, Indonesia and Nigeria |
| 2023 | 20.7 hours | Core 18-country estimate |
[Sources for table: IFPI, 2019 report, 2021 report, 2022 report, and 2023 report]
The published estimates rise across these reports, but changes in market coverage and exclusions mean the sequence should be read cautiously. It is not a controlled measure of change in a fixed group. Italy offers separate national context: FIMI reported an average of 21.9 hours per week for 2024. Source: FIMI, Report 2025, p. 17
FIMI’s 2026 study also reported 21.9 weekly hours as the average time Italians spent listening over the past year. The representative sample included more than 1,600 people aged 16–64 interviewed in Italy in January 2026. This is a national result, not a new global observation; the 2024 and 2026 reports should not be treated as separate steps in the IFPI series. Source: FIMI, Music Engagement Study 2026
Music listening time statistics by country
IFPI’s country-focus results give weekly listening estimates for selected national samples. The 2023 figures below concern representative samples aged 16–44, with fieldwork from August to October 2023. They are distinct from the report’s core 18-country global estimate, which has a different market scope.
| Country, 2023 | Weekly music listening |
|---|---|
| Nigeria | 31.1 hours |
| UAE | 28.7 hours |
| Indonesia | 28.3 hours |
| Philippines | 28.3 hours |
| China | 27.9 hours |
| Vietnam | 27.7 hours |
| Saudi Arabia | 27.2 hours |
| India | 24.4 hours |
Source for table: IFPI, Engaging with Music 2023, country-focus panels, pp. 13–16
Among these 8 selected 2023 markets, Nigeria’s 31.1 hours is the highest reported figure and India’s 24.4 hours the lowest. This is a comparison within those country-focus samples, not a ranking of every country. The sampled age range is also narrower than an all-residents population.
The 2022 report supplies results for 4 country-focus samples: India, China, Indonesia and Nigeria. IFPI describes the country-focus samples as people aged 16–44; fieldwork ran from June to September 2022.
| Country, 2022 | Weekly music listening |
|---|---|
| Nigeria | 30.4 hours |
| China | 28.3 hours |
| Indonesia | 27.2 hours |
| India | 25.7 hours |
Source for table: IFPI, Engaging with Music 2022, country-focus panels, pp. 13–16
Nigeria is highest among these 4 observations in 2022, as it is in the 2023 country-focus set. Country-to-country and year-to-year comparisons remain specific to the sampled age group, selected markets and survey reporting. They do not measure all residents or every listening format.
Music listening time statistics by age and gender
GWI’s Q2 2025 chart measures weekly time spent listening to music streaming services among internet users, broken down by age and gender. It does not cover total music listening across formats. The listed durations are longer for younger age groups overall, with smaller differences between female and male respondents within each age band.
| Age group | Female | Male |
|---|---|---|
| 16–24 | 7 hours 19 minutes | 7 hours 4 minutes |
| 25–34 | 5 hours 33 minutes | 5 hours 35 minutes |
| 35–44 | 4 hours 24 minutes | 4 hours 31 minutes |
| 45–54 | 3 hours 54 minutes | 4 hours 1 minute |
| 55–64 | 3 hours 5 minutes | 3 hours 19 minutes |
| 65+ | 1 hour 52 minutes | 2 hours 22 minutes |
Source for table: GWI, Digital 2026: Global Overview Report, p. 317, Q2 2025
The chart describes weekly streaming-service time for GWI internet-user respondents in Q2 2025, not a long-run age trend. GWI cautions that values for people aged 65+ may not be directly comparable with other age groups because data are unavailable in all countries. It also reports substantial methodology changes and warns against comparisons with earlier reports.
The paired values are close in several age bands. For ages 25–34, female respondents recorded 5 hours 33 minutes and male respondents 5 hours 35 minutes. For ages 45–54, the figures were 3 hours 54 minutes and 4 hours 1 minute, respectively. These are descriptive differences in the chart; they do not explain why listening time differs.
Music listening time statistics for music streaming services
For internet users aged 16 and older, GWI reported a worldwide average of 5 hours 1 minute per week listening to music-streaming services in Q2 2025. This is a streaming-only duration, rather than an estimate of all music listening. Selected market results show higher weekly durations in Chile, Mexico and Kenya, while the U.K. and Japan figures are lower among the markets listed here.
| Market, Q2 2025 | Weekly streaming-service listening |
|---|---|
| Chile | 11 hours 32 minutes |
| Mexico | 11 hours 10 minutes |
| Kenya | 10 hours 27 minutes |
| Colombia | 9 hours 52 minutes |
| Argentina | 9 hours 31 minutes |
| Philippines | 8 hours 17 minutes |
| South Africa | 8 hours 6 minutes |
| U.S.A. | 7 hours 16 minutes |
| U.K. | 5 hours 37 minutes |
| Japan | 3 hours 8 minutes |
GWI also measures average days per week of streaming-service use, which is a separate measure from time. Worldwide, internet users aged 16+ averaged 3.02 days per week in Q2 2025. The country values include 4.68 days in Chile, 4.53 in Mexico, 4.30 in Colombia, and 4.16 in both Kenya and Argentina. The U.S. figure was 3.18 days, the U.K. figure 2.60 days and Japan’s 1.53 days per week. These frequency figures count average days of use; they do not say how long listeners spent on those days. Source: GWI, Digital 2026: Global Overview Report, p. 314
Duration and frequency offer different views. In Chile, the chart records 4.68 average days and 11 hours 32 minutes of weekly streaming-service time; in Japan, it records 1.53 days and 3 hours 8 minutes. The figures do not reveal whether listening occurred in long sessions or shorter ones. GWI says its media-time method changed substantially in Q4 2024, so these Q2 2025 results are not directly comparable with prior reports. Source: GWI, Digital 2026: Global Overview Report, pp. 314 and 316
Music listening time statistics for UK on-demand music
RAJAR MIDAS Summer 2025 reports on-demand music listening during a UK diary week. Among all UK adults, 38% listened to on-demand music in an average week. The average duration among on-demand listeners was 13 hours per week. The figures use different denominators: 38% is a share of all adults, while 13 hours is an average among listeners. Source: RAJAR, MIDAS Summer 2025, p. 17
For the 15–24 age group, on-demand music reached 67% of the UK population, and listeners averaged 21 hours in a week. RAJAR also reports the distribution of this group’s on-demand listening hours across devices: 76% via mobile phone, 13% via computer and 7% via smart speaker. These device shares refer to listening hours among 15–24-year-old on-demand music listeners, not shares of people or all audio listening. Source: RAJAR, MIDAS Summer 2025, p. 18
The measures describe weekly reach, duration among listeners and device shares for younger listeners. The 13-hour figure is the average among on-demand music listeners overall; the 21-hour figure applies to listeners aged 15–24. Neither is a measure of all music listening across radio, physical formats and streaming services. Source: RAJAR, MIDAS Summer 2025, pp. 17–18