WASHINGTON (BP) — Nearly every U.S. adult can access religious radio broadcasts from home, Pew Research Center said March 26, and almost half tune in, mostly for music.
In a comprehensive survey, Pew found that 98 percent live within broadcast range of a religious radio station, 45 percent listen and a plurality of those surveyed — 37 percent — tune in for religious music.
Pew described as religious about 25 percent or 4,000 of the 17,000 AM and FM radio stations licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. And of the religious stations that have websites and include descriptors, 63 percent are Christian. Of those, 10 percent identify as Protestant.
In the mid-2025 survey, Pew studied each state’s landscape of religious radio, the kind of programming, who listens and why.
“To answer these questions, we analyzed data on the location and broadcast range of every terrestrial religious radio station in the country,” researchers said in releasing the findings. “We also recorded and analyzed around 440,000 hours of streamed broadcasts from religious stations in July 2025, and we surveyed 5,023 U.S. adults from June 9 to 15, 2025, to understand their experiences with religious audio programming.”
Among key findings of why listeners tune in, Pew said:
- Most listeners cited several reasons for tuning in, with 62 percent saying religious radio is spiritually fulfilling or meaningful, 51 percent saying it’s relaxing and calming, 39 percent citing life advice and guidance, and 9 percent simply because someone else is playing the radio.
- 37 percent of adults seek religious music, 30 percent look for sermons, 18 percent are drawn to religious talk shows, and 16 percent seek religious storytelling or audio dramas.
- The largest majority of listeners is found among Black Protestants (84 percent), followed by 76 percent of White evangelical Protestants, and about 40 percent each of Catholics and white nonevangelical Protestants.
- About 39 percent of Americans who identify with a religion other than Christianity say they listen to religious radio.
- Among political parties, 53 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents listen to religious programming, compared to 38 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults.
Among key findings about programming, Pew said:
- 77 percent of stations that include online descriptors of their content mention evangelism or spreading the Gospel as a key component.
- On average, about 37 percent of stations broadcast primarily music; 35 percent carry mostly talk, with 81 percent of spoken content voiced by men; and 28 percent evenly split content between music and talk.
- Contemporary Christian and worship music were the main genres, drawn from “a relatively small playlist of popular, established artists,” researchers said. During the study period, 10 individuals or bands accounted for 16 percent of all songs included.
- 29 percent of religious stations devote more than 150 minutes each day to discussions of politics and current events, with some stations allocating 10 or more hours to such. Conversely, just 14 percent of listeners say keeping up with current events is a major reason they tune in.
Pew conducted the survey through its Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Findings are available here.
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