News Consumption Statistics 2022

Use of social media has boomed over the last two decades, which has ultimately shaped the way we consume news on a daily basis.  

Get up to date on the latest statistics regarding news consumption right here.

Here’s a breakdown of everything you’ll find on this page:

• Top platforms used to consume online news (UK)

• Most popular social media platforms for news consumption

• News consumption for 12-15 year-olds

• Growth of online news consumption (UK)

• How many people get their news from social media

• Trust in public news in Europe & the UK  

• News consumption in the US

• News consumption in UK & Europe

• News consumption in Australia

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Let's dive right into it! 

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Key Global News Stats

• Most popular social media channel for news: Facebook is the most popular social media channel for news consumption, with 36% of news consumers using the platform.

• CNN is the top leading news website in the United States, with 399.4 million monthly viewers as of December 2021.

• Growth of online news consumption in the UK has grown by 50% since 2007 as of 2020.

• Most popular type of news for 12-15 year olds (UK) is music news.

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Top Platforms for Online News Consumption (UK)

‍‍In 2021, Facebook was the most popular social media channel for news consumption in the UK, with 36% of news consumers using the platform. Twitter followed closely behind at 24%, leaving Instagram in third place as the least popular of the three platforms for news consumption, sitting at 19%.

Around nine in ten 16-24 year-olds follow news stories online.

Source: Ofcom 

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Most popular platforms for news consumption

As of February 2022, these are the most popular news platforms for news consumption by age group:

• 45% of 18-34 year olds use social media for daily news consumption, making it the most popular platform out of all among the age group.

• 44% of adults aged between 35 and 44 used social media for daily news consumption, making it the most popular platform for the age group.

• For those aged between 45 and 64, Network News and Social Media were the two most popular platforms for daily news consumption. 33% of respondents said they used social media for daily news consumption, whilst 32% used Network News.

• For those ages 65 and over, Network News was the most popular platform, with 41% of respondents using it for daily news consumption.

Overall social media certainly seems the most popular choice for most news readers. 

Source: Statista  

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‍News consumption for 12-15 year olds (UK)

Just under six in ten 12-15 year-olds say they are interested in news, with 53% of respondents being interested in music news. 45% were interested in celebrity news.

Other categories of interest included environmental news (44%) and serious news (43%). 

Source: Ofcom  

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Growth of online news consumption (UK)

Since 2007 the consumption of online news has grown by 50% (as of 2020), with an increase from 20% to 70%. This includes individuals reading online news or downloading newspapers and magazines.

Source: Statista

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How many people get their news from social media (UK)

Around half (49%) of UK adults claim to use social media for news and 49% also say they use ‘other websites and apps’ , for example any non-social media sources of news, such as websites and apps of news organisations or newspapers.  

12% of those using social media for news use TikTok, an increase from 4% in 2020.

Source: Ofcom

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Trust in public news in Europe and the UK

Trust in public news remains high in Western Europe. The following statistics are the percentage of respondents that trust in each public news outlet:  

• Sweden - 90%

• Netherlands - 89%

• Germany - 80%

• Denmark - 80%

• United Kingdom - 79%

• France - 73%

• Italy - 65%

• Spain - 57%

Source: Statista  

News consumption in the US

• The main source for news consumption in the US is TV.

• The share of consumers who pay for online news content sits at 21%. International news seems to be the most popular.

• 58% of adults in the United States trust national news.

Here are the statistics for social media use for news consumption in the United States:

• 55% of Twitter users use Twitter for news.

• 47% of Facebook users use Facebook for news. 

• 19% of adults often get their news from social media.

The top 5 leading news websites in the US (as of December 2021) are:  

1. CNN - 399.4 million monthly viewers.

2. MSN.com - 359.5 million monthly viewers.

3. Foxnews.com - 266.2 million monthly viewers.

4. Nytimes.com - 260.7 million monthly viewers.

5. news.google.com - 193.4 million monthly viewers.

The proceeding 15 news websites are:

6. Finance.yahoo.com - 176.3 million monthly viewers.

7. Washingtonpost.com - 126.3 million monthly viewers.

8. Nypost.com - 108.5 million monthly viewers.

9. Cnbc.com - 104.9 million monthly viewers.

10. News.yahoo.com - 104.6 million monthly viewers.

11. Dailymail.co.uk - 102.1 million monthly viewers.

12. Bbc.com and bbc.co.uk - 98.8 million monthly viewers.

13. Usatoday.com - 90.6 million monthly viewers.

14. People.com - 68.3 million monthly viewers.

15. Nbcnews.com - 64.8 million monthly viewers.

16. Theguardian.com - 60.5 million monthly viewers.

17. Businessinsider.com - 56.1 million monthly viewers.

18. Wsj.com - 52 million monthly viewers.

19. Forbes.com - 50.3 million monthly viewers.

20. Huffpost.com - 49.9 million monthly viewers.

Source: Statista

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News consumption in Europe & the UK

Across Western Europe, TV is the most popular source for news (2017). According to PEW Research, across the countries Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom – a median of 70% say they get news at least daily from TV.  

For online news consumption, the figure was 60%. However, Sweden and Denmark consume online news at the same rate or higher rate than they do for TV.

The least common platform for news consumption for Western Europeans is print, with 30% of people getting their news this way.

In Sweden this figure is 46%, whilst the UK sits at a low 20%.

Source: Pew Research

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News consumption in Australia

According to Statista around 61% of Australians accessed news via television in an average week in 2021. Just over 50% accessed news via social media and/or blogs whilst the remaining 20% used print-based media to access news.  

Trust in printed newspapers was considerably higher in comparison to social media, with only a quarter of newspaper consumers saying they distrusted the publications. 

Source: Statista

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Conclusion

That’s all for our roundup of news consumption statistics.

Both TV and social media appear to be the most dominant platforms when it comes to news consumption, with a range of age groups using the platforms to consume news on a regular basis.  

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