Pew report finds that one-fourth of U.S. radio stations have a faith focus

Most religious radio stations report that “evangelism” is part of their mission.

A new Pew Research Center report found that 25% of all AM and FM radio stations in the United States have a faith focus.

The report, “Religious Radio Across America,” was conducted by the Pew-Knight Initiative, which supports research on how Americans consume civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in communities.

For the study, Pew used three data sources including all Federal Communications Commission-licensed terrestrial AM and FM radio stations in the U.S. It took data from around 440,000 hours of audio collected from the internet broadcasts of more than 2,000 religious stations during July 2025.

The report also includes information from a survey of 5,023 U.S. adults conducted June 9–15, 2025, which asked members of Pew’s American Trends Panel about the religious audio programming they listen to and why.

Faith-based radio in America dates back to the earliest broadcasts of Sunday services at the beginning of the 1920s. Today, there are more than 4,000 terrestrial religious radio stations in the U.S., according to the Pew-Knight Initiative.

The research found that 37% of Americans who listen to religious audio programming said it is “extremely important” or “very important” to their religious or spiritual lives. Another 35% said it is “somewhat important,” and 29% said it is either “not too important” or “not at all important.”

Christian radio in the U.S.

More than half (63%) of religious stations overall identify as “Christian,” without explicitly aligning with a specific tradition or denomination.

Another 10% identify with a specific Protestant denomination, such as Baptist or Pentecostal, and 8% identify as Catholic.

Large majorities of white evangelical Protestants (76%) and Black Protestants (84%) said they listen to religious programming. Smaller shares of Catholics (40%) and white non-evangelical Protestants (40%) reported they listen to this type of programming.

Most religious radio stations report that “evangelism” is part of their mission. Slightly more than three-quarters (77%) of stations with an “about us” page or mission statement on their website mention evangelism or spreading the Gospel as a key component of their work.

Nearly half of U.S. adults (45%) reported they listen to at least one type of religious programming Pew inquired about, including religious music (37%), sermons and religious services (30%), religious talk shows (18%), and religious storytelling or audio dramas (16%).

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults who identify with a religion other than Christianity (39%) said they listen to religious programming. Religious “nones,” those who identify as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular,” are the least likely to report listening to religious programming, but 18% said they do.

What sets Catholic radio apart from other Christian radio

Catholic radio features different formats, contains more talk programming, and tends to focus on a different set of topics than other religious stations.

Similarly to the broader context of religious radio stations, Catholic radio stations are located across the country. The report found that 17% of all religious radio stations in the Midwest are Catholic stations as well as 12% of religious stations in the Northeast and 9% in the West.

In contrast, just 5% of all religious stations in the South are Catholic stations.

Catholic radio stations play less music and provide more talk programming than other Christian stations. On average, U.S. Catholic radio stations broadcast music for 2 hours and 35 minutes per day, compared with other Christian stations that broadcast music for 13 hours and 17 minutes.

The daily average U.S. Catholic radio stations broadcast talk programming is for 15 hours and 8 minutes, compared with the 4 hours and 44 minutes other Christian stations broadcast it.

Catholic talk radio is also more likely to include caller interaction or audience participation segments. The report found 27% of talk programming on Catholic stations includes these interactive elements, compared with 8% of non-Catholic Christian stations.

Catholic talk radio is also more likely to contain discussions of family, parenting, and education, with 25% of talk time mentioning these issues. On other Christian stations, these topics are mentioned 18% of the time.

Catholic talk radio is more likely to include mentions of popes, both past and current. Pope Francis or Pope Leo XIV are mentioned by name in 6% of talk programming on Catholic stations, compared with 0.2% on non-Catholic stations.

Outside of music and talk radio formats, Catholic and non-Catholic stations spend a similar amount of time on content that Pew broadly categorized as “religious services or sermons.”

The services Catholic stations broadcast sound different from those heard on other Christian stations, reflecting the differences between Catholic Mass and services in other Christian traditions.

The report noted there is overlap in discussion on the books of the Bible mentioned on Catholic and non-Catholic radio. The Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John, and the Hebrew Scriptures of Psalms, Genesis, Exodus, and Isaiah are among the 10 most mentioned books of the Bible on both types of stations.

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