PR professionals like ourselves are for obvious reasons interested in how we can reach our clients’ target audiences. This means we need to know which media are the most popular and widespread. It’s probably easy to just go by gut feeling, but a PR agency shouldn’t simply be repeating things like “influencers are where it’s at nowadays” or “Facebook is totally dead” without actually knowing whether that’s true.
Fortunately, Sweden’s researchers and government agencies have ensured that we know quite a lot about what Swedes consume in terms of media — everything from social media to newspapers and TV. For a PR agency, their reports and statistics are a goldmine. A particularly good example is Nordicom, an institute at University of Gothenburg, which among other things publishes the report “Mediebarometern.”
So what are the most interesting and perhaps a bit unexpected findings in the latest report, which covers media consumption in 2024? Here are some facts that may not be entirely obvious:
Swedes like their daily newspaper
On a typical day, no less than two-thirds (66 %) of Swedes read a daily newspaper. Also, that figure does not include those who instead get their news via TV, social media or in some other manner, or those who read the daily newspaper a little less often than every day.
Over the past ten years the figure has remained stable, but thirty years ago it was 80 %. So yes, we can see a decline in interest in news, but the vast majority still want to stay updated on what’s happening around them.
Everyone watches TV — and not just streaming services
On an average day, 96 percent of adult Swedes watch moving images. That includes everything from YouTube to TV4 and Netflix.
Interestingly, more than half the population (51 %) actually watch conventional, linear TV — i.e., TV programmes watched in real time. Yes, it’s more common among older people, but nonetheless!
It’s not just ‘old folks’ using Facebook
Facebook is actually still the most used of all social media (just ahead of Instagram), and this holds both overall and in all age groups over 25.
In fact, seven out of ten of those over 65 years old use social media on an average day!
Social media is no longer growing
Social media and influencers always growing bigger? No — not anymore. None of the more popular ones grows by more than a single digit percentage. Not even TikTok is increasing.
X (formerly Twitter) is even decreasing in use, and that’s probably because many people want to avoid being associated with the owner.
More and more people are reading books
Roughly half the population (51 %) reads a book on an average day. Most read a printed book, and fiction is the most common form. Women are more active readers than men.
The trend over time? Definitely increasing — especially if you include audiobooks and other newer formats. Back in 1979 the figure was 29 %, i.e., more than twenty percentage points lower.
