Public radio reaches nearly every part of the United States through local stations, national networks, translators, digital services, and public media partnerships. The latest figures below describe station counts, audience scale, public funding, and major network operations across clearly identified reporting periods.
Contents
- Public radio’s national footprint
- Stations and broadcast infrastructure
- CPB funding and public media support
- CPB financial and project commitments
- NPR station and audience statistics
- Public radio networks and programming
Public radio’s national footprint
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) said the U.S. public media system included more than 1,500 public television and radio stations in its April 2025 Public Media Backgrounder. Its FY2025 About page reported support for 386 radio grantees representing 1,216 public radio stations. The same page said 245 of 544 total radio and television grantees were rural.
CPB reported that 99% of Americans had access to public media in FY2025. That access figure describes the overall public media system, rather than radio alone. NPR separately said approximately 99% of the U.S. population was within the broadcast listening area of one or more public radio stations on its About page.
NPR’s Fact Sheet listed 1,073 stations broadcasting NPR programming and newscasts, 247 NPR member organizations, and 1,017 total stations operated by member organizations. It also listed 706 non-member stations airing NPR programming. These figures show why a public radio audience can extend beyond the stations formally belonging to a network.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in its 2025 Public Broadcasting report that NPR had over 1,000 member and affiliate stations. CRS also said two-thirds of all public radio stations in the United States were NPR members. Because the report uses different terms and a different reporting context from NPR’s Fact Sheet, these figures should be read as complementary descriptions rather than combined into a single station count.
Stations and broadcast infrastructure
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported 15,395 total AM and FM broadcast stations nationwide as of September 30, 2024. That total included 6,618 FM commercial stations, 4,400 AM stations, and 4,377 FM educational stations. The FCC also reported 8,894 FM translators and boosters on the same date.
The FCC’s educational-FM category is broader than a public-radio-only count, so it should not be treated as the number of public radio stations. Still, it provides useful context for the portion of the U.S. radio dial devoted to educational broadcasting.
PRX said its programming aired on 844 public radio stations nationwide in 2024 and reached listeners in more than 99.4% of the United States. MPR said it operated a 45-station terrestrial radio network in 2024. MPR also said its three regional services reached 1 million listeners each week.
| Measure | Figure | Period or date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public radio stations represented by CPB radio grantees | 1,216 | FY2025 | CPB About page |
| Stations broadcasting NPR programming and newscasts | 1,073 | NPR Fact Sheet | NPR Fact Sheet |
| PRX station footprint | 844 | 2024 | PRX Annual Report 2024 |
| MPR terrestrial radio network | 45 stations | 2024 | MPR Annual Report 2024 |
| FM educational stations | 4,377 | Sept. 30, 2024 | FCC Broadcast Station Totals, Oct. 7, 2024 |
These measures use different definitions. CPB’s figure concerns stations represented by grantees, NPR’s figure concerns stations carrying NPR programming and newscasts, PRX’s figure concerns PRX programming, and MPR’s figure concerns its own terrestrial network.
CPB funding and public media support
CPB said more than 70% of its federal funding went directly to local public media stations in FY2025, while less than 5% was spent on CPB operations. Its Federal Appropriation Request & Justification said CPB distributes 70% of its appropriation through Community Service Grants to local stations.
The CRS 2025 Public Broadcasting report described the allocation of total public radio funding in three parts: 70% went to radio station grants, 23% went to radio programming acquisition grants, and 7% went to radio programming grants. CRS also said CPB’s federal appropriation allocates 25% of the non-education remainder to radio grants.
These percentages describe funding categories and should not be added to the separate CPB statement about the share of federal funding going directly to local stations. They use different denominators and reporting descriptions.
CPB requested $119.04 million for Public Radio Station and Programming Grants in its FY2026/FY2028 request. In the same request, it listed $357.11 million for Public Television Station and Programming Grants, $32.10 million for System Support funds, and $26.75 million for operations.
| CPB request category | Amount | Request period |
|---|---|---|
| Public Radio Station and Programming Grants | $119.04 million | FY2026/FY2028 request |
| Public Television Station and Programming Grants | $357.11 million | FY2026/FY2028 request |
| System Support funds | $32.10 million | FY2026/FY2028 request |
| Operations | $26.75 million | FY2026/FY2028 request |
CRS reported that public radio station revenue from CPB grants averaged 6.0% in FY2024. For comparison, public television station revenue from CPB grants averaged 10.6% in FY2024. The figures indicate that CPB grants were a smaller average share of public radio station revenue than of public television station revenue during that fiscal year.
CPB financial and project commitments
CPB recorded $80,206,615 in radio Community Service Grants in FY2024, compared with $74,380,781 in FY2023, according to its FY2024 financial statements. The same statements recorded $494,251,138 in total grants and contracts expense and $518,711,267 in total functional expenses in FY2024.
CPB’s radio support project funding commitments were $12,125,823 in FY2024 and $7,952,276 in FY2023. Public broadcasting interconnection project funding commitments were $127,472,539 in FY2024 and $88,893,801 in FY2023. CPB also recorded public broadcasting interconnection expense of $28,835,545 in FY2024, compared with $17,546,517 in FY2023.
Other system support expenses totaled $39,843,861 in FY2024 and $28,036,065 in FY2023. CPB’s corporate administrative expenses were about 4.6% of the general federal appropriation in FY2024, compared with about 4.7% in FY2023.
At September 30, 2024, CPB’s appropriated grants and contracts payable were $153,045,049 net. Of the total appropriated grants and contracts payable, $121,835,187 was due within one year and $33,534,319 was due in one to five years.
CPB’s FY2024 financial statements also reported $96 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency awards for the Next Generation Warning System program by September 30, 2024. Of that total, $40 million covered FY2023–FY2025 performance and $56 million covered FY2024–FY2026 performance.
CPB provided over $7.3 million in local journalism grants in FY2024. Its October 9, 2024 press release said $2.65 million supported state government coverage across seven states, while FY2024 journalism support and the FY2023 first round together totaled $4.9 million.
For emergency alerting, CPB awarded up to $1.8 million to four public media stations on August 26, 2024. CPB said that grant round had reached 21 grants after those awards.
NPR station and audience statistics
NPR’s Fact Sheet listed 28.7 million weekly listeners for all NPR stations and 21.2 million weekly listeners for NPR programming and newscasts. It listed an 8.7 million weekly unique-visitor audience for NPR.org, 24 million weekly visits to NPR digital properties, and 8 million weekly unique users of NPR podcasts.
Across platforms, the Fact Sheet listed a 41 million weekly audience. This is a cross-platform audience measure, so it should not be added to the radio-listener or digital-visit figures. The same Fact Sheet listed 16 international bureaus and 17 U.S. domestic bureaus.
NPR’s About page said nearly 250 NPR member stations were in its network and that thousands of journalists worked at those member stations and at NPR itself. The Fact Sheet’s 247 NPR member organizations provides a more specific organization count for that document’s reporting context.
CPB said public radio audience measurement data were available for Spring and Fall survey periods in 2023, 2024, and 2025. CPB paid $220,902 to Radio Research Consortium in 2024 for public radio audience data. These details identify the survey cadence and a measurement-related expenditure without turning the audience figures into a single national estimate.
Public radio networks and programming
MPR | APM finished FY2024 with $118 million in total operating support and earned revenue. Its endowment was $292 million as of June 30, 2024. The MPR | APM Annual Report 2024 listed 14,872,450 weekly listeners to APM national programming and 826,400 weekly FM radio listeners to MPR regional radio programming.
The same annual report listed 9,707,779 monthly video views, a 2,714,872 monthly podcast audience, and 147,820 contributing members. It also reported 9 million downloads of Sold a Story.
MPR’s annual report said APM reached 20 million listeners on nearly 1,000 radio stations nationwide each week. That network-level measure is distinct from MPR’s 45-station terrestrial network and from APM’s reported weekly audience for national programming.
PRX reported that it launched four Big Questions Project shows and that all four entered second seasons during its 2024 report period. Alongside its 844-station programming footprint and reach in more than 99.4% of the United States, the figures illustrate how public radio distribution includes both station-based broadcasting and nationally shared program services.
Together, the available measures describe a system with more than 1,200 stations represented by CPB radio grantees, a national NPR distribution network, regional and national networks operated by organizations such as MPR and APM, and programming services distributed through hundreds of additional public radio stations.