55 Journalist Statistics For 2026 (Every One Checked At Source)
55 journalist statistics for 2026 on UK and US numbers, job cuts, working life, AI, social media and trust in news, each linked to the original report.
By Adam DochertyIndependent digital PR consultant, UK- Published
- Reading time
- 14 min read
I've compiled the latest journalist statistics for 2026 into one page.
Every figure has been checked against the original report it came from, and each one links straight to that source.
The stats cover how many journalists there are, job cuts, working life, AI, social media, independent journalism and trust in news. For pitching and outreach data, see my digital PR statistics page.
Key Journalist Statistics At A Glance
Short on time? These are the numbers worth knowing.
About 52,400
journalists work in the UK
At least 3,434
journalism jobs were cut in the UK and US in 2025
82%
of journalists now use at least one AI tool
50%
say accuracy and fighting misinformation was their biggest challenge last year
65%
say their work feels meaningful, but 47% say it’s exhausting
37%
publish independently under their own name or brand
38%
of news leaders are confident about journalism’s prospects, down 22 points since 2022
Reuters Institute Trends and Predictions, 2026(opens in a new tab)
37%
of people trust most news most of the time, the lowest level since 2015
Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026(opens in a new tab)
How Many Journalists Are There?
There's no single answer to this one.
Different official datasets count journalists in different ways, especially when it comes to freelancers. These figures come from BuzzStream's analysis of government data in the US and the UK.
Statistics 1–6
1. There were about 52,400 journalists working in the UK in 2025.
That rises to about 94,000 when editors are included, based on the ONS Annual Population Survey (BuzzStream, 2026).
2. The UK has around 78,800 PR professionals, roughly 1.5 for every journalist.
The gap has widened since 2021, when the ratio was closer to 1.1 to 1 (BuzzStream, 2026).
3. UK journalist numbers fell by about 11% between 2021 and 2025.
The ONS has flagged quality issues with its labour survey in recent years, so treat the exact trend with caution (BuzzStream, 2026).
ONS data quality caveatSource: BuzzStream: journalists in the UK (2026)(opens in a new tab)4. There were 39,250 payroll journalism jobs in the US in 2025, down 39% from 64,590 in 1999.
That’s from Bureau of Labor Statistics data, which only counts people on a payroll (BuzzStream, 2026).
Payroll jobs onlySource: BuzzStream: journalists in the US (2026)(opens in a new tab)5. Counting freelancers, the US had about 87,160 journalists in 2024.
The Census figure is more than double the payroll count because it includes self-employed journalists (BuzzStream, 2026).
Includes self-employedSource: BuzzStream: journalists in the US (2026)(opens in a new tab)6. PR jobs outnumber payroll journalism jobs by 7.2 to 1 in the US.
That’s 283,380 PR jobs against 39,250 journalism jobs. Count freelancers too and the ratio drops to about 1.8 to 1 (BuzzStream, 2026).
Journalism Job Cuts
Newsrooms have been shrinking for years. Press Gazette keeps a running count of announced cuts in the UK and US.
Statistics 7–9
7. At least 3,434 journalism jobs were cut in the UK and US in 2025.
That’s based on company announcements and media reports, so the true figure is likely higher (Press Gazette, 2026).
Announced cuts onlySource: Press Gazette job cuts tracker (2026)(opens in a new tab)8. At least 3,875 jobs were cut in 2024, and about 6,000 in 2023.
The pace has slowed since 2023, but the cuts haven’t stopped (Press Gazette, 2026).
9. About two-thirds of the 2025 cuts were in the US, and just over 30% in the UK.
In 2024, at least three-quarters were in the US (Press Gazette, 2026).
Local News Statistics
The best data on local journalism comes from the US, so these figures are American. The pattern will feel familiar to anyone following the UK regional press.
Statistics 10–14
10. The US now has 7.8 local journalists per 100,000 residents, down 81% from about 40 in 2002.
That’s from the Local Journalist Index 2026, produced by Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News. The 2026 edition refined its method, so it’s best treated as a new baseline.
New baseline methodSource: Local Journalist Index 2026(opens in a new tab)11. About 70% of US counties fall below even that national average.
Those counties are home to around 209 million people (Local Journalist Index, 2026).
12. Only 33 US counties still have as many local journalists as the 2002 average.
Vermont has the highest density in the country, at 19.1 local journalists per 100,000 residents (Local Journalist Index, 2026).
13. 77% of US counties had no local education coverage in the first quarter of 2026.
And 76% had no local health coverage at all (Local Journalist Index, 2026).
14. States with fewer local journalists face municipal borrowing costs around 17% higher.
The report estimates the wider cost of the local news shortage at $1.1 billion or more a year (Local Journalist Index, 2026).
What It's Like Working As A Journalist
Behind every byline is someone doing more with less. These figures come mainly from Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2026, a survey of 897 journalists, most of them in the US.
Statistics 15–22
15. 65% of journalists say their work feels meaningful.
But 47% also describe it as exhausting, and 38% say it feels precarious (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
16. 62% say their responsibilities have expanded beyond their core role in the past year.
That’s the second year running at that level (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
17. 66% feel secure in their job for the next 12 months, but only 53% are confident about their long-term career.
Short-term security, long-term doubt (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
18. 15% of journalists rarely or never have enough time to do their work to their own standards.
A further 27% say they only sometimes do (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
19. 32% say safety concerns have affected how they do their job.
That includes 7% who say it has affected them significantly (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
20. 59% say safety, harassment or reputation worries shape how they use social media for work.
One in five (21%) say it has a significant effect (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
21. 45% of full-time US journalists earn between $40,000 and $70,000 a year.
Only 17% earn more than $100,000 (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
22. 40% of journalists pitch and choose their own stories.
Another 55% say it’s a mix of their own ideas and assignments. Only 3% have stories fully assigned by an editor (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
Biggest Challenges And Threats Facing Journalists
Journalists are dealing with pressure from several directions at once.
Statistics 23–26
23. 50% of journalists say accuracy and fighting misinformation was their biggest challenge in the past year.
Resource cuts (49%) and navigating AI (43%) were close behind, according to Cision’s 2026 State of the Media report, which surveyed 1,899 journalists in 19 markets.
24. 56% say misinformation made their reporting harder over the past year.
14% say it made things a great deal harder (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
25. Disinformation and lack of funding tie as journalists’ top concerns, at 32% each.
Concern about unchecked AI in journalism jumped from 18% to 26% in a year (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
26. Only 38% of news leaders are confident about journalism’s prospects for the year ahead.
That’s down 22 percentage points since 2022. By contrast, 53% are confident about their own organisation’s prospects (Reuters Institute Trends and Predictions, 2026).
AI In Journalism Statistics
AI has moved into newsrooms fast. Here's how journalists and news leaders are using it.
Statistics 27–32
27. 82% of journalists use at least one AI tool, up from 77% a year earlier.
Only 18% say they use none of the AI tools Muck Rack asked about (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
28. ChatGPT is the most used AI tool among journalists, at 47%.
Gemini jumped from 13% to 22%, and Claude doubled from 6% to 12% (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
29. Journalists mostly use AI for brainstorming (48%), research or fact-checking (43%) and transcription (41%).
Fewer use it to create content (27%), and 21% don’t use generative AI at all (Cision, 2026).
30. 67% of news leaders say AI hasn’t saved any jobs in their newsroom so far.
Another 9% say it has actually added roles, while 16% say they’ve made small cuts (Reuters Institute Trends and Predictions, 2026).
31. 44% of news leaders call their newsroom AI projects promising, and 42% call them limited.
Only 13% describe the impact as transformational (Reuters Institute Trends and Predictions, 2026).
32. 75% of news leaders expect AI browsers and agents to have a large or very large impact on news in the next three years.
They also expect search traffic to fall by more than 40% over the same period (Reuters Institute Trends and Predictions, 2026).
How Journalists Use Social Media
Social media has shifted from a reporting tool to a promotion tool for most journalists.
Statistics 33–37
33. LinkedIn is the platform journalists use most for work, at 62%.
Instagram (54%) and Facebook (53%) follow, with X at 37% (Cision, 2026).
34. 54% of journalists use social media mainly to publish and promote their own work.
It’s the top reason by a distance, ahead of crowdsourcing information and interacting with audiences (both 37%) (Cision, 2026).
35. Only 21% of journalists say social media is very important for reporting, down from 33% in 2024.
For promoting their work, 45% still say it’s very important (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
36. LinkedIn is the platform journalists trust most to treat their work fairly, at 58%.
At the other end, distrust of TikTok rose from 51% to 61% in a year (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
37. Only 17% of journalists now say X is their most valuable platform, down from 36% in 2024.
Facebook (28%) and LinkedIn (20%) now rank higher (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
Independent And Creator Journalists
More journalists are building their own audiences, and publishers are taking note.
Statistics 38–42
38. 37% of journalists publish independently under their own name or brand.
That includes newsletters, personal sites and podcasts outside a traditional newsroom (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
39. Half of creator journalists have been self-publishing for more than five years.
Most use personal websites or blogs (53%) and email newsletters (41%), according to Muck Rack’s State of Creator Journalism report, based on 522 creator journalists surveyed in April 2025.
40. 29% of creator journalists regularly respond to PR pitches, a higher rate than their newsroom peers.
One in three (32%) see PR professionals as essential partners (Muck Rack State of Creator Journalism, 2025).
41. 76% of news leaders plan to get their journalists behaving more like creators.
Half (50%) plan to partner with creators, and 31% plan to hire them (Reuters Institute Trends and Predictions, 2026).
42. 39% of news leaders worry about losing top editorial talent to the creator economy.
Even more (70%) are concerned that creators are taking attention away from their content (Reuters Institute Trends and Predictions, 2026).
Journalists And PR
Journalists still rely on PRs, even if they ignore most pitches. These are the headline figures. For the full set, see my digital PR statistics page.
Statistics 43–47
43. 66% of journalists rely on PR-provided content such as press releases and pitches for story ideas.
It’s their top source of ideas, ahead of social media at 45% (Cision, 2026).
44. 86% say at least some of their published stories started with a PR pitch.
For most, though, it’s a small share: 51% say pitches account for 1% to 10% of their stories (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
45. 72% of journalists say a quarter or fewer of the pitches they receive are relevant to them.
Most are sorting through more than 50 pitches a week (Cision, 2026).
46. 54% seldom or never reply to PR pitches.
Just 6% say they always reply (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
47. 53% say relationships with PR professionals are important or very important to their success.
Relationships still count for a lot (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026).
The Audience Journalists Are Writing For
Journalists' jobs depend on people reading, watching and trusting what they produce. These figures come from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, a survey of almost 100,000 people across 48 markets.
Statistics 48–55
48. Only 37% of people trust most news most of the time, the lowest level since the Reuters Institute began measuring in 2015.
In the US, it’s just 25% (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026).
49. Social media and video networks are now the most used source of news, at 54%.
That’s the first time they’ve overtaken both TV (52%) and news websites and apps (51%) across the markets surveyed (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026).
50. 10% of people use AI chatbots for news each week, up from 7%.
The UK has the lowest rate of any market surveyed, at 4% (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026).
51. Only 20% of people trust answers from AI chatbots.
In the UK, it’s 6%, again the lowest of any market (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026).
52. 27% of people get some news from news creators or influencers.
But only 3% rely on creators for all their news (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026).
53. 42% of people sometimes or often avoid the news.
And 62% are concerned about what’s real and fake online (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026).
54. 10% of people in the UK pay for online news.
Of that money, 80% goes to traditional news organisations, a higher share than in most countries (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026).
55. 2026 is the first year more people in the UK watch news online than on broadcast TV.
The UK joins 44 other markets where online news video has overtaken TV (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026).
How These Statistics Were Checked
Every statistic on this page was traced back to the original report and checked against it in November 2026.
The main sources are Cision's survey of 1,899 journalists, Muck Rack's survey of 897 journalists, two Reuters Institute reports, the Local Journalist Index, BuzzStream's analysis of US and UK government employment data, and Press Gazette's job cuts tracker. The Muck Rack and Local Journalist Index samples are mostly American, which is noted where it matters.
I left out figures that couldn't be traced to a source or that appear on other pages with the wrong number, year or source. That includes several stats on other journalist statistics pages and estimates modelled from job profile data.
Spotted something that's changed? Let me know through my contact page and I'll update it.
Journalist Statistics FAQs
How many journalists are there in the UK?
About 52,400 in 2025, or about 94,000 including editors, based on ONS survey data analysed by BuzzStream (2026). The ONS has flagged data quality issues, so treat these as estimates.
How many PR people are there for every journalist?
In the UK, roughly 1.5 PR professionals for every journalist. In the US, it's 7.2 to 1 counting payroll jobs only, or about 1.8 to 1 including freelancers (BuzzStream, 2026).
How many journalism jobs have been cut?
Press Gazette tracked at least 3,434 journalism job cuts in the UK and US in 2025, after at least 3,875 in 2024 and about 6,000 in 2023 (Press Gazette, 2026).
Do journalists use AI?
Most do. 82% use at least one AI tool, with ChatGPT the most popular at 47% (Muck Rack State of Journalism, 2026). They mainly use it for brainstorming, research and transcription rather than writing stories.
How much do people trust the news?
Globally, 37% trust most news most of the time, the lowest figure since 2015 (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2026).
Final Thoughts
That's the full list for 2026. I'll keep it updated as new reports come out.
If you use any of these stats in your own work, link to the original report rather than this page.
And if you'd like help getting your brand in front of the right journalists, have a look at my digital PR services page or get in touch through my contact page.
References
All sources accessed 6 November 2026.
Cision (2026) 2026 State of the Media Report. Survey of 1,899 journalists across 19 markets, January to February 2026.
https://www.prnewswire.com/content/dam/prnewswire/resources/white-papers/Cision_2026_State_of_the_Media_Report.pdfMuck Rack (2026) State of Journalism 2026. Survey of 1,044 journalists (897 responses analysed), 30 January to 2 March 2026.
https://media.muckrack.com/documents/State_of_Journalism_2026_1.pdfMuck Rack (2025) State of Creator Journalism Report. 522 creator journalists from a survey of 1,515 journalists, April 2025. Press release via GlobeNewswire.
https://digital-release.ktla.com/business/press-releases/globenewswire/9563103/new-muck-rack-report-finds-one-in-three-journalists-now-publish-independentlyReuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2026) Digital News Report 2026: Overview and key findings. Jim Egan, June 2026. Almost 100,000 respondents across 48 markets.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2026/dnr-executive-summaryReuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2026) Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2026. Nic Newman, January 2026. Survey of 280 news leaders in 51 countries and territories.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2026-01/Newman%20-%20Trends%20and%20Predictions%202026%20FINAL.pdfRebuild Local News and Muck Rack (2026) Local Journalist Index 2026. June 2026.
https://www.rebuildlocalnews.org/new-local-journalist-index-reveals-2026-data-on-local-news-crisis/BuzzStream (2026) How Many Journalists Are There in the US? (2026 Edition). Vince Nero, August 2026. Based on BLS and US Census data.
https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/journalists-jobs-in-the-us/BuzzStream (2026) How Many Journalists Are There in the UK? (2026 Edition). September 2026. Based on ONS data.
https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/journalists-in-uk/Press Gazette (2026) Journalism job cuts in 2026 tracked. Charlotte Tobitt, rolling updates.
https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/journalism-job-cuts-in-2026-updates/Press Gazette (2026) More than 3,000 journalism job cuts tracked in UK and US in 2025. Charlotte Tobitt, January 2026.
https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/journalism-job-cuts-2025-tracked/