Rascasse Audience Intelligence

NFL Fan Demographics in United States

NFL has an estimated audience of 154,881,087 people in United States.

#1among American football in United States
#2among Event in United States#5in Sports

The average NFL fan in United States is 37.0 years old, balanced, and lives primarily in California.

By number of fans, NFL ranks #1 among the 2700 objects in American football in United States — 16.6× the group median.

Its fans are 0.6 years younger than the group average of 37.6.

Women make up 45.1% of the fan base, 10.2 percentage points more than the group average.

Compared with the other 2699 objects in American football, NFL fans stand out for their interest in Sean Payton, Eli Manning and Daniel Negreanu.

Interest is seasonal: January, October and December account for 58% of the year's searches, June is the quietest month.

Most fans live in California, Texas, New York.

Top affinities include Sean Payton, Eli Manning, Los Angeles Chargers, with strongest over-indexing on Sean Payton (1.88× the country average).

The typical NFL fan in United States is balanced, around 37.0 years old, with a notable affinity for Sean Payton.

Category: Sports · Type: Event · Subtype: American football

Data status: Q2/2026 · Source & method

Section 01

At a glance

Audience size
154.9M
in United States
Gender
45.1%♀
54.9% male
Age
37.0
average years
Country rank
#19
among all objects in United States
Fig. 01

Search interest · 12-month trend

-15%
vs. last year
JanMarMayJulSepNov
Monthly searches · Source: Rascasse Solution
Section 02

Demographics of NFL fans

45.1% are female, 54.9% are male, average age 37.0.

Fig. 02

Gender split

45.1%
Female
54.9%
Male
Demographic split for NFL audience in United States
MetricValue
Female45.1%
Male54.9%
Average age37.0
Estimated audience size154,881,087
Fig. 03

Age distribution

Ø 37.0
average years
Age distribution of the NFL audience in United States
Age bracketShare%
16-2429%
25-3420%
35-4418%
45-5417%
55+16%
Fig. 04

Worldwide distribution

60.0%

of the worldwide NFL audience comes from United States.

Worldwide audience distribution share by country for NFL
CountryShare
United States60.0%
Canada4.3%
China3.2%
Section 03
Affinity (×) = how much more likely a member of this audience is to live in a region than the United States average. Example: 2.0× means twice as concentrated as the national baseline.

Geography

Fig. 05

Top regions by affinity

NFL fans by region: top regions in United States
#RegionReachAffinity×
01New Mexico~1.5M1.35×
02Colorado~3.5M1.32×
03South Dakota~500K1.27×
04North Dakota~500K1.25×
05Wisconsin~3.5M1.24×
06Pennsylvania~7.5M1.22×
07Washington~4.5M1.20×
08Arizona~4M1.20×
09Maryland~3.5M1.19×
10Delaware~500K1.19×
11Nevada~1.5M1.17×
12Illinois~7M1.16×
13Hawaii~800K1.15×
14Kansas~1.5M1.14×
15Wyoming~300K1.14×
16California~21M1.12×
17Minnesota~3M1.11×
18Maine~700K1.10×
19New Hampshire~700K1.10×
20Montana~600K1.10×
21Idaho~900K1.08×
22Rhode Island~500K1.08×
23Alaska~300K1.05×
24Massachusetts~3.5M1.04×
25Iowa~1.5M1.03×
26Virginia~4M1.01×
27Texas~11M1.00×
28New Jersey~4M0.98×
29Indiana~3M0.97×
30Connecticut~1.5M0.97×
31Vermont~300K0.97×
32Michigan~4.5M0.96×
33Missouri~2.5M0.96×
34North Carolina~5M0.95×
35Ohio~5M0.92×
36Utah~1.5M0.91×
37New York~8.5M0.90×
38West Virginia~700K0.88×
39Oregon~1.5M0.87×
40South Carolina~2M0.83×
41Nebraska~800K0.83×
42Florida~8M0.82×
43Mississippi~1M0.80×
44Georgia~3.5M0.71×
45Louisiana~1.5M0.70×
46Kentucky~1.5M0.70×
47Arkansas~1M0.70×
48Tennessee~2.5M0.69×
49Oklahoma~1M0.61×
50Alabama~1M0.48×
Fig. 06

Affinity by region

Affinity by region — NFL, United States
0.48×1.00×1.35×
Section 04
Brands and objects ranked by affinity with this audience. Values above 1.0× mean over-representation compared with the country average.

Audience interests & affinities

Fig. 07

Top cross-interests, ranked by affinity

Affinities of the NFL audience vs. the country average
#·InterestCategoryAffinity×
01Sean PaytonSports1.88×
02Eli ManningSports1.71×
03Los Angeles ChargersSports1.62×
04Daniel NegreanuSports1.59×
05Phil IveySports1.57×
06Deion SandersSports1.56×
07Joe MontanaSports1.56×
08National Football League draftSports1.54×
09Dirk NowitzkiSports1.54×
10DFS (British retailer)Shopping1.54×
11Aaron RodgersSports1.52×
12Phil MickelsonSports1.52×
13Major League Baseball draftSports1.52×
14Michigan Wolverines men's basketballSports1.52×
Section 05
Strongest and weakest personality traits of this audience (1.0 = country average).

Personality of the NFL audience

Fig. 08

Deviation from the national baseline

↑ What stands out
The strongest tendencies
Personality traits of the NFL audience vs. the country average · What stands out
TraitClusterDeviationScore
PatriotismCONSERVATISM0.93×
Social Media UsageJOY0.92×
Need for SecurityCONSERVATISM0.92×
0×1.00× baseline2×
↓ Rather not
The weakest tendencies
Personality traits of the NFL audience vs. the country average · Rather not
TraitClusterDeviationScore
Design AffinityPREMIUM0.67×
SustainabilityBALANCE0.72×
MindfulnessBALANCE0.76×
0×1.00× baseline2×
Appendix

Explore more audiences

More American football audiences in United States

See NFL audiences in other countries

Source & method

Source
Rascasse Solution, own modelling
What “fans” means here
Estimated number of people in United States with measurable interest in NFL over the last 12 months. Modelled, not counted; people interested in several events count for each of them.
Data basis
Anonymised behavioural signals: search demand, social media signals, sponsorship and event data. Not a survey.
Period
07/2025 – 06/2026 · updated quarterly · data status Q2/2026
Confidence
high gender and age data available and an audience of at least 100,000 people

Cite as: “Rascasse Solution, Q2/2026, rascasse.com/explore/us/nfl-941” · Methodology