Media UK publishes all the audience figures for every radio station - here's Radio 1's audience figures for example. You'll find audience figures published on the Media UK website, linked-to from most radio station pages.

The figures below, however, also include radio station brands: we're treating "Heart" or "Kiss" as one station here, rather than each individual local radio service. This gives a clearer view of the popularity of station brands.

These figures are based on RAJAR ending December 2011.

The top 10 radio stations with the most listeners

Normally, when people ask for the most popular radio station, they mean the one with the most amount of listeners. This will always give national or London stations as a result, and ignore smaller, local radio stations - even though, in many areas, the most popular station is a local one.

1. BBC Radio 2 (14.3m)
2. BBC Radio 1 (11.7m)
3. BBC Radio 4 (10.8m)
4. Heart (7.5m)
5. Capital (7.0m)
6. BBC Radio 5 live (6.3m)
7. Classic FM (5.4m)
8. Kiss (4.2m)
9. Magic (3.9m)
10. Smooth Radio (3.3m)

The top 10 radio owners with the most listeners

It's also important to look at radio owners, since they have the market in commercial terms.

1. BBC national radio (31.6m)
2. Global Radio (19.4m)
3. Bauer Media (13.3m)
4. BBC local/regional radio (9.6m)
5. GMG Radio (5.6m)
6. UTV Radio (4.5m)
7. TIML Radio (Absolute Radio) (2.8m)
8. BBC World Service (1.4m)
9. Orion Media (1.3m)
10. Planet Rock (0.8m)

The top 10 radio stations with the highest amount of listeners in their area

If you want to look at popularity based on how many people listen in their area (and thus, take on board local radio stations as well as national), then the 'reach percent' is the best figure to examine. This shows you people who've listened for at least five minutes a week, and takes no account of whether they listen any longer than that.

1. Channel 103 (59% of people in their area tune in)
2. Manx Radio (58%)
3. Radio Borders (54%)
4. Moray Firth Radio (53%)
5. Radio Pembrokeshire (50%)
6. Island FM (49%)
7. West Sound (48%)
8. BBC Radio Guernsey (45%)
9. Cool FM (44%)
10. Northsound One (41%)

The top 10 radio stations with the highest listening share in their area

The share of listening in a station's broadcast area is normally the best way of monitoring how popular a radio station is. This makes it easier to work out how popular the station's entire broadcasting output is, and ignores the size of its broadcast area.

1. Island FM (get 34.8% of all listening in its area)
2. Radio Borders (32.5%)
3. Channel 103 (31.9%)
4. BBC Radio Guernsey (28%)
5. Moray Firth Radio (27.8%)
6. West Sound (24.2%)
7. BBC Radio Jersey (22.7%)
8. Radio Pembrokeshire (22.5%)
9. Tay FM (21.5%)
10. BBC Radio Ulster (20.3%)

Note: figures here for BBC Radio 5 live also include BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra; and BBC Radio 4's figures include BBC Radio 4 LW.