How many developers are there?

How many developers are there?

In this report, SlashData answers the simple question: how many software developers are there in the world? We estimate that at the start of 2019 there were just under 19 million active software developers globally, out of which 13M are software professionals. The developer population is currently growing strongly, at a rate of over 20%. In addition, this report discusses the size of major developer communities, including programming language communities.

Our estimate is derived independently, using a bottom-up approach firmly rooted in reliable measurement.

Any estimate has some degree of uncertainty associated with it, as well as embedded choices and trade-offs, and should be used with an appropriate level of care and precision. In this report, we discuss in depth what the key sources of uncertainty are and how we have mitigated them. In particular, “developers” are on a continuous spectrum of involvement with coding. The arbitrary choice of who counts as a developer is a source of fundamental estimation uncertainty. Another source of uncertainty is measurement bias, in particular from the regional nature of our base sources, as well as potential biases in our survey data.

Key questions answered: • How many software developers are there? • Who is considered a developer? • Growth of the global developer population • Major developer communities • Programming languages popularity

To get a full list of this report's contents and all graphs, please download the report.

KEY QUESTIONS

How many software developers are there?

Who is considered a developer?

Growth of the global developer population

Major developer communities

Programming languages popularity

METHODOLOGY

In this report, SlashData answers the simple question: how many software developers are there in the world? We estimate that at the start of 2019 there were just under 19 million active software developers globally, out of which 13M are software professionals. The developer population is currently growing strongly, at a rate of over 20%. In addition, this report discusses the size of major developer communities, including programming language communities.

Our estimate is derived independently, using a bottom-up approach firmly rooted in reliable measurement.

Any estimate has some degree of uncertainty associated with it, as well as embedded choices and trade-offs, and should be used with an appropriate level of care and precision. In this report, we discuss in depth what the key sources of uncertainty are and how we have mitigated them. In particular, “developers” are on a continuous spectrum of involvement with coding. The arbitrary choice of who counts as a developer is a source of fundamental estimation uncertainty. Another source of uncertainty is measurement bias, in particular from the regional nature of our base sources, as well as potential biases in our survey data.

Key questions answered:

How many software developers are there?

Who is considered a developer?

Growth of the global developer population

Major developer communities

Programming languages popularity

To get a full list of this report's contents and all graphs, please download the report.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

In this report, SlashData answers the simple question: how many software developers are there in the world? We estimate that at the start of 2019 there were just under 19 million active software developers globally, out of which 13M are software professionals. The developer population is currently growing strongly, at a rate of over 20%. In addition, this report discusses the size of major developer communities, including programming language communities.

Our estimate is derived independently, using a bottom-up approach firmly rooted in reliable measurement.

Any estimate has some degree of uncertainty associated with it, as well as embedded choices and trade-offs, and should be used with an appropriate level of care and precision. In this report, we discuss in depth what the key sources of uncertainty are and how we have mitigated them. In particular, “developers” are on a continuous spectrum of involvement with coding. The arbitrary choice of who counts as a developer is a source of fundamental estimation uncertainty. Another source of uncertainty is measurement bias, in particular from the regional nature of our base sources, as well as potential biases in our survey data.

Key questions answered:

• How many software developers are there?

• Who is considered a developer?

• Growth of the global developer population

• Major developer communities

• Programming languages popularity

To get a full list of this report's contents and all graphs, please download the report.