Overview

This year, over 64,000 developers told us how they learn and level up, which tools they’re using, and what they want.

Each year since 2011, Stack Overflow has asked developers about their favorite technologies, coding habits, and work preferences, as well as how they learn, share, and level up. This year represents the largest group of respondents in our history: 64,000 developers took our annual survey in January.

As the world’s largest and most trusted community of software developers, we run this survey and share these results to improve developers’ lives: We want to empower developers by providing them with rich information about themselves, their industry, and their peers. And we want to use this information to educate employers about who developers are and what they need.

We learn something new every time we run our survey. This year is no exception:

A common misconception about developers is that they've all been programming since childhood. In fact, we see a wide range of experience levels. Among professional developers, 11.3% got their first coding jobs within a year of first learning how to program. A further 36.9% learned to program between one and four years before beginning their careers as developers.
Only 13.1% of developers are actively looking for a job. But 75.2% of developers are interested in hearing about new job opportunities.
When we asked respondents what they valued most when considering a new job, 53.3% said remote options were a top priority. A majority of developers, 63.9%, reported working remotely at least one day a month, and 11.1% say they’re full-time remote or almost all the time.
A majority of developers said they were underpaid. Developers who work in government and non-profits feel the most underpaid, while those who work in finance feel the most overpaid.

Want to dive into the results yourself? In a few weeks, we’ll make the anonymised results of the survey available for download under the Open Database License (ODbL). We look forward to seeing what you find!

Developer Profile

Who codes? More people in more places than ever before.

Geography

Each month, about 40 million people visit Stack Overflow to learn, share, and level up. We estimate that 16.8 million of these people are professional developers and university-level students.

Our estimate on professional developers comes from the things people read and do when they visit Stack Overflow. We collect data on user activity to help surface jobs we think you might find interesting and questions we think you can answer. You can download and clear this data at any time.

Developer Roles

Developer Type

Web developer

72.6%

Desktop applications developer

28.9%

Mobile developer

23.0%

Database administrator

14.4%

Developer with a statistics or mathematics background

11.3%

Systems administrator

11.3%

DevOps specialist

11.1%

Embedded applications/devices developer

9.3%

Data scientist

8.4%

Other

7.5%

Graphics programming

4.8%

Graphic designer

3.9%

Machine learning specialist

3.8%

Quality assurance engineer

3.5%

_{36,125 responses; select all that apply}

About three-quarters of respondents identify as web developers, although many also said they are working to build desktop apps and mobile apps.

Specific Developer Types

Full stack Web developer

63.7%

Back-end Web developer

24.4%

Front-end Web developer

11.9%

_{10,696 responses; select all that apply}

Android

64.8%

iOS

57.6%

Windows Phone

4.3%

Blackberry

0.7%

_{1,558 responses; select all that apply}

Analyst or consultant

38.8%

Other

31.9%

Data scientist

22.5%

Educator or academic

15.0%

Designer or illustrator

12.3%

Product manager

7.5%

C-suite executive

5.3%

Marketing or sales manager

3.1%

Elected official

0.7%

_{4,890 responses; select all that apply}

Compared to the rest of the world, the United States has a higher proportion of people who identify as full stack web developers, whereas Germany has a comparatively lower proportion. As for mobile developers, the U.S. and United Kingdom have proportionally more iOS developers and fewer Android developers than the rest of the world.

People other than full-time developers also write code as part of their jobs, and they come to Stack Overflow for help and community. This year, we gave additional occupation options to respondents who are not full-time developers, but who occasionally code as part of their work. These roles include analyst, data scientist, and educator.

Experience

Years Since Learning to Code

Less than a year

2.9%

1 to 2 years

5.4%

2 to 3 years

6.4%

3 to 4 years

7.2%

4 to 5 years

7.6%

5 to 6 years

7.0%

6 to 7 years

5.6%

7 to 8 years

4.8%

8 to 9 years

3.7%

9 to 10 years

6.3%

10 to 11 years

4.3%

11 to 12 years

2.7%

12 to 13 years

2.6%

13 to 14 years

2.1%

14 to 15 years

3.9%

15 to 16 years

3.3%

16 to 17 years

2.0%

17 to 18 years

1.7%

18 to 19 years

1.3%

19 to 20 years

2.0%

20 or more years

17.2%

_{51,145 responses}

Less than a year

1.1%

1 to 2 years

2.5%

2 to 3 years

3.7%

3 to 4 years

5.2%

4 to 5 years

6.5%

5 to 6 years

6.8%

6 to 7 years

5.8%

7 to 8 years

5.2%

8 to 9 years

4.1%

9 to 10 years

7.1%

10 to 11 years

5.0%

11 to 12 years

3.3%

12 to 13 years

3.2%

13 to 14 years

2.6%

14 to 15 years

4.8%

15 to 16 years

4.0%

16 to 17 years

2.5%

17 to 18 years

2.2%

18 to 19 years

1.5%

19 to 20 years

2.4%

20 or more years

20.3%

_{35,983 responses}

A common misconception about developers is that they've all been programming since childhood. In fact, we see a wide range of experience levels. Among professional developers, one-eighth (12.5%) learned to code less than four years ago, and an additional one-eighth (13.3%) learned to code between four and six years ago. Due to the pervasiveness of online courses and coding bootcamps, adults with little to no programming experience can now more easily transition to a career as a developer.

Years Coding Professionally

Less than a year

7.4%

1 to 2 years

12.9%

2 to 3 years

11.7%

3 to 4 years

9.8%

4 to 5 years

8.3%

5 to 6 years

7.3%

6 to 7 years

4.7%

7 to 8 years

4.0%

8 to 9 years

3.1%

9 to 10 years

4.8%

10 to 11 years

4.1%

11 to 12 years

2.0%

12 to 13 years

1.8%

13 to 14 years

1.3%

14 to 15 years

2.1%

15 to 16 years

2.1%

16 to 17 years

1.7%

17 to 18 years

1.3%

18 to 19 years

1.0%

19 to 20 years

1.0%

20 or more years

7.5%

_{40,890 responses}

Web and mobile developers have significantly less professional coding experience, on average, than developers in other technical disciplines such as systems administration and embedded programming. Across all developer kinds, the software industry acts as the primary incubator for new talent, but sees a relatively low proportion of more experienced developers. For example, 60% of mobile developers at software firms have fewer than five years of professional coding experience, compared to 45% of mobile developers in other industries.

Among professional developers, 11.3% got their first coding jobs within a year of first learning how to program. A further 36.9% learned to program between one and four years before beginning their careers as developers. Globally, developers in Southern Asia had the lowest average amount of prior coding experience when beginning their careers; those in continental Europe had the highest.

Years Coded Professionally in the Past

Less than a year

5.9%

1 to 2 years

8.2%

2 to 3 years

8.0%

3 to 4 years

6.7%

4 to 5 years

6.8%

5 to 6 years

4.9%

6 to 7 years

3.1%

7 to 8 years

4.7%

8 to 9 years

2.9%

9 to 10 years

6.1%

10 to 11 years

5.1%

11 to 12 years

2.9%

12 to 13 years

2.1%

13 to 14 years

1.7%

14 to 15 years

4.0%

15 to 16 years

4.3%

16 to 17 years

2.0%

17 to 18 years

2.0%

18 to 19 years

0.6%

19 to 20 years

2.4%

20 or more years

15.8%

_{974 responses; among respondents who indicated they no longer program as part of their job}

Respondents who indicated that they had worked as professional developers in the past, but now did something else for a living, were asked how long they had coded as part of their jobs.

Demographics

Gender

Male

88.6%

Female

7.6%

Other

1.2%

Gender non-conforming

0.9%

Transgender

0.5%

_{35,990 responses}

Male

89.5%

Female

7.2%

Other

1.0%

Gender non-conforming

0.7%

Transgender

0.4%

_{26,762 responses}

Male

86.2%

Female

8.3%

Other

2.0%

Gender non-conforming

1.6%

Transgender

0.8%

_{4,545 responses}

We asked respondents for their gender identity. Specifically, we asked them to select each of the following options that apply to them:

Male
Female
Transgender
Non-binary, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming
A different identity (write-in option)

According to Quantcast, women account for 10% of Stack Overflow’s U.S. traffic. Similarly, 10% of survey respondents from the U.S. identify as women. In our survey last year, 6.6% of respondents from the U.S. identified as women.

Meanwhile, women account for 9% of Stack Overflow’s UK traffic, while 7.3% of survey respondents from the UK were women. Finally, women account for 8% of Stack Overflow’s traffic from both France and Germany, while 5.1% and 5.6% of respondents from those countries, respectively, identify as women.

We will publish additional analysis related to respondents’ gender identities in the coming weeks.

Ethnicity

White or of European descent

74.4%

South Asian

8.8%

Hispanic or Latino/Latina

5.6%

East Asian

4.9%

Middle Eastern

3.6%

I prefer not to say

2.6%

Black or of African descent

2.5%

I don’t know

2.0%

Native American, Pacific Islander, or Indigenous Australian

0.9%

_{33,033 responses; select all that apply}

White or of European descent

76.2%

South Asian

8.2%

Hispanic or Latino/Latina

5.7%

East Asian

4.3%

Middle Eastern

3.4%

I prefer not to say

2.3%

Black or of African descent

2.3%

I don’t know

1.7%

Native American, Pacific Islander, or Indigenous Australian

0.9%

_{24,652 responses; select all that apply}

White or of European descent

64.4%

South Asian

13.3%

East Asian

7.7%

Hispanic or Latino/Latina

5.3%

Middle Eastern

4.7%

I don’t know

3.8%

Black or of African descent

3.7%

I prefer not to say

3.2%

Native American, Pacific Islander, or Indigenous Australian

0.8%

_{4,097 responses; select all that apply}

This was the first year we asked respondents for their ethnic identity. We asked them to select each option that applied.

We asked respondents this question to add an important dimension to what we can learn about developers. In addition, public policy researchers and employers frequently look to us for information on how they can reach out to and better understand underrepresented groups among developers.

We will publish additional analysis related to respondents’ ethnic identities in the coming weeks.

Disability Status

None or prefer not to say

96.3%

Other

1.8%

Blind

1.0%

Deaf

0.5%

Unable to walk

0.2%

Unable to type

0.1%

_{1,755 responses identified as having a disability}

Similar to our question about ethnicity, this was the first year we asked respondents for their disability status. Of the 3.4% of respondents who identified as having a disability, we asked them to select each option that applied, and we included a write-in option. We know developers can experience many forms of disability. For this survey, we confined our list of standard options on this question to disabilities that require some physical accommodation by employers.

We will publish additional analysis related to respondents’ disability status in the coming weeks.

Parents' Education Level

A bachelor’s degree

29.1%

A master’s degree

21.6%

High school

16.8%

Some college/university study, no bachelor's degree

13.7%

A doctoral degree

5.9%

A professional degree

4.4%

Primary/elementary school

3.9%

I don't know/not sure

2.1%

I prefer not to answer

1.8%

No education

0.6%

_{34,938 responses}

A bachelor’s degree

30.2%

A master’s degree

22.0%

High school

17.2%

Some college/university study, no bachelor's degree

13.6%

A doctoral degree

5.4%

A professional degree

4.3%

Primary/elementary school

3.9%

I don't know/not sure

1.6%

I prefer not to answer

1.4%

No education

0.5%

_{26,066 responses}

A bachelor’s degree

26.0%

A master’s degree

20.5%

High school

16.6%

Some college/university study, no bachelor's degree

13.3%

A doctoral degree

6.5%

A professional degree

4.5%

I don't know/not sure

4.3%

Primary/elementary school

4.3%

I prefer not to answer

3.3%

No education

0.7%

_{4,338 responses}

We asked respondents, “What is the highest level of education received by either of your parents?” Similar to ethnicity and disability status, this is the first year we asked this question. We asked this question in part because public policy researchers and some employers seek information about first-generation college students to improve their efforts to support them.

We will publish additional analysis on this in the coming weeks.

Developer Role and Gender

Developer Role and Gender _{The dashed line shows the average ratio of men's to women's participation}

While the sample as a whole skewed heavily male, women were more likely to be represented in some developer roles than others. They were proportionally more represented among data scientists, mobile and web developers, quality assurance engineers, and graphic designers. The dashed line shows the average ratio for all of these developer roles.

Developer Role and Ethnicity

Web developer

72.4%

Desktop applications developer

30.8%

Mobile developer

20.1%

Database administrator

14.5%

DevOps specialist

12.4%

Systems administrator

12.4%

Developer with a statistics or mathematics background

11.5%

Embedded applications/devices developer

9.7%

Other

8.7%

Data scientist

7.8%

Graphics programming

4.9%

Quality assurance engineer

3.5%

Machine learning specialist

3.5%

Graphic designer

3.3%

_{18,770 responses}

Web developer

73.6%

Mobile developer

27.8%

Desktop applications developer

22.4%

Developer with a statistics or mathematics background

11.7%

Database administrator

11.3%

DevOps specialist

8.5%

Data scientist

7.4%

Embedded applications/devices developer

7.2%

Systems administrator

7.0%

Other

6.6%

Graphic designer

3.8%

Machine learning specialist

3.8%

Quality assurance engineer

3.1%

Graphics programming

2.8%

_{2,009 responses}

Web developer

80.9%

Desktop applications developer

29.0%

Mobile developer

27.8%

Database administrator

17.0%

Systems administrator

14.8%

DevOps specialist

11.5%

Developer with a statistics or mathematics background

10.2%

Data scientist

9.6%

Embedded applications/devices developer

8.2%

Other

6.2%

Graphics programming

4.7%

Machine learning specialist

4.4%

Graphic designer

4.2%

Quality assurance engineer

4.0%

_{1,412 responses}

Web developer

74.2%

Mobile developer

27.7%

Desktop applications developer

25.0%

Database administrator

12.9%

Developer with a statistics or mathematics background

11.4%

DevOps specialist

10.9%

Systems administrator

10.4%

Data scientist

8.8%

Embedded applications/devices developer

7.7%

Other

5.4%

Machine learning specialist

4.8%

Graphics programming

4.5%

Graphic designer

3.9%

Quality assurance engineer

3.8%

_{1,063 responses}

Respondents who identified as White or of European descent were less likely to report being a mobile developer than those who identified as South Asian, Hispanic or Latino/Latina, or East Asian. A higher proportion of respondents who identified as Hispanic or Latino/Latina selected “web developer” as an option compared to those who selected White or of European descent, South Asian, or East Asian.

Important note: We didn't receive enough responses from developers of some ethnicities to include them here with reliable percentages. However, we do see that many developers who identify as Black or of African descent work as web developers and mobile developers, and many developers with Middle Eastern ethnic backgrounds work as web developers and desktop applications developers. Developers who identified as Native American, Pacific Islander, or Indigenous Australian work as web developers at a high rate.

Years of Coding Experience and Demographics

Less than a year

10.7%
6.0%

1 to 2 years

16.6%
11.3%

2 to 3 years

14.0%
10.8%

3 to 4 years

9.7%
9.5%

4 to 5 years

8.6%
8.1%

5 to 6 years

6.6%
7.5%

6 to 7 years

4.7%
4.8%

7 to 8 years

3.6%
4.4%

8 to 9 years

2.2%
3.4%

9 to 10 years

3.7%
5.0%

10 to 11 years

3.9%
4.3%

11 to 12 years

1.6%
2.3%

12 to 13 years

1.4%
2.0%

13 to 14 years

0.6%
1.5%

14 to 15 years

1.2%
2.2%

15 to 16 years

1.5%
2.4%

16 to 17 years

1.2%
2.0%

17 to 18 years

1.2%
1.6%

18 to 19 years

1.1%
1.1%

19 to 20 years

0.6%
1.2%

20 or more years

5.4%
8.7%

Female

Male

_{29,255 responses}

White or of European descent

12.5

Native American, Pacific Islander, or Indigenous Australian

12.1

I prefer not to say

11.5

Hispanic or Latino/Latina

10.6

Middle Eastern

East Asian

Black or of African descent

I don’t know

South Asian

_{Mean of 33,004 responses}

Between respondents who identified as men or women, nearly twice the number of women said they had been coding for less than a year. On average, respondents who identified as White or of European descent and those who identified as Pacific Islander or Indigenous Australian had the highest average number of years experience coding.

Education

Educational Attainment

I never completed any formal education

0.8%

Primary/elementary school

2.0%

Secondary school

11.5%

Some college/university study without earning a bachelor’s degree

15.8%

Bachelor’s degree

42.0%

Master’s degree

21.7%

Professional degree

1.4%

Doctoral degree

2.5%

I prefer not to answer

2.2%

_{51,392 responses}

I never completed any formal education

0.7%

Primary/elementary school

0.6%

Secondary school

6.3%

Some college/university study without earning a bachelor’s degree

14.9%

Bachelor’s degree

47.9%

Master’s degree

24.9%

Professional degree

1.5%

Doctoral degree

2.2%

I prefer not to answer

1.1%

_{36,131 responses}

Among current professional developers globally, 76.5% of respondents said they had a bachelor’s degree or higher, such as a Master’s degree or equivalent.

Undergraduate Major

Computer science or software engineering

50.0%

Computer engineering or electrical/electronics engineering

10.2%

Computer programming or Web development

9.1%

Information technology, networking, or system administration

5.0%

A natural science

4.4%

A non-computer-focused engineering discipline

4.2%

Mathematics or statistics

3.8%

Something else

2.5%

A humanities discipline

2.1%

A business discipline

2.1%

Management information systems

1.5%

Fine arts or performing arts

1.5%

A social science

1.5%

I never declared a major

1.4%

Psychology

0.5%

A health science

0.3%

_{42,841 responses; select all that apply}

Computer science or software engineering

54.2%

Computer engineering or electrical/electronics engineering

10.0%

Computer programming or Web development

9.1%

Information technology, networking, or system administration

4.3%

A non-computer-focused engineering discipline

3.6%

A natural science

3.5%

Mathematics or statistics

3.4%

Something else

2.1%

A humanities discipline

1.9%

A business discipline

1.7%

Fine arts or performing arts

1.5%

Management information systems

1.4%

I never declared a major

1.3%

A social science

1.3%

Psychology

0.4%

A health science

0.2%

_{32,958 responses; select all that apply}

Computer science or software engineering

48.3%

Computer programming or Web development

12.5%

Computer engineering or electrical/electronics engineering

10.2%

Information technology, networking, or system administration

6.8%

Something else

3.3%

A natural science

3.2%

A non-computer-focused engineering discipline

3.1%

Mathematics or statistics

2.8%

A business discipline

2.4%

A humanities discipline

1.6%

I never declared a major

1.6%

Fine arts or performing arts

1.2%

A social science

1.0%

Management information systems

1.0%

A health science

0.5%

Psychology

0.4%

_{3,945 responses; select all that apply}

More than half (54.2%) of professional developers who had studied at a college or university said they had concentrated their studies on computer science or software engineering, and an additional quarter (24.9%) majored in a closely-related discipline such as computer programming, computer engineering, or information technology. The remaining 20.9% said they had majored in other fields such as business, the social sciences, natural sciences, non-computer engineering, or the arts.

Among current students who responded to the survey, 48.3% said they were majoring in computer science or software engineering, and 30.5% said they were majoring in closely-related fields. Finally, 21.2% said they were focusing on other fields.

Importance of Formal Education

Very important

15.9%

Important

25.1%

Somewhat important

26.9%

Not very important

20.5%

Not at all important

11.5%

_{23,355 responses}

Of current professional developers, 32% said their formal education was not very important or not important at all to their career success. This is not entirely surprising given that 90% of developers overall consider themselves at least somewhat self-taught: a formal degree is only one aspect of their education, and so much of their practical day-to-day work depends on their company’s individual tech stack decisions.

However, computer science majors and computer engineering majors were the most likely (49.4%) to say their formal education was important or very important.

Compared to computer science majors, respondents who majored in less theoretical computer-related disciplines (such as IT, web development, or computer programming) were more likely to say their formal educations were unimportant.

Other Types of Education

Self-taught

90.0%

Online course

45.4%

On-the-job training

41.2%

Open source contributions

37.0%

Hackathon

23.6%

Coding competition

22.0%

Part-time/evening course

15.3%

Industry certification

14.7%

Bootcamp

9.0%

_{30,354 responses; select all that apply}

Self-taught

91.1%

On-the-job training

46.6%

Online course

44.1%

Open source contributions

38.9%

Hackathon

25.4%

Coding competition

21.8%

Industry certification

16.4%

Part-time/evening course

15.0%

Bootcamp

9.4%

_{22,407 responses; select all that apply}

Developers love to learn: 90% say they are at least partially self-taught. Among current professional developers, 55.9% say they’ve taken an online course, and 53.4% say they’ve received on-the-job training.

Ways Developers Teach Themselves

Official documentation

80.2%

Stack Overflow Q&A

80.1%

Trade book

53.8%

Non-Stack online communities

50.7%

Built-in help

47.1%

Stack Overflow Docs

27.5%

Textbook

20.8%

Friends network

20.7%

Company internal community

18.5%

Other

11.7%

Tutoring/mentoring

4.4%

_{26,735 responses; select all that apply}

Official documentation

82.2%

Stack Overflow Q&A

80.0%

Trade book

56.3%

Non-Stack online communities

50.5%

Built-in help

47.6%

Stack Overflow Docs

26.0%

Friends network

20.3%

Textbook

19.6%

Company internal community

18.3%

Other

10.7%

Tutoring/mentoring

4.3%

_{20,018 responses; select all that apply}

By far, reading official documentation and using Stack Overflow Q&A are the two most common ways developers level up their skills.

Bootcamp Success

I already had a job as a developer when I started the program

45.8%

I got a job as a developer before completing the program

9.7%

Immediately upon graduating

11.3%

Less than a month

6.0%

One to three months

8.8%

Four to six months

4.0%

Six months to a year

3.0%

Longer than a year

3.3%

I haven't gotten a job as a developer yet

8.1%

_{2,602 responses}

Due to the high demand for professional developers, coding bootcamps have exploded in popularity in the past few years. Although commonly perceived as a way for non-developers to transition into a new career, we found that 45.8% of those who said they’d gone through a bootcamp were already developers when they started the program. This is likely because many developers decide at various parts in their career that they need to upgrade their skills or learn new technologies to stay relevant in the job market.

Program as a Hobby

Yes, I program as a hobby

48.3%

Yes, I contribute to open source projects

5.9%

Yes, both

26.8%

19.0%

_{51,392 responses}

Yes, I program as a hobby

45.2%

Yes, I contribute to open source projects

6.2%

Yes, both

27.7%

20.8%

_{36,131 responses}

Coding isn’t just a career; it can be a passion. Among all developers, 75.0% code as a hobby; even among professional developers a similar proportion (73.9%) do so. Additionally, 32.7% of developers said they contribute to open source projects.

What Kind of Learning Do Developers Recommend?

Take online courses

64.7%

Buy books and work through the exercises

49.9%

Part-time/evening courses

31.9%

Contribute to open source

31.5%

Bootcamp

22.4%

Conferences/meet-ups

22.3%

Return to college

21.3%

Participate in online coding competitions

15.3%

Get a job as a QA tester

14.3%

Participate in hackathons

11.7%

Master's degree

11.2%

Other

10.0%

None of these

2.6%

_{23,568 responses; select all that apply}

Take online courses

64.5%

Buy books and work through the exercises

50.2%

Part-time/evening courses

32.1%

Contribute to open source

31.7%

Conferences/meet-ups

23.4%

Bootcamp

22.8%

Return to college

21.0%

Get a job as a QA tester

15.8%

Participate in online coding competitions

14.0%

Participate in hackathons

11.1%

Master's degree

10.8%

Other

10.4%

None of these

2.3%

_{17,025 responses; select all that apply}

Want to learn to code but don’t know where to start? More developers say you should take an online course than any other method, followed by getting a book and working through the exercises.

As an important side note, we received great feedback on how we phrased this question, specifically the option, “Get a job as a QA tester and work your way into a developer role.” Although some developers start their careers as QA testers, the phrasing made it sound as if we saw QA as just a stepping stone, rather than a vital function and career option. QA professionals are our heroes (and QA engineers are 3.5% of our respondents this year!), and we apologize for not more carefully crafting our language.

Technology

The tools and trends of the trade.

Most Popular Technologies

Programming Languages

JavaScript

62.5%

SQL

51.2%

Java

39.7%

34.1%

Python

32.0%

PHP

28.1%

C++

22.3%

19.0%

TypeScript

9.5%

Ruby

9.1%

Swift

6.5%

Objective-C

6.4%

VB.NET

6.2%

Assembly

5.0%

4.5%

Perl

4.3%

VBA

4.3%

Matlab

4.3%

4.3%

Scala

3.6%

Groovy

3.3%

CoffeeScript

3.3%

Visual Basic 6

2.9%

Lua

2.8%

Haskell

1.8%

_{36,625 responses; select all that apply}

JavaScript

61.9%

SQL

50.8%

Java

39.3%

33.8%

Python

31.7%

PHP

27.9%

C++

22.1%

18.9%

TypeScript

9.4%

Ruby

9.0%

Swift

6.4%

Objective-C

6.4%

VB.NET

6.2%

Assembly

4.9%

4.4%

Perl

4.3%

VBA

4.3%

Matlab

4.2%

4.2%

Scala

3.5%

Groovy

3.2%

CoffeeScript

3.2%

Visual Basic 6

2.9%

Lua

2.8%

Haskell

1.8%

_{36,935 responses; select all that apply. Shown as a percentage of the respondents who chose at least one language, framework, database, or platform.}

JavaScript

66.7%

SQL

53.7%

Java

38.3%

36.7%

Python

27.6%

PHP

27.2%

C++

19.3%

15.4%

TypeScript

11.3%

Ruby

9.5%

Objective-C

7.3%

Swift

6.9%

VB.NET

6.1%

4.6%

Perl

4.1%

Scala

4.0%

Groovy

3.8%

Assembly

3.7%

CoffeeScript

3.7%

VBA

3.5%

3.1%

Matlab

2.9%

Visual Basic 6

2.5%

Lua

2.3%

Haskell

1.4%

_{27,612 responses; select all that apply. Shown as a percentage of the respondents who chose at least one language, framework, database, or platform.}

For the fifth year in a row, JavaScript was the most commonly used programming language. And once again, SQL takes second place, and Java third. However, the use of Python overtook PHP for the first time in five years.

Frameworks, Libraries, and Other Technologies

Node.js

47.1%

AngularJS

44.3%

.NET Core

33.4%

React

19.5%

Cordova

11.0%

Firebase

9.8%

Xamarin

8.3%

Hadoop

5.7%

Spark

4.7%

_{20,229 responses; select all that apply}

Node.js

25.8%

AngularJS

24.3%

.NET Core

18.3%

React

10.7%

Cordova

6.0%

Firebase

5.4%

Xamarin

4.5%

Hadoop

3.1%

Spark

2.6%

_{36,935 responses; select all that apply. Shown as a percentage of the respondents who chose at least one language, framework, database, or platform.}

AngularJS

28.1%

Node.js

27.9%

.NET Core

19.6%

React

12.6%

Cordova

6.9%

Firebase

5.6%

Xamarin

4.8%

Hadoop

3.2%

Spark

2.7%

_{27,612 responses; select all that apply. Shown as a percentage of the respondents who chose at least one language, framework, database, or platform.}

Node.js and AngularJS continue to be the most commonly used technologies in this category.

Databases

MySQL

55.6%

SQL Server

38.6%

SQLite

26.6%

PostgreSQL

26.5%

MongoDB

21.0%

Oracle

16.5%

Redis

14.1%

Cassandra

3.1%

_{29,452 responses; select all that apply}

MySQL

44.3%

SQL Server

30.8%

SQLite

21.2%

PostgreSQL

21.2%

MongoDB

16.8%

Oracle

13.2%

Redis

11.2%

Cassandra

2.5%

_{36,935 responses; select all that apply. Shown as a percentage of the respondents who chose at least one language, framework, database, or platform.}

MySQL

43.9%

SQL Server

34.1%

PostgreSQL

23.3%

SQLite

21.6%

MongoDB

18.5%

Oracle

14.0%

Redis

13.6%

Cassandra

2.9%

_{27,612 responses; select all that apply. Shown as a percentage of the respondents who chose at least one language, framework, database, or platform.}

This is the first year we specifically asked developers what database technology they're using. MySQL and SQL Server were the most commonly used.

Platforms

Windows Desktop

41.0%

Linux Desktop

32.9%

Android

28.2%

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

28.1%

Mac OS

18.4%

iOS

16.4%

Raspberry Pi

16.1%

WordPress

15.6%

Microsoft Azure

11.4%

Arduino

10.3%

Windows Phone

3.9%

SharePoint

3.7%

Salesforce

2.6%

Serverless

2.1%

Mainframe

1.4%

_{29,114 responses; select all that apply}

Windows Desktop

32.4%

Linux Desktop

26.0%

Android

22.2%

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

22.2%

Mac OS

14.5%

iOS

12.9%

Raspberry Pi

12.7%

WordPress

12.3%

Microsoft Azure

9.0%

Arduino

8.1%

Windows Phone

3.0%

SharePoint

2.9%

Salesforce

2.1%

Serverless

1.6%

Mainframe

1.1%

_{36,935 responses; select all that apply. Shown as a percentage of the respondents who chose at least one language, framework, database, or platform.}

Windows Desktop

31.2%

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

25.6%

Linux Desktop

24.2%

Android

21.7%

Mac OS

15.3%

iOS

14.3%

WordPress

12.2%

Raspberry Pi

11.3%

Microsoft Azure

10.5%

Arduino

6.5%

Windows Phone

3.1%

SharePoint

2.9%

Salesforce

2.3%

Serverless

1.9%

Mainframe

1.1%

_{27,612 responses; select all that apply. Shown as a percentage of the respondents who chose at least one language, framework, database, or platform.}

Windows Desktop was the most commonly used platform by developers, followed by Linux Desktop.

Languages Over Time

Historical Languages

In the five years we've been collecting the Developer Survey, we've seen languages such as Python and Node.js grow in popularity, while the usage of languages like C# and C has been shrinking.

Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted

Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Languages

Rust

73.1%

Smalltalk

67.0%

TypeScript

64.1%

Swift

63.9%

63.3%

Python

62.7%

Elixir

62.4%

61.7%

Scala

59.9%

Clojure

59.8%

JavaScript

59.8%

56.2%

Haskell

54.5%

SQL

53.4%

C++

52.0%

Julia

50.7%

Java

50.5%

49.9%

Ruby

48.5%

41.7%

PHP

41.4%

Erlang

39.9%

Dart

38.6%

Common Lisp

37.4%

Groovy

37.1%

_{% of developers who are developing with the language or technology and have expressed interest in continuing to develop with it}

Visual Basic 6

88.3%

VBA

80.4%

CoffeeScript

79.2%

VB.NET

77.2%

Matlab

72.3%

Objective-C

68.1%

Assembly

67.6%

Perl

65.9%

Lua

65.8%

Hack

64.5%

Groovy

62.9%

Common Lisp

62.6%

Dart

61.4%

Erlang

60.1%

PHP

58.6%

58.3%

Ruby

51.5%

50.1%

Java

49.5%

Julia

49.3%

C++

48.0%

SQL

46.6%

Haskell

45.5%

43.8%

JavaScript

40.2%

_{% of developers who are developing with the language or technology but have not expressed interest in continuing to do so}

Python

20.6%

JavaScript

18.6%

13.5%

C++

11.8%

Java

11.7%

TypeScript

10.3%

10.1%

Swift

8.7%

Ruby

7.0%

Rust

6.6%

SQL

6.5%

Scala

6.5%

6.4%

Haskell

5.4%

5.1%

4.9%

PHP

4.1%

Assembly

3.8%

Elixir

3.6%

Objective-C

3.2%

Clojure

2.9%

Erlang

2.6%

CoffeeScript

2.2%

Lua

2.1%

Perl

1.5%

_{% of developers who are not developing with the language or technology but have expressed interest in developing with it}

For the second year in a row, Rust was the most loved programming language. This means that proportionally, more developers wanted to continue working with it than any other language. Swift, last year's second most popular language, ranked as fourth.

For the second year in a row, Visual Basic (for 2017, Visual Basic 6, specifically) ranked as the most dreaded language. Most dreaded means that a high percentage of developers who are currently using the technology express no interest in continuing to do so.

Python shot to the most wanted language this year (as in, the language developers want to use this year more than any other), after ranking fourth last year.

Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Frameworks, Libraries and Other Technologies

React

66.9%

Node.js

62.1%

.NET Core

60.9%

Spark

60.1%

Firebase

52.9%

AngularJS

51.7%

Hadoop

48.8%

Xamarin

48.7%

Cordova

38.8%

_{% of developers who are developing with the language or technology and have expressed interest in continuing to develop with it}

Cordova

61.2%

Xamarin

51.3%

Hadoop

51.2%

AngularJS

48.3%

Firebase

47.1%

Spark

39.9%

.NET Core

39.1%

Node.js

37.9%

React

33.1%

_{% of developers who are developing with the language or technology but have not expressed interest in continuing to do so}

Node.js

22.2%

AngularJS

19.4%

React

18.9%

.NET Core

12.8%

Xamarin

8.4%

Hadoop

7.9%

Spark

5.4%

Firebase

5.4%

Cordova

3.7%

_{% of developers who are not developing with the language or technology but have expressed interest in developing with it}

React is the most loved among developers, whereas Cordova is the most dreaded. However, Node.js is the most wanted.

Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Databases

Redis

64.8%

PostgreSQL

60.8%

MongoDB

55.0%

SQL Server

54.2%

Cassandra

49.9%

MySQL

49.6%

SQLite

47.2%

Oracle

36.9%

_{% of developers who are developing with the language or technology and have expressed interest in continuing to develop with it}

Oracle

63.1%

SQLite

52.8%

MySQL

50.4%

Cassandra

50.1%

SQL Server

45.8%

MongoDB

45.0%

PostgreSQL

39.2%

Redis

35.2%

_{% of developers who are developing with the language or technology but have not expressed interest in continuing to do so}

MongoDB

20.8%

PostgreSQL

11.5%

Redis

10.6%

MySQL

8.5%

Cassandra

7.5%

SQLite

7.2%

SQL Server

4.6%

Oracle

3.8%

_{% of developers who are not developing with the language or technology but have expressed interest in developing with it}

Redis was the most loved database, meaning that proportionally, more developers wanted to continue working with it than any other database. Meanwhile, Oracle is the most dreaded. Finally, more developers wanted to work with MongoDB this year than any other database.

Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Platforms

Linux Desktop

69.6%

Serverless

66.3%

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

65.2%

Raspberry Pi

65.2%

Mac OS

62.3%

iOS

62.0%

Microsoft Azure

61.7%

Android

61.6%

Arduino

59.2%

Windows Desktop

56.0%

Mainframe

42.3%

Windows Phone

39.2%

WordPress

35.5%

Salesforce

29.4%

SharePoint

29.1%

_{% of developers who are developing with the language or technology and have expressed interest in continuing to develop with it}

SharePoint

70.9%

Salesforce

70.6%

WordPress

64.5%

Windows Phone

60.8%

Mainframe

57.7%

Windows Desktop

44.0%

Arduino

40.8%

Android

38.4%

Microsoft Azure

38.3%

iOS

38.0%

Mac OS

37.7%

Raspberry Pi

34.8%

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

34.8%

Serverless

33.7%

Linux Desktop

30.4%

_{% of developers who are developing with the language or technology but have not expressed interest in continuing to do so}

Android

20.6%

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

18.6%

Raspberry Pi

15.4%

iOS

13.2%

Linux Desktop

9.6%

Arduino

8.4%

Microsoft Azure

7.1%

Mac OS

6.6%

Serverless

4.0%

Windows Desktop

3.9%

Windows Phone

2.7%

WordPress

2.2%

Salesforce

1.1%

SharePoint

1.0%

Mainframe

0.7%

_{% of developers who are not developing with the language or technology but have expressed interest in developing with it}

Linux Desktop was the most loved platform. Sharepoint was the most dreaded. And finally, more developers wanted to work with Android this year than any other platform.

Technologies and Occupations

Most Popular Languages by Occupation

JavaScript

81.7%

SQL

60.4%

38.1%

Java

37.9%

PHP

33.8%

Python

25.3%

TypeScript

14.4%

C++

12.6%

Ruby

11.1%

10.3%

VB.NET

6.5%

Objective-C

5.5%

Swift

5.5%

4.9%

CoffeeScript

4.7%

Groovy

4.0%

Scala

4.0%

Perl

3.8%

VBA

3.2%

2.5%

Visual Basic 6

2.4%

Assembly

2.4%

Lua

2.0%

Matlab

1.9%

Elixir

1.4%

_{20,091 responses; select all that apply}

SQL

60.2%

JavaScript

60.0%

59.4%

Java

39.9%

C++

31.3%

Python

25.4%

PHP

21.6%

21.3%

TypeScript

12.1%

VB.NET

12.0%

Objective-C

7.7%

VBA

7.0%

Swift

6.1%

Ruby

5.7%

Assembly

5.3%

Visual Basic 6

5.3%

Perl

3.9%

3.7%

Matlab

3.6%

Groovy

3.2%

Lua

2.9%

Scala

2.7%

2.6%

2.4%

CoffeeScript

2.2%

_{8,155 responses; select all that apply}

JavaScript

73.9%

SQL

63.9%

Java

41.4%

Python

38.9%

PHP

37.8%

35.1%

C++

20.7%

18.5%

Ruby

14.0%

TypeScript

13.3%

9.2%

Perl

8.5%

VB.NET

7.3%

Swift

6.8%

Objective-C

6.6%

Groovy

6.3%

CoffeeScript

5.6%

Scala

5.5%

VBA

5.2%

Assembly

4.5%

Lua

3.7%

3.6%

Visual Basic 6

3.4%

Matlab

2.7%

Haskell

2.1%

_{5,258 responses; select all that apply}

JavaScript

58.7%

SQL

58.0%

Python

45.0%

Java

44.4%

35.2%

C++

32.0%

PHP

24.6%

24.0%

11.2%

TypeScript

9.2%

Ruby

9.2%

Scala

8.6%

Matlab

8.2%

Objective-C

7.1%

VB.NET

6.8%

Assembly

6.7%

Perl

6.6%

Swift

6.4%

6.4%

VBA

5.9%

Groovy

4.5%

CoffeeScript

3.9%

Visual Basic 6

3.7%

Lua

3.5%

Haskell

2.8%

_{4,779 responses; select all that apply}

JavaScript and SQL are the most popular languages across web developers, desktop developers, sysadmins/DevOps, and data scientists. Not surprisingly, R is far more popular with data scientists than other occupations.

Most Popular Developer Environments by Occupation

Visual Studio

38.8%

Notepad++

34.3%

Sublime Text

31.4%

Vim

27.1%

Visual Studio Code

24.0%

IntelliJ

23.0%

Atom

20.0%

Eclipse

20.0%

Android Studio

14.0%

PHPStorm

11.7%

Xcode

9.2%

NetBeans

7.8%

PyCharm

7.7%

Emacs

4.2%

IPython / Jupyter

3.4%

RubyMine

2.2%

RStudio

1.3%

TextMate

1.2%

Coda

0.7%

Komodo

0.6%

Zend

0.5%

Light Table

0.2%

_{19,772 responses; select all that apply}

Visual Studio

66.4%

Notepad++

48.1%

Visual Studio Code

25.8%

Eclipse

25.2%

Vim

21.2%

Sublime Text

21.1%

IntelliJ

18.8%

Android Studio

17.4%

Atom

12.7%

Xcode

11.4%

NetBeans

8.9%

PyCharm

7.3%

PHPStorm

4.9%

Emacs

4.6%

IPython / Jupyter

2.8%

RStudio

1.5%

RubyMine

1.4%

TextMate

1.2%

Komodo

0.7%

Coda

0.5%

Zend

0.4%

Light Table

0.2%

_{7,973 responses; select all that apply}

Vim

42.1%

Visual Studio

35.9%

Notepad++

33.1%

Sublime Text

28.6%

IntelliJ

23.8%

Visual Studio Code

22.4%

Eclipse

21.9%

Atom

20.7%

Android Studio

15.4%

PHPStorm

12.2%

PyCharm

11.3%

Xcode

10.5%

NetBeans

8.2%

Emacs

7.0%

IPython / Jupyter

5.6%

RubyMine

2.6%

RStudio

1.8%

TextMate

1.6%

Komodo

0.9%

Coda

0.9%

Zend

0.6%

Light Table

0.3%

_{5,164 responses; select all that apply}

Visual Studio

39.1%

Notepad++

36.7%

Vim

34.0%

Eclipse

26.9%

Sublime Text

26.1%

IntelliJ

25.2%

Visual Studio Code

17.3%

Atom

15.9%

Android Studio

15.5%

PyCharm

14.0%

IPython / Jupyter

12.7%

Xcode

10.7%

Emacs

9.5%

NetBeans

9.0%

RStudio

7.1%

PHPStorm

6.9%

RubyMine

1.7%

TextMate

1.4%

Komodo

1.0%

Coda

0.6%

Zend

0.6%

Light Table

0.4%

_{4,659 responses; select all that apply}

Visual Studio was the most popular developer environment tool for web developers, desktop developers, and data scientists—but not for sysadmins/DevOps, who preferred Vim above all else. Notepad++ was popular across the board.

Top Paying Technologies

Top Paying Technologies by Region

Clojure

$72,000

Rust

$65,714

Elixir

$65,000

$64,516

$64,516

Perl

$63,068

Groovy

$61,809

Ruby

$60,000

Scala

$60,000

$57,125

CoffeeScript

$55,054

Lua

$54,919

TypeScript

$54,299

Haskell

$53,763

Objective-C

$53,763

Python

$53,763

Swift

$53,763

$53,750

C++

$51,324

VBA

$50,476

JavaScript

$50,000

Matlab

$50,000

SQL

$50,000

VB.NET

$50,000

$49,423

_{Median of 12,128 responses}

$110,000

Scala

$110,000

Objective-C

$109,000

CoffeeScript

$105,500

Perl

$105,000

C++

$100,890

$100,000

$100,000

Swift

$100,000

TypeScript

$100,000

Python

$99,000

Groovy

$98,250

Ruby

$97,000

Java

$96,000

SQL

$91,000

$90,000

JavaScript

$90,000

Assembly

$83,000

PHP

$80,000

VBA

$80,000

VB.NET

$75,000

_{Median of 3,603 responses}

TypeScript

$53,763

Ruby

$51,250

$50,750

C++

$50,000

Java

$50,000

Python

$50,000

JavaScript

$48,506

$48,256

SQL

$48,125

VB.NET

$43,750

PHP

$42,500

_{Median of 1,398 responses}

Java

$53,763

Python

$53,763

TypeScript

$53,763

$51,613

C++

$51,613

JavaScript

$51,613

SQL

$51,613

$50,538

PHP

$45,161

_{Median of 958 responses}

Python

$8,809

Java

$7,341

JavaScript

$7,047

$6,901

SQL

$6,695

C++

$6,622

$6,240

PHP

$5,286

_{Median of 706 responses}

Python

$42,151

C++

$41,075

JavaScript

$39,785

SQL

$39,785

Java

$39,086

$38,710

PHP

$37,634

_{Median of 450 responses}

Globally, developers who use Clojure in their jobs have the highest average salary at $72,000. In the U.S., developers who use Go as well as developers who use Scala are highest paid with an average salary of $110,000. In the UK, it's TypeScript at $53,763, while in Germany, it's Java at the same. Finally, in France, it's Python at $42,151.

Correlated Technologies

Technologies were clustered into several distinct "ecosystems" that tended to be used by the same developers. On the left of this chart we can see a large cluster representing web development (with JavaScript at the center) and one for Microsoft technologies (centered around C# and Visual Studio). On the right we see a constellation connecting Java, Android, and iOS. Other smaller correlated clusters included C/C++/Assembly, Raspberry Pi with Arduino, and languages like Python and R alongside language-specific IDEs.

Work

Developers generally love their career path. Whether they like their current job is another story.

Employment

Employment Status

Employed full-time

70.3%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

10.2%

Employed part-time

6.2%

Not employed, and not looking for work

5.4%

Not employed, but looking for work

5.4%

I prefer not to say

2.1%

Retired

0.3%

_{51,392 responses}

Employed full-time

83.6%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

10.2%

Employed part-time

3.9%

Not employed, but looking for work

1.3%

I prefer not to say

0.5%

Not employed, and not looking for work

0.3%

Retired

0.1%

_{36,131 responses}

Most developers are employed full time, and an additional 10.2% work as independent contractors, freelancers, or are self-employed.

Employment Status by Geography

Employed full-time

76.7%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

6.7%

Employed part-time

5.2%

Not employed, and not looking for work

4.7%

Not employed, but looking for work

4.6%

I prefer not to say

1.5%

Retired

0.5%

_{11,455 responses}

Employed full-time

71.7%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

9.4%

Not employed, but looking for work

6.2%

Employed part-time

5.6%

Not employed, and not looking for work

5.3%

I prefer not to say

1.2%

Retired

0.7%

_{2,233 responses}

Employed full-time

75.0%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

11.5%

Not employed, and not looking for work

5.3%

Not employed, but looking for work

3.3%

Employed part-time

2.7%

I prefer not to say

1.8%

Retired

0.4%

_{4,740 responses}

Employed full-time

67.1%

Employed part-time

13.0%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

9.1%

Not employed, and not looking for work

5.1%

I prefer not to say

3.2%

Not employed, but looking for work

2.3%

Retired

0.2%

_{4,143 responses}

Employed full-time

69.1%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

9.6%

Employed part-time

7.9%

Not employed, and not looking for work

6.3%

Not employed, but looking for work

4.6%

I prefer not to say

2.2%

Retired

0.3%

_{1,740 responses}

Employed full-time

72.2%

Not employed, but looking for work

9.0%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

7.1%

Not employed, and not looking for work

5.8%

I prefer not to say

3.3%

Employed part-time

2.5%

Retired

0.2%

_{5,197 responses}

The United States has a somewhat lower proportion of freelance or independent contractor developers compared to the rest of the world, and Germany has an unusually high proportion of developers working part-time.

Employment Status for Professional Developers by Geography

Employed full-time

89.2%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

6.5%

Employed part-time

2.2%

Not employed, but looking for work

1.6%

I prefer not to say

0.3%

Not employed, and not looking for work

0.2%

Retired

0.0%

_{8,310 responses}

Employed full-time

84.2%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

9.8%

Employed part-time

2.9%

Not employed, but looking for work

2.0%

Not employed, and not looking for work

0.5%

I prefer not to say

0.4%

Retired

0.2%

_{1,605 responses}

Employed full-time

85.4%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

12.2%

Employed part-time

1.1%

Not employed, but looking for work

0.6%

I prefer not to say

0.4%

Not employed, and not looking for work

0.3%

Retired

0.1%

_{3,568 responses}

Employed full-time

79.0%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

10.3%

Employed part-time

9.0%

I prefer not to say

0.8%

Not employed, but looking for work

0.6%

Not employed, and not looking for work

0.4%

Retired

0.0%

_{2,767 responses}

Employed full-time

83.9%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

9.7%

Employed part-time

4.3%

Not employed, but looking for work

1.1%

Not employed, and not looking for work

0.5%

I prefer not to say

0.3%

Retired

0.2%

_{1,246 responses}

Employed full-time

89.5%

Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed

6.4%

Not employed, but looking for work

1.5%

Employed part-time

1.3%

I prefer not to say

1.0%

Not employed, and not looking for work

0.3%

Retired

0.1%

_{3,438 responses}

Respondents who are professional developers are employed full-time at higher rates.

Company Type

Industry Breakdown

Software

28.2%

Internet or Web services

14.3%

Finance, banking, or insurance

8.5%

Media, advertising, publishing, or entertainment

4.9%

Other

4.5%

Consulting

4.3%

Education

4.2%

Health care services

3.7%

Telecommunications

3.2%

Retail or wholesale trade

2.9%

Government (including military)

2.9%

I prefer not to answer

2.8%

Computer hardware or consumer electronics

2.3%

Transportation, logistics, or warehousing

2.0%

Automotive

1.8%

Aerospace or defense

1.7%

Gaming

1.7%

Industrial equipment/heavy machinery

1.4%

Energy generation/distribution

1.1%

Pharmaceuticals and/or medical devices

1.0%

Nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations

0.8%

Construction

0.6%

Agriculture, forestry, or fisheries

0.6%

Mining or oil & gas extraction

0.5%

_{44,072 responses}

Software

30.1%

Internet or Web services

14.7%

Finance, banking, or insurance

9.1%

Media, advertising, publishing, or entertainment

5.2%

Consulting

4.2%

Other

3.9%

Health care services

3.8%

Telecommunications

3.2%

Education

3.0%

Retail or wholesale trade

2.9%

Government (including military)

2.6%

I prefer not to answer

2.4%

Transportation, logistics, or warehousing

2.1%

Computer hardware or consumer electronics

2.1%

Automotive

1.8%

Gaming

1.7%

Aerospace or defense

1.7%

Industrial equipment/heavy machinery

1.3%

Energy generation/distribution

1.0%

Pharmaceuticals and/or medical devices

0.9%

Nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations

0.7%

Agriculture, forestry, or fisheries

0.5%

Construction

0.5%

Mining or oil & gas extraction

0.5%

_{35,305 responses}

More developers work for software and internet/web companies than any other industry, but developers are also employed in diverse industries across the economy. Aside from software, the portion of developers in different industries varies by region: In the United States, for instance, healthcare and government employ a higher than average proportion of developers.

Company Size

Fewer than 10 employees

9.8%

10 to 19 employees

10.5%

20 to 99 employees

22.1%