Software development is a fast-changing field. Almost every year we see new languages, software architectures, containers, libraries, methodologies, etc.
What are the most used programming languages? And how many developers are using each one of them? The answers are here:
Java developers:
- The number of Java developers varies significantly. In 2003, Java developers totaled between 1,5 and 3 million; in 2007, when Java became open source, this number had risen to 6 million. The Global Developer Population and Demographics Survey, conducted by Evans Data Corporation, reported that the Java developer population was 9 million in 2009 making Java one of the most used programming languages worldwide
- According to SlashData, the number of Java developers in the world was 7,1 million as of September 2018
- As for 2019, the number will reach 7,6 million
PHP developers:
- 2013 – 5 million as of 2013; 5.5 million in September 2018
JavaScript developers:
- 2016 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, “JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language on earth. Even Back-end developers are more likely to use it than any other language.” At the same time, more recent information from SlashData confirmed a figure in 2018 of 10,7 million JavaScript software developers worldwide.
Mobile app developers:
- 2016: 12m mobile app developers worldwide, due to growing to 14m this year.
- According to EvansData, there are 5,9 million Android developers and 2,8 million iOS developers in the world.
.NET developers:
- As for .NET developers worldwide, in 2004 there were approximately 6 million .NET developers – information from an old study that year. Today, many sources put that figure at around 7-8 million .NET developers, most of these utilize C#.
C++ developers:
- C++ software developers totaled 4.4 million These days that figure is more like 5,4 million.
Python developers:
- Information from SlashData in 2018 puts the number of Python Developers at 7 million. Today Python is approaching Java in popularity.
C# developers:
- An estimate of C# software developers worldwide in 2018 put at 6,2 million the total number of C# developers.
Software Engineer Demographics
To be fair, there’s no sure way to confirm the accuracy of the above data. This is not the reliability of the sources that are in question so much as the definitions. Some of the statistics, for instance, take into account all those actively working on the creation of software from the rank and file coders to team leaders and managers, all the way up to CTOs. Other figures rely on data available from the US Census Bureau. However, they managed to arrive at different numbers. Again varying definitions are the cause.
What is certain is that the number of code-writers will increase in the future. By 2024, the BLS forecasts the number of vacant positions for software and app developers since 2014 will have gone up by 12.5%, with a similar picture worldwide. Similarly, a forecast from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics presents a rise of 24% from 2016 to 2026. And as far as Burning Glass Labor Insights is concerned, 227,000 more software developer job offers appeared in the second trimester of 2018 compared to 176,530 at the same time in 2017- an increase of almost 51,000.
Equally Interesting Software Developer Stats
Of all the software developer statistics thrown up by the frequent surveys done by Evans Data Corporation, DataUSA and Stack Overflow, below are, in our view, the most interesting:
- Evans Data survey shows that the average age of a software developer by region is as follows: 36 (EMEA region — 40, North America — 39, Latin America — 35, APAC region — 34). Data from datausa.io has the average software, applications & systems software developer age in the US as 39.8, and female employees are generally 0.507 years older than their male counterparts.
- Women make up 27.5 % of developers worldwide.
- Men make up 80.7% of Software developers, applications, and systems software in the US whereas women make up 29.3% of software developers.
- Developer Survey Results 2019 show that nearly 45% of professional developers learned to code less than a decade ago.
Women are later than men when it comes to writing their first code.
- Of all software developers surveyed, 75.6% had a bachelor’s degree or higher.
- Big Data and Advanced Analytics occupy 6 million developers.
- 6,452,000 developers globally (29%) were using some form of ML or AI and this since 2018 with an additional 5.8 million predicted to use ML or AI in the next half year.
- IoT apps occupy the time of 2 million developers.
- Cloud-based development environments are utilized by 4 million developers.
- For 33% of women. The main motivating factor for their professional development is their personal curiosity and their interest in the technologies they work this, while this was only the case for 22% of men.
