Software engineering is growing fast, but the people behind the code still reflect uneven access and opportunity. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects software developer employment to rise 25% from 2022 to 2032, while Stack Overflow’s 2023 survey puts women at 15.3% of developers, only slightly higher than prior years. We pull together 2023 to 2024 findings across education, hiring preferences, tooling, and compensation to show what is changing and what stubbornly is not.
Key Takeaways
- In Stack Overflow 2023 survey, 15.3% of developers are women
- Women Who Code 2023 report shows only 26% of tech workforce is female
- McKinsey 2023 Women in Tech report finds women hold 29% of tech roles globally
- In Stack Overflow 2023 survey, 48.2% of developers have a Bachelor's degree as highest education
- Coursera 2024 Global Skills Report 52% devs self-taught in programming
- freeCodeCamp 2023 survey 70% learners from non-CS backgrounds enter software eng
- According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023, 84.5% of professional developers are employed full-time, making it the most common employment status among respondents
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects software developer employment to grow 25% from 2022 to 2032, much faster than the average for all occupations at 3%
- In the 2023 Stack Overflow survey, 12.5% of developers identified as women, up slightly from previous years
- Levels.fyi 2024 data shows median total compensation for software engineers at $213,000 in the US
- Stack Overflow 2023 survey reports median developer salary worldwide at $62,000 USD
- Glassdoor 2024 estimates average US software engineer base salary at $128,000
- In Stack Overflow 2023 survey, JavaScript is used by 62.3% of professional developers as their primary language
- JetBrains State of Developer Ecosystem 2023 shows 75% use Git for version control
- GitHub Octoverse 2023 reports Rust fastest-growing language by contributor growth 126%
Despite fast growth and strong pay, women remain underrepresented, with only about 24 to 29 percent of tech roles.
Related reading
01 · Category
Diversity And Inclusion30 stats
01
In Stack Overflow 2023 survey, 15.3% of developers are women
02
Women Who Code 2023 report shows only 26% of tech workforce is female
03
McKinsey 2023 Women in Tech report finds women hold 29% of tech roles globally
04
Deloitte 2023 Tech Diversity report 24% women in software engineering US
05
NCWIT 2023 Workforce report women 22% of computing professionals US
06
GitHub 2023 Octoverse 7.6% female contributors to open source
07
BCG 2023 tech diversity study underrepresented minorities 14% of engineers
08
Accenture 2023 Getting to Equal IT reveals ethnic diversity gap 20% below average
09
Cisco 2023 Inclusive Culture report 11% Black/African American in engineering
10
Google 2023 Diversity Report software engineering 30.9% women
11
Microsoft 2023 Diversity Report 28.7% women in engineering roles
12
Intel 2023 DEI Report 25.9% women in technical roles
13
Salesforce 2023 Equality Report 31% women in tech roles
14
LinkedIn 2023 Global Diversity report underrepresentation of women in software 71%
15
Harvard Business Review 2023 analysis 18% women promoted to manager in tech
16
Project Include 2023 benchmarks ethnic minorities 15% senior engineering leaders
17
Kapor Center 2023 Tech Inclusion report 43% Black/Hispanic attrition rate double others
18
AnitaB.org 2023 Grace Hopper data 28% women computing degrees US
19
EIG 2023 tech workforce diversity 9% Latinx in software engineering
20
Reworked 2023 survey LGBTQ+ representation 7% in engineering teams
21
Boston Consulting Group 2023 22% increase in diverse hires correlates to 19% revenue growth
22
Gartner 2023 DEI survey 75% companies prioritize diversity in tech hiring
23
PwC 2023 Women in Tech 35% companies with no women in leadership tech roles
24
Bain 2023 tech talent 12% disabled individuals in workforce vs 20% population
25
Culture Amp 2023 benchmarks underrepresented groups 25% less likely promoted
26
McGregor-Smith Review 2023 UK ethnic minorities 14% tech workforce
27
Eurostat 2023 EU ICT specialists 17% female
28
Stack Overflow 2023 5.4% Hispanic/Latino developers
29
IEEE Women in Engineering 2023 16% membership female globally
30
SlashData 2023 21% developers from emerging markets underrepresented
Interpretation
Diversity And Inclusion Interpretation
Across industry surveys and reports, women remain underrepresented in software and tech, making up roughly 22% to 29% of the workforce or roles depending on the source and region, with even open source communities at 7.6% female contributors according to GitHub’s Octoverse.
02 · Category
Education And Training25 stats
01
In Stack Overflow 2023 survey, 48.2% of developers have a Bachelor's degree as highest education
02
Coursera 2024 Global Skills Report 52% devs self-taught in programming
03
freeCodeCamp 2023 survey 70% learners from non-CS backgrounds enter software eng
04
HackerRank 2023 82% managers prefer practical skills over degrees
05
Pluralsight 2023 IQ 91% plan upskill in AI/ML next year
06
Udacity 2023 nanodegree grads 80% land jobs within 6 months average $110k salary
07
General Assembly 2023 bootcamp outcomes 96% employed post-grad
08
Lambda School (BloomTech) 2023 86% job placement rate
09
SwitchUp 2024 bootcamp rankings average job rate 82%
10
edX 2023 MicroMasters CS 75% complete to job transition
11
LinkedIn Learning 2023 top skill Python learned by 40% workforce
12
Codeacademy 2023 60% learners advance career within 6 months
13
JetBrains Academy 2023 65% beginners to junior devs in 1 year
14
Google IT Support Cert via Coursera 75% employed in field post-cert
15
IBM SkillsBuild 2023 70% completers report promotion/salary increase
16
Microsoft Learn 2023 Azure cert holders 20% higher salary
17
AWS 2023 training report certs boost salary 25% average
18
CompTIA 2024 92% employers value certs for hiring devs
19
Burning Glass 2023 certs 33% more interview callbacks for software roles
20
NSDC India 2023 50% software training programs focus on full-stack
21
NASSCOM 2023 India 3.1M engineers trained annually
22
Stack Overflow 2023 22% devs have Master's degree
23
Evans Data 2023 35% devs no formal degree
24
Triplebyte (now Karat) 2023 40% hires no CS degree
25
Pathrise 2024 bootcamp vs degree bootcamps 20% faster ROI
Interpretation
Education And Training Interpretation
Across education and training pathways, developers are increasingly gaining careers through practical upskilling rather than credentials, with 52% self-taught in programming and 91% planning to upskill in AI or ML next year.
03 · Category
Employment Statistics30 stats
01
According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023, 84.5% of professional developers are employed full-time, making it the most common employment status among respondents
02
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects software developer employment to grow 25% from 2022 to 2032, much faster than the average for all occupations at 3%
03
In the 2023 Stack Overflow survey, 12.5% of developers identified as women, up slightly from previous years
04
JetBrains State of Developer Ecosystem 2023 reports that 62% of developers work in teams of 11-50 people
05
Evans Data Corporation's 2023 Global Developer Population and Demographic Study estimates the worldwide developer population at 28.7 million professional developers
06
Dice Tech Job Report Q1 2024 indicates software developer job postings increased by 15% year-over-year in the U.S.
07
According to LinkedIn's 2024 Jobs on the Rise report, software engineer ranks #3 among fastest-growing U.S. jobs with 22% annual growth
08
Robert Half 2024 Salary Guide states that 68% of tech managers plan to hire more software engineers in 2024
09
GitHub Octoverse 2023 reveals 28 million new developers contributed to public repositories in 2023
10
Indeed's 2023 Diversity Hiring Report shows software engineering roles have a 4.2% female representation in postings
11
Stack Overflow 2023 survey finds 18.2% of developers are fully remote
12
BLS data for May 2023 shows 1,637,800 software developers employed in the U.S.
13
JetBrains 2023 reports 41% of developers are self-employed or freelancers
14
HackerRank 2023 Developer Skills Report notes 75% of developers switched jobs in the last year seeking better opportunities
15
Upwork 2024 Freelance Forward report indicates software development is the top skill category with 22% of freelance hours
16
Glassdoor 2023 data reveals average tenure for software engineers at 1.8 years
17
CompTIA 2024 State of the Tech Workforce reports 756,000 new tech jobs projected for 2024 in the U.S.
18
Pluralsight 2023 Tech Skills Report states 64% of organizations face developer shortages
19
IEEE Spectrum 2023 rankings show software engineering as the top job in terms of future prospects
20
Zendesk 2023 benchmarks indicate 55% of tech companies expanded engineering teams in 2023
21
Atlassian 2023 State of Teams report finds average software team size at 12 members
22
New Relic 2023 Observability Forecast predicts 1.5 million new dev jobs by 2025 globally
23
Gartner 2023 survey shows 47% of organizations increased software engineering headcount
24
McKinsey 2023 tech report estimates 85 million tech jobs may go unfilled by 2030
25
World Economic Forum 2023 Future of Jobs Report ranks software developers #1 in demand
26
Burning Glass 2023 labor insights show software engineer postings up 18% post-pandemic
27
O'Reilly 2023 Tech Trends report notes 52% of devs in startups vs enterprises
28
SlashData 2023 developer nation survey estimates 47.6 million developers worldwide
29
Indeed 2024 Hiring Lab reports software engineer unemployment at 2.1%
30
KPMG 2023 tech talent report finds 70% of firms competing for software talent
Interpretation
Employment Statistics Interpretation
Employment in software engineering looks strongly upward, with U.S. software developer jobs projected to grow 25% from 2022 to 2032 and U.S. job postings rising 15% year over year in Q1 2024, reinforcing that demand remains robust under Employment Statistics.
More related reading
04 · Category
Salary Statistics29 stats
01
Levels.fyi 2024 data shows median total compensation for software engineers at $213,000in the US
02
Stack Overflow 2023 survey reports median developer salary worldwide at $62,000USD
03
Glassdoor 2024 estimates average US software engineer base salary at $128,000
04
BLS May 2023 data lists mean annual wage for software developers at $132,270in the US
05
Blind salary data 2024 shows FAANG software engineers averaging $450,000total comp
06
Payscale 2024 Software Engineer Salary Report indicates average US salary $112,000with 5 years experience
07
Robert Half 2024 Technology Salary Guide lists senior software engineer salary range $138,750-$189,750
08
ZipRecruiter 2024 data shows average software engineer salary $121,000nationwide US
09
Hired 2023 State of Software Engineering Salary report median US salary $155,000
10
Dice 2024 Salary Report finds average software developer salary $112,337in US
11
Salary.com 2024 reports average software engineer salary $117,199in US
12
Indeed 2024 salary data shows US software engineer average $124,000
13
JetBrains 2023 ecosystem survey median salary $75,000USD globally for devs
14
Levels.fyi entry-level software engineer median $150,000TC in Bay Area
15
Comparably 2024 data average software engineer salary $145,000US tech firms
16
Talent.com 2024 global average software engineer salary $110,000USD
17
CareerBliss 2023 reports software engineer average $115,000with 4.2/5 satisfaction
18
Built In 2024 Chicago software engineer average $132,000
19
NerdWallet 2023 analysis median software dev salary $120,910US per BLS
20
Coursera 2024 guide states average entry-level software engineer $80,000-$100,000 US
21
Springboard 2024 bootcamp report post-training salary $101,000average
22
TechRepublic 2023 salary survey top 10% software engineers earn over $180,000
23
Forbes 2024 advisor lists software developer median $127,260BLS 2023
24
Investopedia 2024 software engineer salary guide average $110,140BLS
25
Business Insider 2023 FAANG L5 engineer $400k+ TC
26
Wall Street Journal 2024 reports mid-level engineers $250k-$350k in Silicon Valley
27
Economist 2023 global tech salaries US 2.5x Europe average for engineers
28
6figr.com 2024 data principal engineer median $320,000TC US
29
Stack Overflow 2023 US developer median salary $120,000
Interpretation
Salary Statistics Interpretation
Across major Salary Statistics sources, US software engineer pay clusters around the low to mid six figures with Glassdoor at $128,000 base and the BLS mean of $132,270, while standout outliers like Blind’s 2024 FAANG total compensation average of $450,000 show how top-tier roles can dramatically lift median total compensation to levels such as Levels.fyi’s $213,000 in the US.
05 · Category
Technology And Tools30 stats
01
In Stack Overflow 2023 survey, JavaScript is used by 62.3% of professional developers as their primary language
02
JetBrains State of Developer Ecosystem 2023 shows 75% use Git for version control
03
GitHub Octoverse 2023 reports Rust fastest-growing language by contributor growth 126%
04
Stack Overflow 2023 most wanted language Go at 13%
05
TIOBE Index April 2024 Python #1 programming language
06
PYPL Index 2024 Python 28.56% share most popular
07
State of JS 2023 React used by 81% of respondents
08
O'Reilly 2023 Tech Trends AWS used by 52% organizations
09
CNCF 2023 Survey Kubernetes 96% adoption in prod among users
10
JetBrains 2023 68% developers use Docker containers
11
Stack Overflow 2023 Docker 49% usage among devs
12
Gartner 2023 85% enterprises will use AI in dev by 2024
13
Evans Data 2023 29.9% devs using gen AI tools weekly
14
Pluralsight 2023 67% devs learning cloud skills top priority
15
HackerRank 2023 70% devs want AI-assisted coding
16
IEEE Spectrum 2023 #1 language Python for versatility
17
Stack Overflow 2023 most loved language Rust 83% love rate
18
NPM Trends 2024 Node.js downloads 1.5B/week
19
Docker 2023 report 83% devs use containers in workflow
20
HashiCorp 2023 State of DevSecOps Terraform 75% adoption
21
Snyk 2023 Security report 84% devs responsible for security
22
Vercel 2023 State of Frontend Next.js 70% growth in usage
23
Backbase 2023 Dev Trends CI/CD used by 88% teams
24
Datadog 2023 State of DevOps observability tools 65% adoption
25
New Stack 2023 survey microservices 78% production use
26
SlashData 2023 62% devs use VS Code as primary editor
27
RedMonk 2024 Programming Language Rankings Python #1
28
CloudBees 2023 DevOps report Jenkins still 45% CI tool
29
JFrog 2023 DevOps report 70% use open source heavily
30
Dynatrace 2023 observability 92% multi-cloud strategies
Interpretation
Technology And Tools Interpretation
In the Technology and Tools landscape, developer focus is strongly shifting toward Python and modern tooling, with Python leading as #1 on the TIOBE Index in April 2024 while holding a 28.56% share on the PYPL Index, alongside near universal version control adoption where 75% use Git.
report visual · Comparison
Women’s representation in software engineering (survey snapshots)
Across multiple 2023 reports, women’s share in tech roles spans from low single digits in open-source participation to around 30% in some engineering workforces.
Google 2023 Diversity Report software engineering 30.9% women30.9%
McKinsey 2023 Women in Tech report finds women hold 29% of tech roles globally29%
Microsoft 2023 Diversity Report 28.7% women in engineering roles28.7%
Women Who Code 2023 report shows only 26% of tech workforce is female26%
In Stack Overflow 2023 survey, 15.3% of developers are women15.3%
GitHub 2023 Octoverse 7.6% female contributors to open source7.6%
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Min-ji Park. (2026, February 13). Software Engineering Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/software-engineering-industry-statistics
MLA
Min-ji Park. "Software Engineering Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/software-engineering-industry-statistics.
Chicago
Min-ji Park. 2026. "Software Engineering Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/software-engineering-industry-statistics.
Sources & references
100 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
aws.amazon.com