Developer technology spans open-source collaboration, programming languages, cloud infrastructure, AI tools and the workforce that builds software. The figures below separate platform activity, survey responses and U.S. occupational projections so each number retains its proper scope.
Key Developer Technology Statistics
The most useful headline figures are:
- GitHub recorded 518 million projects in 2024, a 25% year-over-year increase on the GitHub platform.
- Developers made 5.6 billion GitHub contributions in 2024 across the platform.
- Nearly 1 billion GitHub contributions went to public and open-source projects in 2024.
- GitHub recorded 108 million new repositories in 2024.
- More than 1.4 million developers joined open source on GitHub for the first time in 2024.
- TypeScript ranked third among GitHub languages in 2024 by GitHub activity.
- Jupyter Notebook usage on GitHub increased 92% in 2024.
- JavaScript was used by 61% of JetBrains survey respondents worldwide in 2024 to create web pages.
- PostgreSQL was used by 49% of Stack Overflow respondents in the 2024 survey.
- AWS was used by 48% of Stack Overflow respondents in 2024, making it the leading cloud platform in that survey.
- Docker was used by 59% of professional Stack Overflow respondents in 2024 in the developer-tools question.
- GitHub contained 137,000 public generative-AI projects in 2024.
- Public generative-AI projects on GitHub grew 98% year over year in 2024.
- ChatGPT was used by 82% of Stack Overflow respondents in 2024 as an AI search or developer tool.
- GitHub Copilot was used by 41% of Stack Overflow respondents in 2024 as an AI search or developer tool.
- U.S. software-developer employment was estimated at 1,692,100 people in 2023.
- BLS projects 1,995,700 U.S. software developers in 2033.
- Rust had an 83% admiration score in Stack Overflow’s 2024 language results.
- Visual Studio Code was used by 74% of Stack Overflow respondents in 2024, compared with 29% for Visual Studio.
Contents
- GitHub platform scale and open-source participation
- Programming language and developer technology trends
- Cloud, database, framework and tool adoption
- AI adoption and generative-AI development
- Developer technology employment and workforce outlook
- Developer preferences and technology switching
GitHub Platform Scale and Open-Source Participation
GitHub’s 2024 Octoverse report measures activity on the GitHub platform, not every developer or repository worldwide. Its scale indicators show both private software work and public collaboration.
| GitHub measure | 2024 result | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Total projects | 518 million | GitHub platform |
| New repositories | 108 million | GitHub platform |
| All contributions | 5.6 billion | GitHub platform |
| Public and open-source contributions | Nearly 1 billion | GitHub public and open-source projects |
GitHub reported that total projects rose 25% year over year, while more than 82% of contributions were made to private repositories. Developers made 4.3 billion contributions across more than 181 million private repositories, but repeated activity does not identify unique people, working hours or software quality. (GitHub Octoverse 2024)
Open-source participation also expanded. More than 1.4 million developers joined open source on GitHub for the first time in 2024, and more than 7 million people were verified GitHub Education participants; over 450,000 GitHub Education users were first-time contributors during the 2024 report year.
The largest public project by contributor count, home-assistant/core, had more than 21,000 contributors in 2024. GitHub notes that the open-source total combines licensed open-source repositories with public repositories lacking an OSI-approved license, so it is not a single legal category. (GitHub Octoverse 2024)
Programming Language and Developer Technology Trends
Language rankings depend on the activity measure. GitHub’s ranking uses broad contribution activity, while survey percentages describe the respondents who answered a particular question.
TypeScript ranked third among GitHub languages in 2024. Jupyter Notebook usage increased 92% on GitHub, and npm package consumption rose 15% year over year.
These are ecosystem activity measures rather than direct developer counts or production-software quality measures. (GitHub Octoverse 2024)
JetBrains’ 2024 Developer Ecosystem survey collected 23,262 developer responses worldwide. It found that 61% used JavaScript to create web pages; this is a survey result, not a probability census of the global developer population. (JetBrains State of Developer Ecosystem 2024)
| Technology signal | Result | Measurement context |
|---|---|---|
| TypeScript | Rank 3 | GitHub languages, 2024 |
| Jupyter Notebook | 92% growth | GitHub usage, 2024 year over year |
| npm package consumption | 15% growth | npm ecosystem, 2024 year over year |
| JavaScript | 61% | JetBrains worldwide survey respondents, 2024 |
Cloud, Database, Framework and Developer Tool Adoption
Stack Overflow survey percentages are self-reported and generally permit multiple selections, so they should not be added together or read as market share. The respondent population and question differ across technology categories and years.
PostgreSQL was used by 49% of Stack Overflow respondents in 2024, compared with 33% in 2018. The same survey series reported MySQL at 59% in 2018; the PostgreSQL change is a derived comparison and may reflect changing samples and question context. (Stack Overflow Developer Survey: Technology 2024)
| Technology | Survey result | Period and population |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | 48% | Stack Overflow respondents, 2024 |
| Microsoft Azure | 28% | Stack Overflow respondents, 2024 |
| Google Cloud | 25% | Stack Overflow respondents, 2024 |
| Docker | 59% | Professional Stack Overflow respondents, 2024 |
| Raspberry Pi | 30% | Stack Overflow respondents answering embedded technology, 2024 |
| Node.js | 51% | Historical peak in the Stack Overflow series, 2020 |
AWS led the 2024 cloud-platform results at 48%. Azure increased from 26% to 28% between the 2023 and 2024 surveys, while Google Cloud increased from 24% to 25%; these are derived survey comparisons, not cloud-market estimates.
Docker reached 59% among professional developers answering the 2024 developer-tools question. Raspberry Pi appeared at 30% in the embedded-technology question, and Node.js reached a 51% historical peak in the survey series in 2020. (Stack Overflow Developer Survey: Technology 2024)
AI Adoption and Generative-AI Development Statistics
GitHub’s 2024 data shows rapid growth in public generative-AI activity, while Stack Overflow’s survey captures self-reported tool use. Neither source alone measures total global AI development or business impact.
GitHub contained 137,000 public generative-AI projects in 2024, up 98% year over year. Developers created more than 70,000 new public and open-source generative-AI projects during the year, and contributions to generative-AI projects increased by almost 60%. (GitHub Octoverse 2024)
Regional GitHub activity also varied: contributions to generative-AI projects attributed to India increased 95% year over year in 2024, while those attributed to France increased 70%. These figures describe GitHub project activity attributed to those countries, not national software output.
More than 1 million open-source maintainers, verified students and teachers used GitHub Copilot at no cost in 2024, and usage in that complimentary program increased 100%. GitHub also reported that regular users who used Copilot and GitHub five days a week showed 12%–15% higher activity; this is an association, not a randomized productivity result. (GitHub Octoverse 2024)
| AI tool | Share of Stack Overflow respondents | 2024 question |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 82% | AI search or developer tool |
| GitHub Copilot | 41% | AI search or developer tool |
| Google Gemini | 24% | AI search or developer tool |
ChatGPT was used by 82% of Stack Overflow respondents as an AI search or developer tool in 2024, compared with 41% for GitHub Copilot and 24% for Google Gemini. Multiple selections were allowed, so these percentages are not additive and do not represent subscriptions or revenue. (Stack Overflow Developer Survey: Technology 2024)
Developer Technology Employment and Workforce Outlook
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides occupational estimates and forecasts rather than a global developer count. The observed 2023 figure and projected 2033 figure should be kept separate.
| U.S. occupation or baseline | Result | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Software developers | 1,692,100 employed | 2023 estimate |
| Software developers | 1,995,700 employed | 2033 projection |
| Software developers | 17.9% growth | 2023–2033 projection |
| All occupations | 4.0% growth | 2023–2033 projection |
| Database administrators | 8.2% growth | 2023–2033 projection |
| Database architects | 10.8% growth | 2023–2033 projection |
| Computer hardware engineers | 7.2% growth | 2023–2033 projection |
BLS projects an increase of 303,700 software-developer jobs from 2023 to 2033, equivalent to projected employment growth of 17.9%. That projection is substantially above the 4.0% growth baseline for all U.S. occupations in the same period, but it is not guaranteed net hiring. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Related technology occupations also have projected growth: database administrators at 8.2%, database architects at 10.8%, and computer-hardware engineers at 7.2% from 2023 to 2033. These occupations are workforce context and should not be folded into the software-developer total. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Developer Preferences and Technology Switching Data
Preference measures describe what users want to continue using or try next, not installed bases or market share. Stack Overflow’s 2024 results provide several signals of enthusiasm among technology users.
Rust had an 83% admiration score in the 2024 language results. In the database results, SQLite’s desired score rose from 23% to 27% between 2023 and 2024, a four-percentage-point derived change in stated future preference. (Stack Overflow Developer Survey: Technology 2024)
Hetzner had a 75% admiration score among cloud-platform respondents in 2024, up from 70% year over year. Svelte had a 73% continuation intention among developers who used it, while Cargo had an 83% admiration score among embedded-technology users.
Ruff recorded an 84% continuation intention among users in the 2024 frameworks-and-libraries results. Each of these is a user-subset preference measure, not overall adoption. (Stack Overflow Developer Survey: Technology 2024)
Visual Studio Code was used by 74% of Stack Overflow respondents in 2024, compared with 29% for Visual Studio. IDE selections can overlap, so the figures represent reported usage rates rather than installed-base shares.
Developers learning to code wanted to try 12 other languages on average, compared with eight among professional developers. This is future intent reported in the 2024 survey, not completed adoption. (Stack Overflow Developer Survey: Technology 2024)