Software development spans a large U.S. workforce, a global platform ecosystem and rapidly changing tools. The figures below distinguish BLS estimates and forecasts from survey responses and GitHub activity, with dates and populations stated explicitly.
Key Software Developer Statistics
The most useful headline figures are:
- In 2025, about 1,717,800 software developers held jobs in the United States, according to a BLS occupational estimate.
- From 2025 to 2035, U.S. software developer employment is projected to grow 10%, according to the BLS.
- The combined U.S. software developer, QA analyst and tester group is projected to add 185,400 jobs by 2035.
- The BLS projects about 106,100 openings per year for U.S. software developers, QA analysts and testers during 2025–2035.
- U.S. software developers had a $135,980 median annual wage in May 2025.
- In May 2025, the lowest-paid 10% of U.S. software developers earned below $82,460 annually.
- In May 2025, the highest-paid 10% of U.S. software developers earned above $214,670 annually.
- U.S. software publishers paid software developers a $164,550 median annual wage in May 2025.
- 66% of 2024 Stack Overflow respondents reported a BA/BS or MA/MS degree, among that opt-in survey population.
- 82% of 2024 Stack Overflow respondents selected online resources as a way they learn to code.
- More than 7 million people had verified participation in GitHub Education by 2024, globally.
- GitHub hosted 518 million projects in 2024, up 25% year over year.
- Developers made more than 5.2 billion contributions to GitHub projects in 2024.
- TypeScript ranked third among GitHub’s most-used languages in 2024, based on GitHub activity.
- 43% of 2024 Stack Overflow respondents felt good about AI-tool accuracy.
- 82% of developers using AI tools used them to write code in the 2024 Stack Overflow survey.
- 81% expected greater AI integration into code documentation over the year following the 2024 Stack Overflow survey.
- 70% of professional developers did not perceive AI as a threat to their current job in the 2024 Stack Overflow survey.
Contents
- Workforce size, growth and openings
- Salary statistics by occupation and industry
- Education and learning
- Roles, experience and workplace outcomes
- Programming languages and GitHub activity
- AI adoption, trust and workflows
Software Developer Workforce Statistics: Size, Growth and Openings
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies software developers as SOC 15-1252. Its 2025 estimate counted 1,717,800 software developer jobs in the United States; software QA analysts and testers were a separate occupation with 187,600 jobs.
The combined group therefore represented 1,905,400 U.S. jobs in 2025. These figures are occupational estimates, not a global headcount and not a count of everyone who writes software informally.
| BLS measure | Period | United States result |
|---|---|---|
| Software developers | 2025 | 1,717,800 jobs |
| QA analysts and testers | 2025 | 187,600 jobs |
| Combined group | 2025 | 1,905,400 jobs |
| Combined group | 2035 projection | 2,090,800 jobs |
The BLS projects software developer employment to rise 10% from 2025 to 2035, while QA analyst and tester employment is projected to rise 6%. The combined group is projected to add 185,400 jobs by 2035, and the BLS projects about 106,100 openings per year during 2025–2035, including replacement demand.
Software developers alone are represented by 1,892,600 projected jobs in 2035. The BLS labels these rounded projections as forecasts, so they describe expected labor-market direction rather than guaranteed outcomes. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook
Software Developer Salary Statistics by Occupation and Industry
BLS May 2025 wage estimates show substantial variation across the U.S. software developer occupation. The median annual wage was $135,980, while the lowest-paid 10% earned below $82,460 and the highest-paid 10% earned above $214,670.
| U.S. occupation or benchmark | May 2025 median annual wage |
|---|---|
| Software developers | $135,980 |
| Software developers, QA analysts and testers combined | $134,040 |
| QA analysts and testers | $104,300 |
| All occupations | $50,980 |
The all-occupations figure is a comparison benchmark, not a developer measure. The wage estimates are occupational wages, exclude non-wage compensation and should not be read as global software salaries.
Industry also matters. Software publishers had the highest listed industry median for software developers at $164,550, followed by manufacturing at $136,330, management of companies and enterprises at $135,680, finance and insurance at $135,460, and computer systems design and related services at $132,050.
These industry figures are U.S. BLS medians for May 2025, not total compensation packages or individual offers. The May 2025 national, state, area and industry-specific wage tables are published through BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, while the occupational context appears in the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Software Developer Education and Learning Statistics
The 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey describes an opt-in respondent population, so its results should not be generalized to every developer worldwide. Within that survey, 66% of respondents had a BA/BS or MA/MS degree.
Learning routes were not mutually exclusive. 49% reported learning to code at school, while 82% selected online resources as a way they learn to code.
The survey also found that respondents aged 18–24 were the age group most likely to report learning code at traditional schools. That is a relative age-group result, and the opened source did not report a percentage for it.
GitHub Education provides a separate participation signal rather than a professional-workforce count. More than 7 million people had verified participation by the 2024 Octoverse report, globally; students and other learners are included, so participation is not equivalent to employment.
The education and learning figures come from the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey: Developer Profile and GitHub’s Octoverse 2024 report.
Software Developer Roles, Experience and Workplace Outcomes
Stack Overflow’s 2024 survey offers self-reported evidence about workplace sentiment and friction among its professional developer respondents. 68% of professionals reported being happy or complacent at work, compared with 74% of people managers.
Technical debt was the most frequently selected frustration in the supplied results: 62.4% selected amount of technical debt as a top work frustration. Complexity of the technology stack for building was selected by 32.9%, and complexity for deployment by 32.3%.
| Survey measure | 2024 result | Population or wording |
|---|---|---|
| Happy or complacent at work | 68% | Professional respondents |
| Happy or complacent at work | 74% | People managers |
| Amount of technical debt as frustration | 62.4% | Developer respondents |
| Stack complexity for building | 32.9% | Developer respondents |
| Stack complexity for deployment | 32.3% | Developer respondents |
Role seniority also appears in the survey’s graphic description. Senior executives averaged more than 15 years of experience and reported annual salary above $127,000; the source presents the salary as $127K+, not as a median, so it should not be interpreted as one.
These are survey perceptions and reported outcomes, not controlled measures of productivity, retention or job quality. The source is Developers want more, more, more: the 2024 results from Stack Overflow’s Annual Developer Survey.
Programming Language and GitHub Developer Activity Statistics
GitHub’s Octoverse metrics measure activity on GitHub, not a census of professional developers. The platform hosted 518 million projects in 2024, up 25% year over year, while developers made more than 5.2 billion contributions to GitHub projects.
Nearly 1 billion contributions went to public and open-source projects. Another 4.3 billion contributions occurred across more than 181 million private repositories, and more than 82% of all GitHub contributions were made to private repositories.
GitHub users created 108 million new repositories in 2024. Repository creation does not necessarily mean a project remained active, and GitHub includes students, data scientists and researchers alongside conventional professional software developers.
AI-related activity was also visible in the platform data. GitHub counted 137,000 public generative-AI projects in 2024, up 98% year over year, while contributions to generative-AI projects surged 59%.
Jupyter Notebook usage rose 92% in 2024. The Octoverse report associates that signal with data science, AI, machine learning and academia, but the metric does not establish causation.
TypeScript ranked third among GitHub’s most-used languages in 2024. This is an activity-based ranking across GitHub event types, not a headcount of developers using each language. Octoverse 2024
Software Developer AI Adoption, Trust and Workflow Statistics
The 2024 Stack Overflow AI survey captures developer perceptions and reported use, not controlled productivity benchmarks. 43% of respondents felt good about AI-tool accuracy, while 31% were skeptical; among developers learning to code, 49% trusted AI accuracy compared with 42% of professional developers.
Complex tasks remained a concern. 45% of professional developers rated AI tools bad or very bad at complex tasks, based on a question that received 37,021 responses.
Among developers currently using AI tools, 82% used them to write code. Among respondents interested in but not yet using AI tools, 46% were curious about testing code.
| AI measure | 2024 survey result | Defined population or time frame |
|---|---|---|
| Expected greater integration into documentation | 81% | One-year expectation |
| Expected greater integration into testing | 80% | One-year expectation |
| Expected greater integration into code writing | 76% | One-year expectation |
| Did not perceive AI as a current job threat | 70% | Professional developers |
| Workflow use: writing code | 82% | Current AI-tool users |
The integration figures are expectations recorded in 2024, not observed adoption in a later period. Ethical concerns were also prominent: 79% selected misinformation and disinformation in AI results, and 65% selected source attribution as important issues.
The AI workflow-use question received 35,978 responses. Both response counts are question-level context, not estimates of the global developer population, and multiple selections were allowed where stated. 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey: AI