Each year, we ask the developer community about everything from their favorite technologies to their job preferences. This year marks the eighth year we’ve published our Annual Developer Survey results—with the largest number of respondents yet. Over 100,000 developers took the 30-minute survey this past January.

This year, we covered a few new topics ranging from artificial intelligence to ethics in coding. Here are a few of the top takeaways from this year’s results:

• DevOps and machine learning are important trends in the software industry today. Languages and frameworks associated with these kinds of works are on the rise, and developers working in these areas command the highest salaries.
• Only tiny fractions of developers say that they would write unethical code or that they have no obligation to consider the ethical implications of code, but beyond that, respondents see a lot of ethical gray. Developers are not sure how they would report ethical problems, and have differing ideas about who ultimately is responsible for unethical code.
• Developers are overall optimistic about the possibilities that artificial intelligence offers, but are not in agreement about what the dangers of AI are.
• Python has risen in the ranks of programming languages on our survey, surpassing C# in popularity this year, much like it surpassed PHP last year.
• When assessing a prospective job, different kinds of developers apply different sets of priorities. Women say their highest priorities are company culture and opportunities for professional development, while men say their highest priorities are compensation and working with specific technologies.

Want to dive into the results yourself? We made the anonymized results of the survey available for download under the Open Database License (ODbL). We look forward to seeing what you find!

Each month, about 50 million people visit Stack Overflow to learn, share, and build their careers. We estimate that 21 million of these people are professional developers and university-level students.

Our estimate of 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 Type

_{92,098 responses; select all that apply}

Almost 60% of respondents identify as back-end developers, and about 20% consider themselves mobile developers. The median number of developer type identifications per respondent is 2, and the most common pairs are combinations of back-end, front-end, and full-stack developer. Pairs that are highly correlated are database administrator and system administrator, DevOps specialist and system administrator, and designer and front-end developer.

Contributing to Open Source

Almost half of professional developers on Stack Overflow contribute to open source projects. Involvement in open source varies with language. Over 70% of developers who work with Rust, Julia, and Clojure contribute to open source, while less than 40% of developers who work with VBA, VB.NET, and C# do so.

Coding as a Hobby

Many developers work on code outside of work. Over 80% of our respondents say that they code as a hobby. Other interests or responsibilities outside of software don't seem to reduce developers' interest in coding as a hobby. Those who said they are parents or have other caretaking responsibilities, those who exercise daily, or those who spend the most time outside were slightly more likely to code as a hobby than other groups.

Years Since Learning to Code

There is a wide range of experience levels among developers, and a full third of professional developers on Stack Overflow learned to code within the past five years.

Years Coding Professionally

_{77,903 responses}

Over half of respondents have five years of professional coding experience or less. Developers who work with languages such as Cobol and Perl have the most years of professional coding experience, while developers who work with languages like Matlab, Haskell, and Kotlin have the fewest.

Years of Professional Coding Experience by Developer Type

_{Mean of 77,078 responses}

Developers who work in different areas of software development have different average amounts of experience. DevOps specialists and developers who code for desktop and enterprise applications have the most experience. DevOps as a discipline and professional identity is relatively new, but the people working in this field are highly experienced. Game/graphics developers and mobile developers have the fewest years of experience.

How Many Developers are Students?

_{94,901 responses}

About one-quarter of respondents are enrolled in a formal college or university program full-time or part-time.

Educational Attainment

Worldwide, about three-fourths of professional developers have the equivalent of a bachelor's degree or higher. It is not that rare to find accomplished professional developers who have not completed a degree.

Undergraduate Major

Of professional developers who studied at the university level, over 60% said they majored in computer science, computer engineering, or software engineering. This proportion is somewhat higher in currently enrolled students, and the proportion of respondents majoring in other engineering disciplines like electrical and mechanical engineering is lower among current students than among professionals.

Other Types of Education

Developers are lifelong learners; almost 90% of all developers say they have taught themselves a new language, framework, or tool outside of their formal education. Among professional developers, almost half say they have taken an online course like a MOOC, and about a quarter have participated in a hackathon.

Ways Developers Learn on Their Own

Over 80% of respondents rely on Stack Overflow Q&A when learning something new. Additionally, developers understand the value of good documentation, as over 80% also use documentation as a resource when learning.

Why Do Developers Participate in Hackathons?

_{25,691 responses; select all that apply}

Among the respondents who said they have participated in hackathons or online coding competitions, their number one reason for engaging is that they find them enjoyable. These are also opportunities for learning, both general and specific.

Finding a Job After Bootcamp

_{6,652 responses}

Bootcamps are typically perceived as a way for newcomers to transition into a career as a software developer, but according to our survey, many participants in coding bootcamps were already working as developers. Almost half of our respondents who said they went to a coding bootcamp said they were already working as developers; these developers are likely updating their skills and moving to new areas of the tech industry. Of other bootcamp participants, the most common outcome is to find a job immediately or soon after graduating.

Gender

We asked our respondents about their gender identity, and found that over 90% of our respondents are male. According to Quantcast, women account for about 10% of Stack Overflow’s US traffic; this year 9% of US survey respondents are women. We had survey participation at almost the rate we would expect from our traffic, although such a low percentage points to problems with inclusion in the tech industry in general and Stack Overflow in particular. In regions including the United States, India, and the UK, women are represented at higher levels among students than among professional developers.

This year, 0.7% of respondents identified as transgender men or women. The gender identifications are select all that apply, so transgender men and women are included in the categories shown here.

Race and Ethnicity

Here again we see evidence for problems with diversity and inclusion. We see higher proportions of developers of color in students than professional developers. This year, 7.4% of professional developers in the United States identified as black, Hispanic or Latino/Latina, or Native American while over 10% of students in the United States identified as a member of one of these groups.

Sexual Orientation

This is the first year we asked our respondents about their sexual orientation.

Parents' Education Level

Like developers themselves, most developers' parents have the equivalent of a bachelor's degree or higher. Just under 40% of respondents said their parents do not hold a bachelor's degree.

Disability Status

We know developers can experience many forms of disability and difference, from mental health challenges to physical disability. Mental health issues like depression and anxiety are particularly common among our respondents. In the United States, almost 20% of respondents said they deal with either or both.

Experience and Gender

We find differences among developers by gender in our survey responses. For example, twice as many women than men have been coding two years or less, evidence for the shifting demographics of coding as a profession. Also, developers who identify as transgender men or women or of non-binary gender contribute to open source at higher rates (58% and 60%, respectively) than developers who identify as men or women overall (45% and 33%.)

Developer Role and Gender

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

We see varying representation by men and women in different developer roles on our survey. All categories have dramatically more developers who identify as men than women but the ratio of men to women varies. Developers who are educators or academic researchers are about 10 times more likely to be men than women, while developers who are system admins or DevOps specialists are 25-30 times more likely to be men than women. Women have the highest representation as academics, QA developers, data scientists, and designers.

Age

About three-fourths of professional developers who took our survey are younger than 35.

Age and Experience by Country

Developers on Stack Overflow are older with more experience in Australia, countries in Western Europe, and North America and younger with less experience in countries like India and Russia.

Kinship, Competition, and Self-Evaluation

_{68,577 responses; agreement on a 1-5 scale, from strongly disagree to strongly agree}

We asked how much respondents agree or disagree with several statements about their place in the developer community. Overall 70% of developers agree or strongly agree that they feel a sense of connection with other developers. Developers are overall confident about their own skills compared to their peers, with only 18% agreeing or strongly agreeing that they are not as good at programming as their colleagues.

Experience and Belonging

Respondents' feelings on how much they belong and how they stack up to their peers change with how much experience they have. More experienced developers feel more connected, more confident, and less competitive. Notice that feeling less skilled drops quickly with experience while feeling less competitive drops more gradually and continues to drop into the second decade of coding experience.

Children and Other Dependents

_{62,596 responses}

This year we asked respondents if they have children or other dependents that they care for, and about a quarter of respondents say that they do. We asked in a free response question what these developers do for dependent care during work hours, and our respondents talked about options like school, their spouses/partners, and daycare.

The developers who said they do not have dependents to care for are younger on average than those who do. Over 30% of the developers without dependents are younger than 25, while only 5% of those with dependents are younger than 25. Almost 60% of developers with 10 or more years of professional coding experience have children or other dependents.

What Time Do Developers Wake Up?

_{72,146 responses}

We are confident that most developers have pulled a late night here and there, but most of our respondents say they are up by 8am.

How Much Time Do Developers Spend on a Computer?

_{72,133 responses}

Our respondents include people who code as professionals, students, and hobbyists. The overwhelmingly majority spend large fractions of their waking hours on a typical day with their desktops and laptops.

How Much Time Do Developers Spend Outside?

_{72,024 responses}

Developers get outside for recreation, commuting, or other reasons. About half of our respondents spend an hour or more outside a day.

Healthy Habits

Developers tell us they do not often skip meals because of their workload, and a majority say they exercise at least some. Over 60% of respondents exercise at least weekly, but the most often chosen exercise frequency is 'never'.

Programming, Scripting, and Markup Languages

For the sixth year in a row, JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language. Python has risen in the ranks, surpassing C# this year, much like it surpassed PHP last year. Python has a solid claim to being the fastest-growing major programming language.

We see close alignment in the technology choices of professional developers and the developer population overall.

Frameworks, Libraries, and Tools

Node.js and AngularJS continue to be the most commonly used technologies in this category, with React and .Net Core also important to many developers.

Databases

Like last year, MySQL and SQL Server are the most commonly used databases.

Platforms

Linux and Windows Desktop or Server are the most common choices that our respondents say they have done development work for this year.

Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Languages

For the third year in a row, Rust is the most loved programming language among our respondents, followed close behind by Kotlin, a language we asked about for the first time on our survey this year. This means that proportionally, more developers want to continue working with these than other languages.

Also for the third year in a row, Visual Basic 6 ranks as the most dreaded programming 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 is the most wanted language for the second year in a row, meaning that it is the language that developers who do not yet use it most often say they want to learn.

Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Frameworks, Libraries, and Tools

TensorFlow, one of the fastest growing technologies on Stack Overflow, is most loved by developers, while Cordova is most dreaded. React is the framework developers say they most want to work with if they do not already.

Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Databases

For the second year in a row, Redis is most loved database, meaning that proportionally more developers wanted to continue working with it than any other database. IBM's Db2 offering ranks as the most dreaded database, and for the second year in a row, MongoDB is the most wanted database.

Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Platforms

Linux is once again the most loved platform for development, with serverless infrastructure also loved this year. Sharepoint is the most dreaded development platform for the second year in a row, and many developers say they want to start developing for the Android platform and the Raspberry Pi.

Most Popular Development Environments

Visual Studio Code just edged out Visual Studio as the most popular developer environment tool across the board, but there are differences in tool choices by developer type and role. Developers who write code for mobile apps are more likely to choose Android Studio and Xcode, the most popular choice by DevOps and sysadmins is Vim, and data scientists are more likely to work in IPython/Jupyter, PyCharm, and RStudio.

Developers' Primary Operating Systems

We asked our respondents what operating systems they use for work. About half said they mainly use Windows, and the remainder were about evenly split between MacOS and Linux.

How Many Monitors?

_{76,398 responses}

Over 65% of respondents use two or more monitors to get work done at their main workstation; the median number of monitors for respondents at their main workstation is two.

What Languages Are Associated with the Highest Salaries Worldwide?

Globally, respondents who use F#, Ocaml, Clojure, and Groovy earn the highest salaries, with median salaries above $70,000 USD. There are regional variations in which languages are associated with the highest pay. Erlang and Scala developers in the US are among the highest paid, while Clojure, Erlang, and Haskell developers earn the most in India.

How Technologies Are Connected

Technologies cluster together into related ecosystems that tend to be used by the same developers. In this chart we see a large central cluster for web development (with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS) connected via SQL to one for Microsoft technologies (with C#, Visual Studio, and .NET Core). Along the left we see a constellation connecting Java, Android, and iOS across to Linux, bash/shell, and Python. Other smaller correlated clusters include Scala/Spark, C/C++, and other smaller technologies that include language-specific IDEs.

What Do Developers Think Is Dangerous and Exciting About AI?

Some types of developers are involved in the increasing role of machine learning and artificial intelligence in the world today, so we asked developers what they think is dangerous and exciting about these technologies. There is not much consensus among developers about what is most dangerous; each answer was chosen roughly equally. The top choice for what is exciting about increasing AI is that jobs can be automated.

Who is Primarily Responsible for Considering the Ramifications of AI?

_{65,553 responses}

Developers are most likely to think that the creators and technologists behind the machine learning and AI algorithms are the ones who are ultimately most responsible for the societal issues surrounding artificial intelligence. About a quarter of respondents think that a regulatory body should be primarily responsible.

How Do Developers Feel About the Future of AI?

_{69,728 responses}

Developers are mostly optimistic about the possibilities that artificial intelligence offers our world, with almost three-fourths of respondents saying that they are overall more excited than worried about the AI future.

AI Concerns by Developer Type

The concerns that developers bring to issues around artificial intelligence depend on the kind of coding work they do. For example, data scientists are 1.5 times more likely to consider issues around algorithmic fairness dangerous than any upcoming singularity when computers become more intelligent than people, the most of any kind of developer. We included a free response option on this question; there was not much serious worry about Skynet, but many developers discussed systemic bias being built into algorithmic decision making and the danger of AI being used without the ability to inspect and reason about decision pathways.

Employment Status

Over 90% of developers are employed at least part-time.

Employment Status by Geography

Germany has an unusually high proportion of developers working part-time. Developers in the United States are somewhat less likely to work as independent contractors or freelancers. In all of these locations, between 70% and 80% of developers are employed full-time.

Employment Status for Professional Developers by Geography

Respondents who are professional developers are employed full-time at higher rates than respondents in general.

Industry

Software developers work in a diverse range of industries (so diverse that it's hard to ask about them all in one question!) both inside and outside the technology industry. Our answer choices focused on the tech industry this year, and of these choices, more professional developers work for companies doing web development, IT, and SaaS. Developers working in industries such as consulting and healthcare have more years of professional coding experience. Developers in these industries are twice as likely to have more than 20 years of experience than developers working in web development/design or eCommerce.

Company Size

_{71,531 responses}

Developers work in companies of all sizes, from quite small to large enterprise organizations. More software developers in the United States work at larger companies compared to the rest of the world. The more experienced a developer is, the more likely they are to work at one of the largest companies. A developer with 30 years of experience is twice as likely to work at a company with more than 5,000 employees than a developer with 2 years of experience.

What Do Developers Hope To Be Doing in Five Years?

_{75,718 responses}

Developers' career goals are largely focused on technical work, with just over half of respondents saying they want to be in the same or a different technical role in the future. About a quarter of our respondents say they want to start their own company, but this is most common among developers who are younger than 25 years old.

How Do Developers Feel About Their Careers and Jobs?

Developers tend to be more satisfied with their career than with their current job. Overall, career satisfaction does not vary significantly by industry. However, current job satisfaction is significantly lower for developers working in financial services and IT. Career satisfaction is highest for older developers, with ages of 50 or higher, and those with 20, 30, or more years of professional experience. Job satisfaction, by contrast, is highest for developers between 35 and 44 years old.

What Would Developers Do If Asked to Write Code for an Unethical Purpose?

_{70,782 responses}

When posed with a hypothetical situation where they are asked to write code for a product or purpose that they consider clearly unethical, over half of our respondents say that they would not write such code. Ethical situations can be complicated, and about another third say that it would depend on the situation.

How Would Developers Report Ethical Problems with Code?

_{70,426 responses}

The question of what to do next after an ethical problem has arisen is even more tricky, according to our respondents. The most common answer, from almost half of respondents, is that how to report an ethical problem depends on the particulars of any given situation.

Who Is Ultimately Most Responsible for Code That Accomplishes Something Unethical?

_{64,540 responses}

Most developers feel that management is ultimately most accountable for unethical results of code. Just under 20% of respondents said that a developer who writes code used for unethical purposes is most responsible.

Do Developers Have an Obligation to Consider the Ethical Implications of Their Code?

_{69,309 responses}

Almost 80% of respondents affirm that considering what their code can be used for is the right thing for developers to do. Those who said they were unsure about this were 40% more likely to also say that they do not need to report any ethical problems.

We included a free response opportunity after this question, and we saw thoughtful reflections from developers. These include responses about how the tools developers build are powerful and come with a lot of responsibility, situations where unethical outcomes may accidentally arise, and how large teams are involved in building software but developers can be the last line of defense against unethical code.

Job Search Status

_{79,488 responses}

Only 16% of respondents are actively looking for a job, but about three-fourths of developers are interested in hearing about new job opportunities.

Job Search Status by Geography

Job seeking status is largely consistent across these regions.

Who's Actively Looking for a Job?

_{Mean of 76,354 responses}

Among professional developers, those who work at the C-level and as engineering managers or product managers are looking for work the least. Developers working in academia and data scientists (categories that we know often overlap) are looking for work at higher proportions.

How Long Ago Did Developers Last Change Jobs?

_{78,889 responses}

About half of the respondents on our survey have taken a new job within the past two years; frequent job changes are the norm for software developers.

Job Change Timelines by Geography

Across the US, UK, Germany, and Canada, software developers change jobs at about the same rates.

What Words Do Developers Use to Describe Searching for a Job?

We asked developers on Stack Overflow what they find annoying, exhausting, interesting, and exciting about the process of searching for a new job in separate free response questions. Respondents said the positive aspects of searching for a new job include the new opportunities, technologies, and people that a new position can offer. On the other hand, they expressed frustration with broken processes around interviews and recruiting.

How Do Developers Assess Potential Jobs?

In general, developers' top priority in assessing a job is compensation, followed by the specific technologies that they will work with. The tech industry is struggling overall with issues around diversity, and individual developers are not making it a priority when looking for a job.

Differences in Assessing Jobs by Gender

Different types of developers apply different sets of priorities when considering jobs. Developers who belong to gender minorities in tech rank the company culture and office environment as their highest concern when assessing a new job. The gender identification question allowed respondents to select all that apply.

What Developers Value in Compensation and Benefits

Overall, respondents on our survey prioritize salary highest, with all other considerations like computer equipment and conference budgets ranking much lower.

Valuing Compensation and Benefits by Geography

The specifics of how developers are compensated with salary and benefits work differently across the world, so developer responses vary by geography. Health insurance is prioritized in countries without a national healthcare system (like the United States), and computer equipment allowances are unusually important to developers in India and the UK.

What Do Developers Use to Stay Comfortable While Working?

_{34,058 responses; select all that apply}

Standing desks are not confined to trendy Silicon Valley offices; over half of our respondents say they use one, almost the same proportion who use a device like an ergonomic keyboard or mouse.

Which Methodologies Do Developers Use?

Agile and Scrum are popular methodologies for developers to keep their projects on track.

How Long Do Developers Expect New Coworkers to Take to Be Productive?

_{51,872 responses}

We asked our respondents to imagine they had a new coworker with four years of relevant experience joining their team, and then to estimate how long that person would take to become fully productive and contribute at a typical level. About three-fourths of developers thought that the hypothetical new coworker would be fully up to speed within three months or less. Looking to reduce tribal knowledge, onboard faster, and speed up development? Learn more about Stack Overflow Enterprise.

Version Control

Git is the dominant choice for version control for developers today, with almost 90% of developers checking in their code via Git.

How Often Do Developers Check In Code?

The majority of developers check in code multiple times per day. Professional developers are less likely to check in code rarely or never.

How are Job Satisfaction and Committing Code Related?

_{Mean of 59,260 responses; satisfaction on a 1-7 scale, from extremely dissatisfied to extremely satisfied}

Developers who check in code the most often also have higher job satisfaction.

Salary by Developer Type

Engineering managers, DevOps specialists, and data scientists command the highest salaries. See our Methodology section for information on how we converted local currencies used by respondents to U.S. dollars.

Average top earners vary by geography. In India, for example, data scientists are among the top earners, while in European countries, back-end developers and developers working with embedded devices are among the top earners.

Salary and Experience by Developer Type

Naturally, developers with more years of experience are paid more. However, we also see that some type of coding work is paid more highly at the same level of experience. Data scientists and DevOps specialists are high earners for their level of experience.

Salary and Experience by Language

Developers using languages that appear above the line in this chart, such as Go, Clojure, and F#, are being paid more even given how much experience they have. Developers using languages below the line, like PHP and Visual Basic 6, however, are paid less even given years of experience. The size of the circles in this chart represents how many developers are using that language compared to the others.