2024 Developer Survey

1 Developer Profile

What we know about the global community of developers.

1.1 Education

Educational attainment

66% of developers have a BA/BS or MA/MS degree despite only 49% of developers learning to code at school.

Which of the following best describes the highest level of formal education that you’ve completed? *
All Respondents Professional Developers Learning to Code Other Coders
All Respondents to-do Primary/elementary school1.9%Secondary school 9.5%Some college/uni study w/o ear…12.6%Associate degree 2.9%Bachelor’s degree 41%Master’s degree 25.6%Pro. degree 4.9%Something else1.5%
Responses: 60,192 (92%)
Professional Developers to-do Primary/elementary school0.6%Secondary school 5.4%Some college/uni study w/o ear…11.5%Associate degree 3%Bachelor’s degree 45.7%Master’s degree 28.4%Pro. degree 4.2%Something else1.2%
Responses: 45,655 (69.8%)
Learning to Code to-do Primary/elementary school9%Secondary school 35.5%Some college/uni study w/o ear…20.3%Associate degree 2.6%Bachelor’s degree 23.5%Master’s degree 5.1%Pro. degree 1.1%Something else3%
Responses: 6,625 (10.1%)
Other Coders to-do Primary/elementary school3.3%Secondary school 11.6%Some college/uni study w/o ear…12.5%Associate degree 2.7%Bachelor’s degree 28.6%Master’s degree 26.6%Pro. degree 12.4%Something else2.4%
Responses: 6,625 (10.1%)

1.2 Learning to code

Learning to code

Online resources are the top choice for developers to learn code according to 82% of responses.

Respondents 18 - 24 years old are most likely to learn code at traditional schools of all the age groups, and consistently so for the last three years.

How do you learn to code? Select all that apply.
All Respondents Learning to Code By Age
All Respondents to-do Other online resources 82.1%Books / Physical media50.3%E-courses or Certification50%School 49.1%On the job training45.1%Colleague23.6%Coding Bootcamp10.7%Friend or family member10.6%
Responses: 59,912 (91.6%)
Learning to Code to-do Other online resources 84.9%School 55.6%E-courses or Certification46.8%Books / Physical media39.5%Friend or family member15.3%Coding Bootcamp13.6%On the job training13.1%Colleague10.5%
Responses: 6,590 (10.1%)
Under 18 years oldUnder 18 years old No description Other online resources 90.4%School 32.2%E-courses or Certification37.7%Books / Physical media35.8%Friend or family member19.3%Coding Bootcamp9.6%On the job training7.5%Colleague4.8% 18-24 years old18-24 years old No description Other online resources 85.2%School 61.7%E-courses or Certification47.5%Books / Physical media37.7%Friend or family member13.4%Coding Bootcamp12.1%On the job training32.3%Colleague18.1% 25-34 years old25-34 years old No description Other online resources 82%School 53.9%E-courses or Certification52.9%Books / Physical media46.4%Friend or family member10.7%Coding Bootcamp11.8%On the job training49.5%Colleague26.4% 35-44 years old35-44 years old No description Other online resources 82.2%School 43.3%E-courses or Certification52.3%Books / Physical media58.6%Friend or family member9.2%Coding Bootcamp9.8%On the job training52%Colleague27.5% 45-54 years old45-54 years old No description Other online resources 82.6%School 36.5%E-courses or Certification49.7%Books / Physical media68.2%Friend or family member7.1%Coding Bootcamp8.6%On the job training52.7%Colleague25.6% 55-64 years old55-64 years old No description Other online resources 78.6%School 35.9%E-courses or Certification49.8%Books / Physical media73.2%Friend or family member5.5%Coding Bootcamp8%On the job training55.8%Colleague22.4% 65 years or older65 years or older No description Other online resources 67.5%School 39%E-courses or Certification38.4%Books / Physical media73.9%Friend or family member5%Coding Bootcamp8.3%On the job training48.1%Colleague16.9%
Responses: 59,221 (90.5%)

Online resources to learn how to code

Technical documentation (84%) and Stack Overflow (80%) continue to be the top online resources to learn code. 37% of responses indicate AI is helping them learn, too.

What online resources do you use to learn to code? Select all that apply.
All Respondents to-do Technical documentation83.9%Stack Overflow80.3%Written Tutorials68.4%Blogs61.4%How-to videos54.2%Video-based E-courses49.9%Online books46.5%Social Media41.2%AI37%Written-based E-courses33.6%Interactive tutorial29.3%Online challenges 22.9%Coding sessions 22.1%Certification videos14.5%Auditory material 8%Games that teach pgrm.6.1%
Responses: 48,822 (74.6%)

Technical documentation preferences to learn how to code

API and SDK documents are the documentation source of choice for 90% of developers.

What is the source of the technical documentation you use most often to learn to code? Select all that apply.
All Respondents to-do API document and/or SDK docume…90.3%User guides or README files fo…77.5%Traditional public search engi…71.7%First-party knowledge base37.5%AI-powered search/dev tool 30%AI-powered search/dev tool 13.4%
Responses: 40,602 (62%)

1.3 Experience

Years coding

More than 1 in 3 developers that took the survey this year have been coding as long as or longer than Stack Overflow existed. 38% of respondents have been coding for 15 years or more.

Including any education, how many years have you been coding in total?
All Respondents Average by Top 10 Countries
All Respondents to-do Less than 1 year0.9%1 to 4 years13.6%5 to 9 years27.1%10 to 14 years20.1%15 to 19 years11.8%20 to 24 years9.2%25 to 29 years6%30 to 34 years4.1%35 to 39 years2.7%40 to 44 years3%45 to 49 years0.9%More than 50 years0.6%
Responses: 59,349 (90.7%)
Average by Top 10 Countries to-do 🇬🇧 UK18.13🇺🇸 USA17.41🇨🇦 Canada16.08🇳🇱 Netherlands15.93🇩🇪 Germany15.23🇫🇷 France14.22🇧🇷 Brazil13.17🇵🇱 Poland12.62🇺🇦 Ukraine9.52🇮🇳 India8.27
Responses: 34,374 (52.5%)

Years coding professionally

1 in 3 developers have been coding professionally for four years or less.

NOT including education, how many years have you coded professionally (as a part of your work)?
All Respondents to-do Less than 1 year5.5%1 to 4 years27.3%5 to 9 years25.1%10 to 14 years16.6%15 to 19 years9.3%20 to 24 years6.8%25 to 29 years4.5%30 to 34 years2.5%35 to 39 years1.4%40 to 44 years0.7%45 to 49 years0.2%More than 50 years0.1%
Responses: 51,159 (78.2%)

Years of professional coding experience by developer type

People managers such as executives and engineering managers are reporting the highest average years of coding this year with more than 15 years of experience, while popular developer roles such as back-end and full-stack developers are reporting 10-11 years experience on average.

NOT including education, how many years have you coded professionally (as a part of your work)?
All Respondents to-do Senior Executive 17.38Manager15.85Dev Advocate15.42Product manager15.29DB admin15.1Edu14.02PM13.93Ent.13.8Designer13.69Research & Dev role12.83Embed12.07Dev Experience12.04SRE11.92Sci.11.71Cloud infra. engineer11.52Sys11.1Back-end10.71DevOps specialist10.6Full-stack10.58Data engineer10.46Marketing or sales pro.9.98Security pro.9.97Hardware9.64Mobile9.44Blockchain8.9Games8.76Academic researcher8.68Data sci. or ML specialist8.31QA8.19Dev, AI8.14Data/Biz8.1Front-end7.92Student2.89
Responses: 51,159 (78.2%)

1.4 Developer roles

Developer type

Full-stack, back-end, and front-end developers were the top three roles reported by developers for the last three years; however, front-end developers have decreased from 6.6% to 5.6% since last year. This year, more developers identify as students than as front-end employees and we saw a slight increase in developers who have an embedded applications role or are academic researchers.

Which of the following describes your current job, the one you do most of the time? Please select only one.
All Respondents to-do Full-stack30.7%Back-end16.7%Student8.6%Front-end5.6%Ent.4.2%Mobile3.4%Embed2.7%Manager2.1%Academic researcher2.1%Data engineer1.9%Data sci. or ML specialist1.7%DevOps specialist1.7%Research & Dev role1.6%Senior Executive 1.4%Games1.2%Cloud infra. engineer1.1%Sys0.9%Dev, AI0.9%QA0.9%Data/Biz0.9%PM0.7%Edu0.6%Security pro.0.6%Sci.0.6%SRE0.5%Product manager0.5%Blockchain0.4%Dev Experience0.4%Hardware0.3%Designer0.3%DB admin0.3%Dev Advocate0.2%Marketing or sales pro.0.2%
Responses: 58,950 (90.1%)

1.5 Key territories

Geography

52% of respondents shared their country in this year's survey. The top 10 countries account for 60% of those that were given, and Europe accounts for most of the top-responding countries.

Where do you live? *
Top 10 Countries All Countries
Top 10 Countries to-do 🇺🇸 USA18.9%🇩🇪 Germany8.4%🇮🇳 India7.2%🇬🇧 UK5.5%🇺🇦 Ukraine4.6%🇨🇦 Canada3.6%🇫🇷 France3.6%🇵🇱 Poland2.6%🇳🇱 Netherlands2.5%🇧🇷 Brazil2.3%
Responses: 34,554 (52.8%)
Response Percentage Responses
United States of America 18.9% 11,027
Germany 8.4% 4,928
India 7.2% 4,194
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 5.5% 3,214
Ukraine 4.6% 2,668
Canada 3.6% 2,097
France 3.6% 2,094
Poland 2.6% 1,528
Netherlands 2.5% 1,441
Brazil 2.3% 1,363
Italy 2.3% 1,333
Australia 2.1% 1,255
Spain 1.9% 1,112
Sweden 1.7% 1,010
Russian Federation 1.6% 920
Switzerland 1.5% 873
Austria 1.4% 787
Czech Republic 1.2% 710
Israel 1% 600
Turkey 0.9% 539
Belgium 0.9% 522
Denmark 0.9% 502
Portugal 0.8% 468
Norway 0.8% 444
Romania 0.8% 436
Iran, Islamic Republic of... 0.7% 409
Pakistan 0.7% 408
China 0.7% 402
Mexico 0.7% 397
New Zealand 0.7% 396
Hungary 0.7% 395
Greece 0.7% 389
Finland 0.7% 382
South Africa 0.6% 358
Indonesia 0.6% 351
Argentina 0.6% 343
Bangladesh 0.6% 325
Bulgaria 0.5% 318
Nigeria 0.5% 304
Viet Nam 0.5% 293
Japan 0.5% 286
Ireland 0.5% 269
Taiwan 0.5% 268
Egypt 0.4% 261
Slovakia 0.4% 246
Serbia 0.4% 243
Colombia 0.4% 216
Philippines 0.3% 196
Croatia 0.3% 186
Lithuania 0.3% 181
Kenya 0.3% 179
Singapore 0.3% 175
Sri Lanka 0.3% 163
Malaysia 0.3% 160
Thailand 0.3% 146
South Korea 0.3% 144
Hong Kong (S.A.R.) 0.2% 142
Slovenia 0.2% 141
Nepal 0.2% 139
Chile 0.2% 133
United Arab Emirates 0.2% 129
Latvia 0.2% 127
Estonia 0.2% 109
Morocco 0.2% 98
Belarus 0.2% 94
Georgia 0.2% 94
Uruguay 0.2% 94
Kazakhstan 0.1% 80
Algeria 0.1% 75
Peru 0.1% 75
Tunisia 0.1% 71
Ghana 0.1% 70
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of... 0.1% 69
Cyprus 0.1% 63
Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.1% 61
Uzbekistan 0.1% 61
Ethiopia 0.1% 60
Armenia 0.1% 58
Saudi Arabia 0.1% 56
Republic of Korea 0.1% 55
Costa Rica 0.1% 54
Ecuador 0.1% 54
Afghanistan 0.1% 53
Albania 0.1% 49
Dominican Republic 0.1% 46
Lebanon 0.1% 45
Kyrgyzstan 0.1% 44
Iraq 0.1% 43
Guatemala 0.1% 41
Luxembourg 0.1% 40
Jordan 0.1% 39
Paraguay 0.1% 39
Republic of Moldova 0.1% 38
Uganda 0.1% 38
Bolivia 0.1% 32
Cameroon 0.1% 30
Iceland 0.1% 30
Syrian Arab Republic 0.1% 30
Malta 0.1% 29
United Republic of Tanzania 0.1% 28
Azerbaijan 0.1% 27
Montenegro 0.1% 27
Zimbabwe 0% 26
Cuba 0% 23
Cambodia 0% 22
Rwanda 0% 22
Nicaragua 0% 21
Angola 0% 20
Myanmar 0% 19
El Salvador 0% 18
Kosovo 0% 18
Panama 0% 18
Yemen 0% 17
Honduras 0% 16
Maldives 0% 16
Mauritius 0% 15
Palestine 0% 15
Qatar 0% 15
Zambia 0% 15
Côte d'Ivoire 0% 14
Madagascar 0% 14
Andorra 0% 13
Isle of Man 0% 13
Malawi 0% 12
Bahrain 0% 11
Jamaica 0% 11
Turkmenistan 0% 11
Benin 0% 10
Mongolia 0% 10
Somalia 0% 9
Togo 0% 9
Congo, Republic of the... 0% 8
Kuwait 0% 8
Senegal 0% 8
Trinidad and Tobago 0% 8
Mozambique 0% 7
Oman 0% 7
Sudan 0% 7
Tajikistan 0% 7
Barbados 0% 6
Antigua and Barbuda 0% 5
Botswana 0% 5
Cape Verde 0% 5
Mauritania 0% 5
Namibia 0% 5
Suriname 0% 5
Bahamas 0% 4
Burkina Faso 0% 4
Fiji 0% 4
Gabon 0% 4
Lao People's Democratic Republic 0% 4
Liberia 0% 4
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 0% 4
Liechtenstein 0% 4
Swaziland 0% 4
Bhutan 0% 3
Brunei Darussalam 0% 3
Burundi 0% 3
Democratic Republic of the Congo 0% 3
Guyana 0% 3
Monaco 0% 3
North Korea 0% 3
San Marino 0% 3
Sierra Leone 0% 3
Belize 0% 2
Guinea-Bissau 0% 2
Mali 0% 2
Central African Republic 0% 1
Chad 0% 1
Djibouti 0% 1
Dominica 0% 1
Equatorial Guinea 0% 1
Guinea 0% 1
Haiti 0% 1
Lesotho 0% 1
Micronesia, Federated States of... 0% 1
Nauru 0% 1
Niger 0% 1
Papua New Guinea 0% 1
Saint Kitts and Nevis 0% 1
Samoa 0% 1
Solomon Islands 0% 1
Responses: 58,578 (89.5%)

1.6 Demographics

Age

Most developers in the survey this year report being 25 - 34 years old (37%). That number increases for professional developers to 42% and has steadily decreased in the last three years for those learning to code from 17% in 2022 to 12% this year.

What is your age?*
All Respondents Professional Developers Learning to Code Other Coders
All Respondents to-do Under 18 years old3.9%18-24 years old21.4%25-34 years old36.5%35-44 years old22.9%45-54 years old9.6%55-64 years old4%65 years or older1.2%Prefer not to say0.5%
Responses: 64,287 (98.2%)
Professional Developers to-do Under 18 years old0.5%18-24 years old16.8%25-34 years old42%35-44 years old25.8%45-54 years old10.1%55-64 years old3.8%65 years or older0.7%Prefer not to say0.3%
Responses: 48,552 (74.2%)
Learning to Code to-do Under 18 years old22.5%18-24 years old57.1%25-34 years old11.9%35-44 years old4.3%45-54 years old1.9%55-64 years old0.8%65 years or older0.5%Prefer not to say1.1%
Responses: 7,105 (10.9%)
Other Coders to-do Under 18 years old7.9%18-24 years old17.9%25-34 years old25.5%35-44 years old22%45-54 years old13.5%55-64 years old7.7%65 years or older4.4%Prefer not to say1.1%
Responses: 8,630 (13.2%)
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