Employment status — Work data 2026 | Stack Overflow Developer Survey

Developer Survey 2026

Question

Which of the following best describes your current employment status?

single select
Required
v2026.1

Data

	Respondents	Percent
Employed	20,259	65.6%
Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed	4,607	14.9%
Student	3,139	10.2%
Not employed	1,742	5.6%
Retired	607	2.0%
I prefer not to say	549	1.8%

Use this data

Citation

Response data is released under the ODbL 1.0, which asks that you attribute it.

Stack Exchange Inc. (2026). “Employment status”. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026. Licensed under ODbL 1.0. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/work/data/employment

JSON

Structured for code, with the question, the year and the source url alongside the numbers.

{
  "question": "Employment status",
  "dataId": "Employment",
  "asked": "Which of the following best describes your current employment status?",
  "year": "2026",
  "url": "https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/work/data/employment",
  "demographic": {
    "id": "all-respondents",
    "type": "all",
    "name": "All Respondents",
    "n": 30903,
    "share": null
  },
  "series": null,
  "columns": [
    {
      "key": "response",
      "header": "Employment status",
      "unit": "",
      "numeric": false
    },
    {
      "key": "count",
      "header": "Respondents",
      "unit": "",
      "numeric": true
    },
    {
      "key": "pct",
      "header": "Percent",
      "unit": "%",
      "numeric": true
    }
  ],
  "licence": {
    "name": "ODbL 1.0",
    "url": "https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/",
    "holder": "Stack Exchange Inc."
  },
  "source": "Stack Overflow Developer Survey",
  "data": [
    {
      "response": "Employed",
      "count": 20259,
      "pct": 0.656
    },
    {
      "response": "Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed",
      "count": 4607,
      "pct": 0.149
    },
    {
      "response": "Student",
      "count": 3139,
      "pct": 0.102
    },
    {
      "response": "Not employed",
      "count": 1742,
      "pct": 0.056
    },
    {
      "response": "Retired",
      "count": 607,
      "pct": 0.02
    },
    {
      "response": "I prefer not to say",
      "count": 549,
      "pct": 0.018
    }
  ]
}

Markdown

A formatted table, ready to paste into a document, an issue or a prompt.

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Employed | 20,259 | 65.6% |
| Independent contractor, freelancer, or self-employed | 4,607 | 14.9% |
| Student | 3,139 | 10.2% |
| Not employed | 1,742 | 5.6% |
| Retired | 607 | 2.0% |
| I prefer not to say | 549 | 1.8% |

Spreadsheet

.csv is a plain text format which most spreadsheet software can open.