Years of work experience — Work data 2026 | Stack Overflow Developer Survey

Developer Survey 2026

Question

How many years have you been working professionally in total? Please round to the nearest whole number, excluding any decimal points. If you have no professional work experience, you can leave this question unanswered.

free text
Optional
v2026.1

Data

	Respondents	Percent
0-4 years	5,612	22.8%
5-9 years	4,519	18.4%
10-14 years	4,268	17.3%
15-19 years	3,030	12.3%
20-29 years	4,296	17.5%
30-39 years	1,929	7.8%
40+ years	953	3.9%

Use this data

Citation

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

Stack Exchange Inc. (2026). “Years of work experience”. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026. Licensed under ODbL 1.0. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/work/data/work-exp

JSON

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

{
  "question": "Years of work experience",
  "dataId": "WorkExp",
  "asked": "How many years have you been working professionally in total? Please round to the nearest whole number, excluding any decimal points.&nbsp; If you have no professional work experience, you can leave this question unanswered.",
  "year": "2026",
  "url": "https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/work/data/work-exp",
  "demographic": {
    "id": "all-respondents",
    "type": "all",
    "name": "All Respondents",
    "n": 24607,
    "share": null
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    {
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    {
      "key": "pct",
      "header": "Percent",
      "unit": "%",
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    }
  ],
  "licence": {
    "name": "ODbL 1.0",
    "url": "https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/",
    "holder": "Stack Exchange Inc."
  },
  "source": "Stack Overflow Developer Survey",
  "data": [
    {
      "response": "0-4 years",
      "count": 5612,
      "pct": 0.228
    },
    {
      "response": "5-9 years",
      "count": 4519,
      "pct": 0.184
    },
    {
      "response": "10-14 years",
      "count": 4268,
      "pct": 0.173
    },
    {
      "response": "15-19 years",
      "count": 3030,
      "pct": 0.123
    },
    {
      "response": "20-29 years",
      "count": 4296,
      "pct": 0.175
    },
    {
      "response": "30-39 years",
      "count": 1929,
      "pct": 0.078
    },
    {
      "response": "40+ years",
      "count": 953,
      "pct": 0.039
    }
  ]
}

Markdown

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

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| 0-4 years | 5,612 | 22.8% |
| 5-9 years | 4,519 | 18.4% |
| 10-14 years | 4,268 | 17.3% |
| 15-19 years | 3,030 | 12.3% |
| 20-29 years | 4,296 | 17.5% |
| 30-39 years | 1,929 | 7.8% |
| 40+ years | 953 | 3.9% |

Spreadsheet

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