Software engineer Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...

s form a noticeable part of the

workforce The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic regio ...

around the world. There are an estimated 26.9 million

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

software engineers in the world as of 2022, up from 21 million in 2016.

By country

United States

In 2022, there were an estimated 4.4 million professional software engineers in North America. There are 152 million people employed in the US workforce, making software engineers 2.54% of the total workforce. The total above is an increase compared to around 3.87 million software engineers employed in 2016.

Summary

Based on data from the

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of th ...

from 2002, about 612,000 software engineers worked in the U.S. about one out of every 200 workers. There were 55% to 60% as many software engineers as all traditional engineers. This comparison holds true for practitioners, managers, educators, or technicians/programmers. Software engineering had 612,000 practitioners: 264,790 managers, 16,495 educators, and 457,320 programmers.

Software engineers vs. traditional engineers

The following two tables compare the number of software engineers (611,900 in 2002) versus the number of traditional engineers (1,157,020 in 2002). There are another 1,500,000 people in

system analysis System analysis in the field of electrical engineering characterizes electrical systems and their properties. System analysis can be used to represent almost anything from population growth to audio speakers; electrical engineers often use it be ...

system administration A system administrator, or sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as servers. The system administrator seeks to en ...

, and computer support, many of whom might be called software engineers. Many systems analysts manage software development teams, and as analysis is an important software engineering role, many of them may be considered software engineers in the near future. This means that the number of software engineers may actually be much higher. It is important to note that the number of software engineers declined by 5 to 10 percent from 2000 to 2002.

Computer managers vs. construction and engineering managers

Computer and information system managers (264,790) manage software projects, as well as computer operations. Similarly, Construction and engineering managers (413,750) oversee engineering projects, manufacturing plants, and construction sites. Computer management is 64% the size of construction and engineering management.

Software engineering educators vs. engineering educators

Most people working in the field of computer science, whether making software systems (software engineering) or studying the theoretical and mathematical facts of software systems (computer science), acquire degrees in computer science. The data shows that the combined number of chemistry and physics educators (29,610) nearly equals the number of engineering educators (29,310). It is estimated that roughly half of computer science educators emphasize the practical (software engineering), and the other half emphasize the theoretical (computer science). This means that software engineering education is 56% the size of traditional engineering education. There are more computer science educators than chemistry and physics educators combined, or engineering educators.

Other software and engineering roles

Relation to IT demographics

Software engineers are part of the much larger software, hardware, application, and operations community. In 2000 in the U.S., there were about 680,000 software engineers and about 10,000,000 IT workers. There are no numbers on testers in the BLS data.

India

There has been a healthy growth in the number of

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

's IT professionals over the past few years. From a base of 6,800

knowledge worker Knowledge workers are workers whose main capital is knowledge. Examples include programmers, physicians, pharmacists, architects, engineers, scientists, design thinkers, public accountants, lawyers, editors, and academics, whose job is to ...

s in 198586, the number increased to 522,000 software and services professionals by the end of 200102. It is estimated that out of these 528,000 knowledge workers, almost 170,000 are working in the IT software and services export industry; nearly 106,000 are working in the IT enabled services and over 230,000 in user organizations.

Australia

In May 2024, the Australian government reported that 169,300 Australians are employed as software and applications programmers, 17% of who are women. The role grew annually by 8,300 workers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Software Engineering Demographics Software engineering Demographics