Software engineering demographics

There are a lot of software engineers.

Canada, the European Union, Japan, Israel, and Australia will probably find corresponding numbers of SE practitioners.

Contents

European Union

Where can one find data?

http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm

India

There has been a healthy growth in the number of India’s IT professionals over the last decade.

From a base of 6,800 knowledge workers in 1985-86, the number increased to 522,000 software and services professionals by the end of 2001-02. It is estimated that out of these 522,000 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 220,000 in user organizations.

Specific details on the type of qualification and the backgrounds of professionals in the industry is described in the external link below.

Source: Website of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (http://www.nasscom.org) and is one of the more authoritative sources of information.

Japan

Where can one find data?

United States

About 1 out of every 200 workers is a software engineer. There are 55% to 60% as many software engineers as all traditional engineers. In 2002, software engineering had 612,000 practitioners; 264,790 managers, 16,495 educators, and 457,320 programmers.

Summary

Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2002, about 612,000 software engineers work in the U.S. The size of all software engineering is about 60% the size of all traditional engineering. This comparison holds, whether one compares the number of practitioners, managers, educators, or technicians/programmers. The following data comes from the following web pages.

Role # SE Title # TE Title Ratio of SE to TE
Practitioners 611,900 Software Engineers 1,157,020 Traditional Engineers 53%
Managers 264,790 Computer and Information Systems Managers 413,750 Engineering Managers + Construction Managers 64%
Educators 16,495 Computer Science (practical) 29,310 Engineering Teachers 56%
Technicians 457,320 Computer Programmers 516,170 Engineering Technicians 88%

Software Engineers Versus Traditional Engineers

The following 2 tables compare the number of software engineers (611,900), versus the number of traditional engineers (1,157,020). The ratio is 53%.

There are another 1,500,000 people in system analysis, system administration, and computer support, many of whom might be called software engineers. Many systems analysts manage software development teams and analysis is an important software engineering role, so many of them might be considered software engineers in the near future. This means that the number of software engineers may actually be much higher.

Note also that the number of software engineers declined by 5% to 10% from 2000 to 2002.

 15-1031	Computer Software Engineers, Applications	356,760	$34.09	$35.48	$73,800	0.7 %
 15-1032	Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software	255,040	$35.60	$36.46	$75,840	0.6 %
 17-2011	Aerospace Engineers	74,210	$34.97	$35.63	$74,110	1.1 %
 17-2021	Agricultural Engineers	2,500	$24.38	$26.79	$55,730	2.9 %
 17-2031	Biomedical Engineers	7,130	$29.04	$30.97	$64,420	1.7 %
 17-2041	Chemical Engineers	32,110	$34.85	$36.06	$75,010	1.0 %
 17-2051	Civil Engineers	207,480	$28.88	$30.29	$63,010	0.4 %
 17-2061	Computer Hardware Engineers	67,180	$34.69	$36.61	$76,150	1.1 %
 17-2071	Electrical Engineers	146,180	$32.78	$33.88	$70,480	0.4 %
 17-2072	Electronics Engineers, Except Computer	126,020	$33.62	$34.43	$71,600	0.6 %
 17-2081	Environmental Engineers	45,720	$29.52	$30.50	$63,440	0.7 %
 17-2111	Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors	34,160	$27.89	$28.77	$59,830	0.7 %
 17-2112	Industrial Engineers	151,760	$29.88	$30.57	$63,590	0.3 %
 17-2121	Marine Engineers and Naval Architects	4,810	$32.04	$32.83	$68,280	2.2 %
 17-2131	Materials Engineers	22,780	$30.09	$30.92	$64,310	1.0 %
 17-2141	Mechanical Engineers	203,620	$30.23	$31.33	$65,170	0.4 %
 17-2151	Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers	5,050	$29.70	$31.14	$64,770	2.4 %
 17-2161	Nuclear Engineers	15,180	$39.11	$39.57	$82,300	1.3 %
 17-2171	Petroleum Engineers	11,130	$40.08	$41.13	$85,540	1.4 %

Programmers versus Technicians

Computer programmers (457,320) are considered to have less education, skill, or experience than software engineers. Engineering technicians (526,170) are considered to have less education, skill, or experience than engineers. There are 88% as many programmers as technicians.

 15-1021	Computer Programmers	457,320	$28.98	$30.62	$63,690	0.6 %
 17-3021	Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technicians	14,700	$24.83	$25.48	$52,990	1.1 %
 17-3022	Civil Engineering Technicians	88,380	$18.13	$18.71	$38,910	0.6 %
 17-3023	Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technicians	194,960	$20.65	$21.26	$44,210	0.4 %
 17-3024	Electro-Mechanical Technicians	30,360	$18.33	$19.20	$39,930	0.7 %
 17-3025	Environmental Engineering Technicians	18,770	$17.72	$18.93	$39,380	1.0 %
 17-3026	Industrial Engineering Technicians	59,700	$20.15	$21.79	$45,310	0.9 %
 17-3027	Mechanical Engineering Technicians	53,630	$19.85	$20.60	$42,850	0.5 %
 17-3031	Surveying and Mapping Technicians	55,670	$14.05	$15.27	$31,760	0.7

Computer Managers Versus 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.

 11-3021	Computer and Information Systems Managers	264,790	$40.98	$43.48	$90,440	0.3 %
 11-9021	Construction Managers	208,360	$30.53	$34.24	$71,210	0.7 %
 11-9041	Engineering Managers	205,390	$43.71	$46.03	$95,750	0.3 %

Software Engineering Educators Versus Engineering Educators

Until now, computer science has been the main degree to get, whether one wanted to make software systems (software engineering) or study the theoretical and mathematical facets of software systems (computer science). The data shows that the number of chemistry and physics educators (29,610) nearly equals the number of engineering educators (29,310). I estimate that similarly, ½ of computer science educators emphasize the practical (software engineering) (16,495) and ½ of computer science educators emphasize the theoretical (computer science) (16,495). This means that software engineering education is 56% the size of traditional engineering education. It is also worth noting that computer science is larger than all engineering, and larger than all physics and chemistry.

 25-1021	Computer Science Teachers, Postsecondary	32,990	(4)	(4)	$55,330	1.1 %
 25-1032	Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary	29,310	(4)	(4)	$73,100	1.3 %
 25-1052	Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary	17,670	(4)	(4)	$60,800	1.3 %
 25-1054	Physics Teachers, Postsecondary	11,940	(4)	(4)	$66,960	1.0 

Other Software and Engineering Roles

 15-1051	Computer Systems Analysts	467,750	$30.24	$31.20	$64,890	0.5 %
 15-1041	Computer Support Specialists	478,560	$18.80	$20.35	$42,320	0.5 %
 15-1061	Database Administrators	102,090	$26.68	$28.41	$59,080	0.5 %
 15-1071	Network and Computer Systems Administrators	232,560	$26.35	$27.70	$57,620	0.4 %
 15-1081	Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts	133,460	$28.09	$29.51	$61,390	0.6 %
 17-3011	Architectural and Civil Drafters	101,190	$17.95	$18.78	$39,060	0.6 %
 17-3012	Electrical and Electronics Drafters	35,470	$19.76	$21.16	$44,020	0.8 %
 17-3013	Mechanical Drafters	68,280	$19.58	$20.71	$43,080	0.9 %

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.

See also

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