SlashData’s Developer Nation survey is the leading developer research programme on mobile, desktop, industrial IoT, consumer electronics, embedded, third-party app ecosystems, cloud, web, game, AR/VR and machine learning technologies, as well as data scientists, researching developers’ experiences across platforms, technologies, programming languages, applications and API categories, revenue models, segments, and regions.
The Pulse report is based on data from our 23rd Developer Nation global survey wave, which ran from June to August 2022 and reached more than 26,000 developers in 163 countries. It delves into key developer trends for Q3 2022 and beyond.

The proliferation of the internet empowered people all over the world to learn programming with a plethora of online tutorials, both free and paid. Our survey spans over 26000 developers from 163 countries and found that most developers in the survey participated from North America at 19.7%, followed closely by Western Europe and Israel at 18.6% , 12.3% from South Asia and 10.2% from East Asia (Greater China region).

Although the representation of participants who self-identified as female has seen some increase compared to our previous survey wave (17.4%) to reach 21%, there is still a lot of room for improvement in representation, as participants self-identified as male, accounted for 78.3% of the total number. We can see increasingly more corporate initiatives supporting women in tech, providing them with more options and creating opportunities.. Nevertheless, , there is still a lot to be done to encourage  females opting in technology-related courses to help improve gender inclusivity and representation at the workplace. 

There appears to be a lot of action in the 25-34 age bracket leading, with 34.9% of developers residing in this age group, followed by the young and energetic 18-24 age range with 29.5%. The metaverse, gaming, and other emerging technologies could be fuelling the leap of 18-24 age developers at the second spot. With seniority, we can see the developers dropping off with just 19.7% in the 35-44 age bracket, followed by the 45-54 age developers with single-digit figures at 9.11% with probable niche programming language skills.

Professional developers are keeping up to date with technology, and that is visible, with the highest 42.3% getting involved in software development and learning both as a professional and as a hobby. Learning as a professional is at 28%, which shows the developers acting on the need to learn on the job with fast-changing technology. The students' category is 10.5%, and the hobbyist-only type stands at 10.2%. Meanwhile, the 'Hobbyist & student-only’ category accounts for 9.05%.

The developer involvement roles as a professional and hobbyist account for the highest 42.3%, which could stem from their enthusiasm for technology and a need to learn on the job to stay up to date for better career options. Career prospects probably drive working professionals to the next highest level at 28%. In contrast, the student and pure tech hobbyists trail at 10.5% or less as they might have different goals, for ex: Learning coding just so you can automate your home appliances to make them smart.

The Developer experience mix shows 6+ years’ experience leading at 37.4% while 3-5 years’ experience follows near at 25%. There is also a high number of young and enthusiastic developers gaining rich experience in the 1-2-year experience range at 19% and the freshers with less than a year’s experience following very closely at 18.6%. Emerging technologies like IoT, Blockchain, Web3, and AI/ML generating new and promising  career opportunities might be attracting youngsters to technology.

With a lot of online discussion forums and the availability of programming content, the influx of self-taught developers are on a rise, now comprising 50.1% of the global developer population. Online course mode follows closely with 48.8%. There is a substantial talent spike visible with self-taught and online course learners who are able to learn and perform without a formalised coaching methodology. Academic studies on an undergraduate level computing degree fall in third place with 37.7% while post-graduate studies are even more rare.

The top developer roles follow a pyramid structure, with programmers forming the majority at 43.2%. Digital transformation and emerging technologies have significantly raised the demand for developer roles. Newer technologies are leading to increasing demand for varied developer skill sets. Computer and Data Science students are at 15.1%, followed by the team leads and architects, hovering at 9.64% and 9.15%, respectively. The C-level roles, including IT Managers, meanwhile form the top of the pyramid with 8.38%.

Developers are leveraging open source project opportunities. Learning to code better is the top motivator for developers, with 37.6% stating it as a reason for their contributions to open-source software projects. Developers who use the software and want to improve it stand at 28.6%. There is also a significant 25.8% who do not contribute to open-source projects. 21.5% of developers perceive their contributions to open source projects as something bigger than their individual coding efforts while happily for 20.3% the primary motivation is  getting their code reviewed by knowledgeable people, thus enabling collaborative coding and better quality of software being shipped.

The developer community seems to get a decent salary globally. Fresh developers typically have a lower salary commensurate with their geography. A higher number of developers (21.7%) fall in a higher income rank of $50k-100k, while the second spot of 15.9% comprises the lowest income rank of 1k-10k income The median slabs of $30k-50k have 14.9%, while the highest income rank of 100k-200k has a robust 12.4% showcasing good prospects in an IT career.

The highest number of developers comprising 26.8%, work in mid-size organisations with a staff size of 51-500 employees, followed by 17.8% in large organisations with 500-5000 employees. Innovation abounds with emerging technologies and is visible with solopreneurs, individual developers, or freelancers at 12.6%, which could be a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in remote working. Developers working in smaller organisations or start-ups of 6-20 people is at 11.7, and 2-5 staff is at 9.72%.

Agile development methodologies have led to smaller team sizes, and one can see 18.2% working in 2-5 member teams followed by 12.5% in 6-10-member size teams. We also have large team sizes of 12% prevalent, which could be support and maintenance teams in the 21-50 people teams and 11.3% in smaller teams of 11-20 people. Individual contributors sit at 10.6%.

A massive 58.4% of developers work on scripting languages like JavaScript and TypeScript, followed by 50.3% on Python. It clearly shows the demand in web applications where the preference is for scripting languages, making coding simpler and faster. Java usage is very close at 49.1%, being a mature and preferred language for finance and banking applications. OOPs based C++ continues to demonstrate its popularity today with 31.6% of developers using it. 29.6% of developers use C#, which could be, because of its close ties with the Gaming community such as the Unity framework.

Read more about the Programming Languages popularity and usage in this blog post : A saga of Programming Language : Update

Technology is changing rapidly today more than ever before, and developers acknowledge the need to stay on top of things. AI-assisted software development has the highest interest among the developer community, with 61.5%, followed by Robotics, with 56.8%. Blockchain DApps generate 52.9% interest, while cryptocurrencies and self-driving cars topics are popular at 51.9% and 51.7%. Emerging technologies are leading to disruptive business models, and the developer community seems ready to swiftly learn and adopt them.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) sales figures in millions of dollars, ownership of data, swift money transfer across globe without involving central bank institutions seems to have persuaded the developers involved with NFTs to work  in related technologies like cryptocurrencies at 55.6%, being the highest, followed by 45.5% working on blockchain apps which is similar.Developers’ interest in the Metaverse is at a whopping 37.5%. 5G has 32.7% of developers interested, while AI-assisted software development has a lower 30.7% interest.

We discussed the State of Metaverse and NFT with our web3 panels of expert, which you can check in this video: https://youtu.be/wjDN8nNh4Co

At 45.2%, cryptocurrencies lead the Metaverse developers' interest, followed by those working on Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at 39.2%. Interest in cryptocurrency could be due to trading and investment potential or spike in demand for smart-contract developers. The third place is 38.7% for developers' interest in non-cryptocurrency-related blockchain apps. AI-assisted software development is at 33.7%, and the telecom side 5G is at 33.4%.

NFT developers show the highest interest (39.6%) in the Metaverse, a 3D virtual space where one can trade using cryptocurrency and buy property or ad-boards as NFTs. Robotics follows in second place at 35.7%. Quantum computing is a rapidly-emerging technology. It harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics for solving problems that are complex for classic computers, and 34.1% of developers prefer it. 33.6% of developers learn about Self-driving cars, while the lowest 32.1% relate to blockchain apps excluding cryptocurrency.

Metaverse is generating a lot of interest globally. Developers working on the Metaverse are also learning most about Quantum computing at 35.5%, followed by Robotics at 32.1%. Other emerging technologies also catch the Metaverse developers’ interest, like Self-driving cars at 31.9%, 5G at 31.8% and AI-assisted software development at 30.0%. The Metaverse developers seem to have a more balanced interest in learning most subjects, with interest levels ranging between 30-32%. 

Developers in North America lead the learning about the Metaverse at a solid 24.9%. However, developers from other geographies show a lower interest, with 14.7% in Western Europe & Israel, followed closely by 14.6% from the Middle East and Africa. The developers from East Asia are showing a lesser interest, with just 12.5%, while South Asia is the lowest, with the Metaverse learners at 11.9% which could probably rise soon.

Augmented reality (AR)/ Virtual reality (VR) solutions in businesses are increasingly getting web-based, and scripting languages like JavaScript lead usage with 31.7%.The availability of mature AR/VR libraries is leading the adoption.  Java , is in second place, with 31% of developers using it. Python is also popular and follows in third place with a good 30.8% usage. The importance of C++ today continues in its usage at 29.1%, while C# usage is the lowest at 26.9%.

Business needs vary a lot, and with increasing use cases, AR/VR practitioners are primarily involved in building AR/VR apps and components, with its usage at 38.8%. In the second place, creating AR/VR content follows closely at 35.6% usage. Developers using and updating AR/VR apps is at 31.4%. Integration capabilities add AR/VR functionality to apps at 30.1%. The lowest usage, as per the survey, is for Building AR/VR components and assets at 29.4%

AR/VR projects are widely in use in Game engines at 30.8% and so does the use of 3D modelling, scanning and rendering software in AR/VR, which is equally popular at 30.8%. 3D animation software usage is at 28%, while AR/VR SDKs or engines follow at 26.2% and designer tools like Adobe and others use them lowest at 20.9%.

DevOps improves productivity and helps in quicker releases. 56.1% of the developers use continuous integration, the highest involvement in DevOps. Monitoring software and infrastructure performance are second at 43.7 while approving code deployments to production; a critical role is at 39.4%. Provisioning IT infrastructures is at 32.4%, and roles involving the creation of automated regression tests are lowest at 29.9%.

DevOps implementation witnesses more instrumental action from the programmers and software developer community with a 45.6% involvement, while the supervisory roles reflect the participation of less than 12% with Tech/engineering team leads at 11.2%, architects involvement at 10.7% and the C-level CIO/CTO and IT management roles at the lowest 10%. Computer and data science students show some practical learning involvement with 13.3%.

Developer Nation is the community behind the independent developer research program powered by SlashData. It’s a global developer community helping software creators set the right foundations for their career, learn how they stack up against emerging software development trends, get tips and discover opportunities for professional growth as well as plan wisely their next moves. Each year we engage over 30,000 developers from more than 165 countries. 

The community is currently 175k+ developers strong, keeping its promise to help software creators grow throughout their coding journey and be their best. The way we achieve this mission is by bringing engaging and exceptional content and resources to our community members including blog posts, webinars, workshops, video streams, Pulse reports like this and other developer research reports, resources and tools being worked on. We also partner with tech companies, organisations, communities etc to bring collaborative resources helping developers learn and master new skills and take their career to the next level.

By participating in the Developer Nation survey you help us and our partners bring you the best developer experience across a wide variety of tools, technologies and platforms that you use on a daily basis. The insight you provide gets to eventually shape an overall optimised developer ecosystem.

There are tons of amazing prizes to be won including but not limited to Thinkpad laptops, iPad Air, Subscription to your favourite tools and by participating in the survey you also help us support the causes that you care about by donating to organisations such as Women Who Code, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Ocean Cleanup project etc. You can read all about our Donation Program in this blog post.

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