Software development spans a large, international workforce, a fast-changing toolset, and a labor market that combines strong projected growth with uneven workplace conditions. The 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey gathered 65,437 responses from 185 countries, while U.S. government data counted about 1.7 million software developer jobs in 2024. Across developer surveys, artificial intelligence is already common, but trust, governance, and delivery outcomes remain mixed.
Contents
- Developer workforce and work arrangements
- Languages, platforms, and development tools
- AI adoption and developer expectations
- AI quality, productivity, and delivery outcomes
- Jobs, pay, and projected growth
- Teams, career backgrounds, and workplace conditions
Developer workforce and work arrangements
The 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey provides a broad view of who is participating in software development. Its 65,437 respondents came from 185 countries. The survey is not a census of every developer, but its scale makes it a useful snapshot of the international developer community. In the professional-developer section, 41% of respondents worked in the software development industry.
Work status was also broad. The 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey reported that 84% of respondents were working either part-time, freelancing, or full-time. In the same survey, 26% of all developers worked for a startup and 6% worked for a governmental organization. These figures describe respondents rather than the entire labor force, so they should be read as survey measurements.
Remote and hybrid work continued to shape the development workplace. Stack Overflow reported that 42% of developers worked in a hybrid environment in 2024. The share working in person was 20% in 2024, compared with 15% in 2022 and 16% in 2023. Those year-specific figures suggest a modest rise in in-person work in the survey period, although the categories and respondent mix should be kept in mind when comparing years.
The survey also recorded how developers participated in the research. A total of 48,019 respondents shared salary information, and 76.3% had a Stack Overflow account. This gives the survey substantial detail on compensation and community participation while still leaving different response counts for different questions.
Languages, platforms, and development tools
JavaScript remained prominent in the 2024 survey data. Stack Overflow reported that 62.3% of respondents had used JavaScript in the past year. The JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Report 2024 measured a closely related but different activity: 61% of developers worldwide used JavaScript to create web pages. The two percentages come from separate reports and should not be treated as a single combined estimate.
Developers also worked across several target platforms. According to the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Report 2024, 58% ran their code on browser platforms, 53% ran code on desktop platforms, and 30% ran code on mobile platforms. These categories can overlap because a developer may target more than one platform. Only 3% targeted blockchain functionality, while 18% were involved in building integrations with AI.
The 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey reported that 59% of professional developers used Docker. Among developers learning to code, 45% used npm. PostgreSQL was used by 49% of developers and was the most popular database for the second consecutive year in the survey. For language sentiment, Rust had an 83% admiration score and remained the most admired programming language. Among developers who used Svelte, 73% wanted to continue working with it.
| Indicator | Share or result | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| Used JavaScript in the past year | 62.3% | 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey |
| Used JavaScript to create web pages | 61% | JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Report 2024 |
| Ran code on browser platforms | 58% | JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Report 2024 |
| Professional developers using Docker | 59% | 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey |
| Developers using PostgreSQL | 49% | 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey |
| Rust admiration score | 83% | 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey |
AI adoption and developer expectations
AI-assisted development moved from experimentation toward regular use during the 2024 survey period. Stack Overflow reported that 76% of developers were using or planning to use AI tools in their development process, including 62% who were currently using them. The same source reported that 44% were currently using AI tools the previous year, indicating a substantial increase in current use across the two measurements.
The JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Report 2024 offers tool-specific figures. Sixty-nine percent of developers had tried ChatGPT for coding and development-related activities, and 49% used it regularly. GitHub Copilot had been tried by 40% of developers and was used regularly by 26%. Among ChatGPT users, 41% wanted to use GitHub Copilot the following year.
Organizational policy had not fully caught up with individual experimentation. JetBrains reported that almost 80% of companies either allowed third-party cloud AI tools or had no established policy. In contrast, 11% of organizations completely prohibited third-party cloud-based AI tools. The distinction matters: permission and the absence of a policy are not the same as widespread, governed adoption.
Developers expected AI use to expand across core activities. In the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 81% expected AI tools to be used more for documenting code the following year, 80% expected more use for testing code, and 76% expected more use for writing code. At the same time, 70% of professional developers did not perceive AI as a threat to their job. The data therefore points to adoption and practical integration more than a simple replacement narrative.
AI quality, productivity, and delivery outcomes
The 2024 DORA report measured both positive and negative associations with AI adoption. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said AI helped them improve their code, and 76% relied on AI for at least one daily professional responsibility. Yet 39% reported little to no trust in AI-generated code. These results describe different aspects of adoption: developers may use AI frequently while still requiring review and verification.
DORA also reported associations tied to a 25% increase in AI adoption. Documentation quality was associated with a 7.5% increase, code quality with a 3.4% increase, and code review speed with a 3.1% increase. Approval speed was associated with a 1.3% increase, while code complexity was associated with a 1.8% decrease. These are reported associations, not guarantees that a particular team will experience the same changes.
Delivery measures were less uniformly positive. AI adoption was associated with an estimated 1.5% decrease in delivery throughput and an estimated 7.2% reduction in delivery stability. The use of “estimated” is important because these figures are not direct forecasts for every software organization. They indicate that faster or better-supported tasks can coexist with broader delivery risks.
AI governance was also a strategic priority in the DORA results. Eighty-one percent of respondents said their company shifted resources into developing AI, and more than one-third experienced moderate to extreme productivity increases due to AI. Stack Overflow identified misinformation and disinformation in AI results as a top ethical concern for 79% of developers, while 65% named source attribution as a top ethical concern.
Jobs, pay, and projected growth
U.S. labor statistics show a large and expanding software employment base. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported about 1.7 million software developer jobs in 2024 and about 201,700 software quality assurance analyst and tester jobs. Most software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers worked full time.
For U.S. software developers, the median annual wage was $133,080 in May 2024. The lowest 10% earned less than $79,850, while the highest 10% earned more than $211,450. For software quality assurance analysts and testers, the median was $102,610; the lowest 10% earned less than $60,690, and the highest 10% earned more than $166,960. These are U.S. wage figures measured in May 2024, not worldwide developer salaries.
Industry made a measurable difference in software developer pay. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reported median annual wages of $149,990 in software publishing, $134,910 in manufacturing, $133,650 in management of companies and enterprises, $132,880 in finance and insurance, and $129,890 in computer systems design and related services in May 2024.
| U.S. employment measure | 2024 | 2034 or wage period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software developers | 1,693.8 thousand jobs | 1,961.4 thousand projected jobs in 2034 | BLS Skills data |
| Software developers | — | 15.8% projected growth, 2024–2034 | BLS Skills data |
| Software and web developers, programmers, and testers | 2,231.5 thousand jobs | 2,527.7 thousand projected jobs in 2034 | BLS Employment Projections |
| Software developer median wage | — | $133,080 in May 2024 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
The broader software and web developers, programmers, and testers occupation was projected to grow from 2,231.5 thousand jobs in 2024 to 2,527.7 thousand in 2034. BLS reported 296.1 thousand projected additional jobs, 13.3% projected growth, and an average of 149.2 annual openings over 2024–2034. The projected median annual wage for this broader occupation was $129,320 in 2024. For software developers specifically, the projection was from 1,693.8 thousand jobs in 2024 to 1,961.4 thousand in 2034, an increase of 267.7 thousand jobs and 15.8% growth.
Teams, career backgrounds, and workplace conditions
Software development often happens in relatively small groups. JetBrains reported that 50% of developers worked in teams of 2 to 7 people, while 88% worked in teams of fewer than 20 people. The same report found that 16% of companies had dedicated specialists responsible for developer productivity engineering and developer experience.
The developer workforce also includes people who changed fields. JetBrains reported that 22% of software developers had previously worked in different industries before entering software development. In most countries measured by the report, 40% to 50% of developers were aged 18 to 29. Women made up 6% of the tech workforce on average in the JetBrains 2024 survey. Stack Overflow likewise reported that the female developer share increased by 1 percentage point to 6% in 2024 after previously remaining at 5%.
Employment conditions varied across the survey evidence. JetBrains reported that 14% of companies experienced mass layoffs over the previous two years, while one-third faced small-scale downsizing. More than 50% of respondents were not directly impacted by layoffs, 30% felt indirect effects, and 16% lost their jobs over that period. Only 11% of developers said they felt insecure to some extent in their current job.
Perceptions of the local technology market also differed by country. In the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Report 2024, 60% of respondents in Germany rated their local tech job market as easy, compared with 58% in France, 54% in Japan, and 51% in Argentina. These country figures measure respondents’ perceptions of ease, not a standardized count of open roles or a guarantee of employment.
Finally, emerging interfaces remain a small but visible development area. JetBrains reported that 8% of developers had experimented with coding using virtual reality headsets. Nearly 50% were eager to try coding with a VR headset, while 18% experienced physical discomfort or health concerns related to prolonged VR coding use. The gap between curiosity and current experimentation illustrates how interest in a tool can exceed its established use.