Software engineering demographics

There are many software engineers. Canada, the European Union, Japan, and Australia will probably find corresponding numbers of SE practitioners.

European Union 

India

There has been a healthy growth in the number of India's IT professionals over the past few years. 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.

Japan

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

This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (November 2010)

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.

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 two 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
[edit]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) oversea 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. 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.

(source:wikipedia)