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StevenPG
StevenPG

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Developer Distributions in the US - Observations

Like many developers, there are plenty of places around the web that I use to keep up to date with current trends in Software. Sometimes I spend some of that time helping new developers and recent college graduates with what one would expect; resumes, job advice, etc.

In some of these forums, there is a distinct West Coast (San Francisco, Silicon Valley, etc) bias, with students and developers in the northeast or midwest concerned with things like salary numbers and total comp when comparing to these west coast pockets.

I set out to see just how many developers are in California and are they in the majority?

State Developers % of Total
CALIFORNIA 628414 15.02%
TEXAS 324717 7.76%
NEW YORK 218041 5.21%
VIRGINIA 204699 4.89%
ILLINOIS 186426 4.45%
FLORIDA 181314 4.33%
NEW JERSEY 162977 3.89%
PENNSYLVANIA 152900 3.65%
MARYLAND 147430 3.52%
WASHINGTON 143971 3.44%
MASSACHUSETTS 141755 3.39%
OHIO 136615 3.26%
GEORGIA 129145 3.09%
NORTH CAROLINA 125937 3.01%
MICHIGAN 115359 2.76%
COLORADO 107423 2.57%
MINNESOTA 94211 2.25%
ARIZONA 75685 1.81%
MISSOURI 73757 1.76%
WISCONSIN 72878 1.74%
INDIANA 56862 1.36%
TENNESSEE 54123 1.29%
CONNECTICUT 53543 1.28%
OREGON 52800 1.26%
UTAH 43842 1.05%
ALABAMA 42665 1.02%
SOUTH CAROLINA 42587 1.02%
KANSAS 38170 0.91%
IOWA 36552 0.87%
KENTUCKY 32262 0.77%
OKLAHOMA 27026 0.65%
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 26749 0.64%
NEW HAMPSHIRE 26359 0.63%
LOUISIANA 24641 0.59%
ARKANSAS 22878 0.55%
NEVADA 21314 0.51%
NEBRASKA 20755 0.50%
NEW MEXICO 18210 0.44%
IDAHO 16135 0.39%
DELAWARE 15759 0.38%
WEST VIRGINIA 12037 0.29%
MISSISSIPPI 11845 0.28%
RHODE ISLAND 11370 0.27%
HAWAII 10961 0.26%
MAINE 10758 0.26%
VERMONT 6896 0.16%
SOUTH DAKOTA 6709 0.16%
NORTH DAKOTA 6306 0.15%
MONTANA 5848 0.14%
ALASKA 3257 0.08%
WYOMING 2241 0.05%

While California is the largest state for developers, collections of smaller states make up a similar percentage of total developers. We can group some of these together into region-based groups to see a clearer picture.

General Area Total Percentage of Developers States Included
Northeast 23.29% Maine, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, DC
West Coast 24.76% Alaska California Colorado Hawaii Idaho Montana Nevada Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming
Midwest 20.18% Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin
Southeast 21.13% Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Southwest 10.65% Arizona New Mexico Texas Oklahoma

The takeaway here is while to some it may feel like there is a majority of developers in California, regionally the distribution is fairly even.

Sources (https://i.pinimg.com/564x/33/e1/97/33e197b4295db9024fbd4d380023f609.jpg, https://dqydj.com/number-of-developers-in-america-and-per-state, https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/number-software-developers-world)

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