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Idc Study Counts the World's Developers: 11 Million Pros


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A room full of developers.

IDC's 2014 Worldwide Software Developer and ICT-Skilled Worker Estimates has found there are about 18.5 million software developers in the world, including about 7.5 million hobbyists.

Credit: Samsung

The total number of software developers in the world is about 18.5 million, and about 7.5 million are hobbyists, according to IDC's 2014 Worldwide Software Developer and ICT-Skilled Worker Estimates.

Hobbyists are defined as people who build software in their spare time for personal entertainment, a group that can include student developers, contributors to free and open source projects, unfunded entrepreneurs, part-timers, and other full-time knowledge workers.

IDC puts the number of ICT-skilled workers at 29 million, a number that includes professional developers and 18 million operations and management skilled workers. The United States leads the way with 19 percent of the world's software developers, while 10 percent and 9.8 percent live in China and India, respectively. India has more professionals, while China has more hobbyists.

The number of developers and ICT-skilled workers should grow over the next couple of years, with most occurring in the developer population due to cloud and mobile trends. IDC says the mobile revolution should boost the growth of the hobbyist developer population.

From Application Development Trends
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Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

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