Software engineering demographics |
There are a lot of software engineers.
Canada, the European Union, Japan, Israel, and Australia will probably find corresponding numbers of SE practitioners.
European Union
Where can one find data?
http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm
India
Where can one find data?
Japan
Where can one find data?
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
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. The following data comes from the following web
pages.
| 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 2 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
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) oversee 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. It is also worth noting that 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.
See also
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