Developer Distributions in the US - Observations
Tags: data
Published: 2020-06-21 13:23:17

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?

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|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)