Developer Survey:

Current & Future Trends

Evangelos Toumasatos
December 10, 2020
OUTLINE
• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Results
• Visualization – Charts
• Dashboard
• Discussion
• Findings & Implications
• Conclusion
• Appendix
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• Python, the fastest-growing major
programming language, has risen once
again, edging out both SQL and
PowerShell
• Over half of respondents had written
their first line of code by the time
they were sixteen, although this
experience varies by country and by
gender.
• Linux beats Windows to become the
most popular platform in the
upcoming year
INTRODUCTION
• Largest and most comprehensive
survey of people who code
around the world
• Topics range from favorite
technologies to job preferences
• Responders range from
professional developers to
coding enthusiasts
METHODOLOGY
• Results based on a survey of 11,398
software developers from 135 counties
around the world
• Approximately 100 more responses were
submitted but not included because
respondents spent less than three minutes
on the survey
• The survey was fielded from September 23
to October 14
• Median time for qualified responses was
23.3 minutes
• Respondents where recruited primarily
through channels owned by Stack Overflow
• The age group with the highest number of
responders ranges from 24 to 32
RESULTS
• Python, the fastest-growing major programming language, has risen
in the ranks of programming languages in our survey yet again,
edging out both SQL and PowerShell this year and standing as the
third most loved language (behind JavaScript and HTML/CSS).
• DevOps specialists and site reliability engineers are among the
highest paid, most experienced developers most satisfied with
their jobs, and are looking for new jobs at the lowest levels.
• Of the top countries on our survey, China has developers that are
the most optimistic, believing that people born today will have a
better life than their parents. Developers in Western European
countries like France and Germany are among the least optimistic
about the future.
• We asked respondents to think about the last time they solved
coding problems with and without our site. The data indicates
that Stack Overflow saves a developer 30 to 90 minutes of time
per week!
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE TRENDS
Current Year Next Year
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE TRENDS - FINDINGS &
IMPLICATIONS

Findings Implications

• JavaScript and HTML on • Technological maturity

top almost there
• Faster time-to-market,
• Python popularity
increase business speed,
increases improve competitiveness
• The year of TypeScript • Facebook already moved
Jest from Flow to
TypeScript
DATABASE TRENDS
Current Year Next Year
DATABASE TRENDS - FINDINGS & IMPLICATIONS

Findings Implications

• Many communities are

• MySQL drops to fourth switching to PostgreSQL
place • Bright future for MongoDB
• MongoDB and Redis compared to other NoSQL
rises to second and engines
third place • Developers working with
Redis are very pleased with
• PostgreSQL being the the product, both in terms
new trend of capabilities and
performance
PLATFORMS TRENDS
Current Year Next Year
WEB FRAMEWORKS TRENDS
Current Year Next Year
DATABASE TRENDS - FINDINGS & IMPLICATIONS

Findings Implications

• Many communities are

• MySQL drops to fourth switching to PostgreSQL
place • Bright future for MongoDB
• MongoDB and Redis compared to other NoSQL
rises to second and engines
third place • Developers working with
Redis are very pleased with
• PostgreSQL being the the product, both in terms
new trend of capabilities and
performance
DASHBOARD

https://
dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com/dashboards/48e
8d794-b04c-417a-8412-4a14c3ec8bf7/view/4e
39bc7b66af3ef45fd0b5e4079d7e572c362158b6b
bd051d6857b4906317497a86b4790c87c4a0f8945
5767fabe475ace
CURRENT TECHNOLOGY USAGE
FUTURE TECHNOLOGY USAGE
Demographics
DISCUSSION
OVERALL FINDINGS & IMPLICATIONS
Findings Implications

• Expect more developers and

• Python and PostgreSQL businesses to join the
are here to stay Python-mania
• Developers say yes to • Reliability and Scalability
Linux leting Windows brings Linux on top
fall in third place • Increase popularity of Data
Analytics and Data Science
• The majority of university programs
developers have at
least a Bachelor degree
CONCLUSION
• JavaScript on top once more
• SQL is expected to fall in
third place
• Databases on the rise:
PostgreSQL, MongoDB and Redis
• Linux beats Windows in
popularity
• React.JS’s popularity
increases
APPENDIX
HOURS SPEND ON CODE REVIEW BY WEEKLY HOURS AND AGE
GITHUB JOB POSTINGS

GITHUB Job Postings

PostgreSQLMongoDB 0
MySQL Server 2
Oracle 4
SQL Server 11
C# 14
Technology

Python 39
Scala 45
JavaScript 56
Java 85
C++ 167
C 167
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Number of Postings
POPULAR LANGUAGES

Average Annual Salary

PHP

SQL

C#

R
Technology

Go

Java

Javascript

C++

Python

Swift

$- $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 $120,000 $140,000