Web Development Statistics (How Many Web Developers Are There?)
Are you interested in knowing about the latest web development statistics?
We will answer many questions, revealing all the ins and outs so you can learn more about the web development industry.
Maybe you’re considering becoming a web developer or starting a web development agency?
That’s when these stats will come in handy, helping you make the final decision.
But we’ll answer the most common question, “Are web developers still in demand?”
Yes, they are.
This post covers:
- How Many Web Developers Are There?
- How Much Is The Web Development Market Worth?
- How Much Does Web Development Cost?
- Which Language Is Best For Web Development?
- What Does Good Web Development Mean?
- General Web Development Stats
Before continuing, we also already explained the difference between a web designer and a web developer – because we often get that question.
Web Development Statistics (Our Top Picks)
- There are 27.7 million web developers globally
- Asia has 6.5 million, and the US has 4.4 million developers
- 81.7% of developers are male and 17.4% female
- Most developers are aged between 25 and 34
- 63.8% of all developers are self-taught
- An average developer’s salary in the United States is around $75,800 per year
- JavaScript, HTML and CSS are still the most popular programming languages
- 13.3% say that HTML is the easiest programming language to learn
How Many Web Developers Are There?
The global number of software and web developers globally is continuously on the rise, with the most rapid growth in the future expected in China. China experiences a 6-8% percent growth
Year | Number of developers in millions |
2024 | 28.7 |
2023 | 27.7 |
2021 | 25.6 |
2020 | 24.5 |
2019 | 23.9 |
2018 | 23 |
Remember, besides Statista, we also found another resource (Developer Nation), estimating a much higher number of total developers – 31.1 million in Q1 2022.
Resource: Statista
How Many Web Developers Are In The US?
The United States still has one of the largest populations (except Asia, which has 6.5+ million talent) of developers and programmers, at approximately 4.4 million.
Most developers are in California, followed by Texas in second and New York in third place. These are also the three regions with the most software developer job offerings.
Location | Number of developers |
California | 628,414 |
Texas | 324,717 |
New York | 218,041 |
Virginia | 204,699 |
Washington | 143,971 |
Massachusetts | 141,755 |
Oregon | 52,800 |
District of Columbia | 26,749 |
New Hampshire | 26,359 |
Vermont | 6,896 |
After reviewing multiple research and investigating various surveys, it’s safe to say that the number of web developers is continuously rising all over the US.
According to Qubit, the US has around 1.3+ million developer jobs, expected to increase by 280,000+ by 2028.
The employment rate in the United States was 60.20% in February 2023.
How Many Web Developers Are There Globally?
It goes without surprise that India has the highest demand for web and software developers.
One of the reasons is likely that many global organizations and small businesses are outsourcing the programming work to India, where the talent is cheaper (but not the cheapest).
Country | Number of developers |
India | 5.8 million |
Germany | 901,000 |
UK | 408,000 |
Vietnam | 350,000 |
Poland | 250,000 |
Mexico | 223,000 |
Ukraine | 212,000 |
Singapore | 200,000 |
Sweden | 180,000 |
Argentina | 134,000 |
Source: Trading Economics, Qubit, Evans Data
Web Developers By Gender
The majority of developers are still men, while women programmers are dropping.
- 81.7% of developers are male
- 17.4% of developers are female
However, more and more companies and organizations are seeking female web developers, so we can expect the percentage to increase in the future.
Web Developers By Age
As you can see from the list below, most (nearly 65%) of male and female web developers are aged 34 and below.
But there’s still a pretty significant number of programmers between the ages of 35-44.
- 2.89% (under 18)
- 29.9% (18-24)
- 31.9% (25-34)
- 21.3%(35-44)
- 9.43% (45-54)
The big drop for ages 45 and above is due to various reasons, including burnout, health issues, job changes, etc.
How many web developers are self-taught?
Thanks to all the amazing free online resources, a whopping 63.8% of all web developers are self-taught.
- 63.8% (self-taught using online/offline resources)
- 41.1% (schooled traditionally – undergraduate)
- 36.5% (schooled online using courses (Udemy, Coursera, etc.))
- 30.1% (received training on the job)
- 18% (schooled traditionally – postgraduate)
Because software, applications, websites and anything else in between requiring a developer is on the rise, more and more men and women decide to learn programming skills by themselves.
Source: Developer Nation
How Much Do Web Developers Earn
An average salary across all job titles in the United States is around $75,800 annually. It varies from $45k+ being the lowest and $125k+ being the highest.
Remember that the numbers can vary because stats are taken from different resources (different companies). While they aren’t necessarily significantly lower, they can be considerably higher.
For instance, according to SalaryExpert, the average US salary of a web developer is $89,700/year.
Some of the top-paying companies in the US are BlueModus ($119,640/year), LiveView Technologies ($115,730/year), Beast Code ($115,229/year), Ledgent Technology ($110,345/year) and Pueo Business Solutions ($109,277/year).
Moreover, the more years of experience a web developer has, the higher the salary.
Years of experience | Salary per year |
<1 year | $68,201 |
6-9 years | $88,533 |
10+ years | $96,474 |
Furthermore, a back-end developer (approx. $155K/year) will earn significantly more than a front-end developer (approx. $103K/year) and even a full-stack developer (approx. $117K/year).
How much are average developer salaries around the world?
We chose the top ten countries with the most web developers to see what are their average wages.
Country | Average salary |
India | $20,000+ |
Germany | $83,000+ |
UK | $69,000+ |
Vietnam | $23,800+ |
Poland | $37,100+ |
Mexico | $25,200+ |
Ukraine | $16,600+ |
Singapore | $74,300+ |
Sweden | $58,900+ |
Argentina | $18,900+ |
As we can see from the above table, India isn’t the country with the lowest salary, but it’s, surprisingly, Ukraine, followed by Argentina.
Source: Indeed, SalaryExpert
How much are average salaries based on job titles?
Job title | Average salary |
Web developer | $62,700+ |
Front end developer/engineer | $82,300+ |
Senior web developer | $89,700+ |
Web application developer | $70,800+ |
Software engineer | $87,700+ |
Full stack software developer | $80,500+ |
Lead web developer | $82,900+ |
In the Stack Overflow survey, we also found that 68,61% of coders are employed full-time and only 14.95% are either self-employed, freelancers or contractors.
Source: PayScale
Are Web Developers Coding Outside Of Work?
Yes, most coders also code outside of work; 72.87% say they do it as a hobby, 26.11% contribute to open-source projects and 22.59% work on freelance or contract projects.
Only 12.41% of developers don’t code when not at work.
How Much Is The Web Development Market Worth?
The global web development market worth was estimated at $56 billion in 2021, expected to reach $89+ billion by 2027. This is another excellent proof that web development is in high demand.
Moreover, the global programming language market was evaluated at $154 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $343 billion by 2029.
Source: Market Growth Reports, MMR
Website Builder Market Size
While we already have an in-depth overview of the website builder market share, here’s a quick recap: It was valued at $1.8 billion in 2022, expected to surpass the $3.5 billion milestone in the next decade.
How Much Does Web Development Cost?
There’s no general cost for web development because it all depends on the complexity of the projects and what software is necessary to make it happen.
Also, building a simple personal blog is way easier and faster than making a corporate website or an online store.
Remember, a single person can create a blog, but it usually takes an entire team or an agency to design and develop a more complex web application.
However, it can all begin at around $1,000.
What Factors Impact The Cost Of Web Development?
Because every type of website requires a different number of hours to complete, Spload created a table for us to understand it better.
Note: The average hourly rate is $60/hour.
Website type | Cost |
Landing page | $5,000 |
Online portfolio | $6,000 |
Blog | $7,000 |
Corporate site | $10,000 |
Directory | $17,000 |
eCommerce/online store | $60,000 |
Educational website | $60,000 |
Marketplace | $73,000 |
SaaS website | $75,000 |
Social media page | $120,000 |
Remember, these are web development costs of building projects from scratch. For example, building a blog on WordPress (even if hiring someone to do it for you) will be significantly cheaper.
By the way, have you already checked our WordPress statistics? (More than 40% of all sites use it!)
Source: Spdload
Why Hire A Web Developer (Freelancer Or Agency)?
Time
One of the main reasons for hiring a professional, regardless of the project you’re after, is to save time.
Yup, designing and developing stuff on the web takes time. And it takes even more time if you’re unfamiliar with the programming languages, even WordPress.
Sure, the later is extremely beginner-friendly, but if you’ve never seen what the WP admin looks like, you first need to get comfortable with it. The same goes for installing themes, plugins, making customizations, etc. (It’s not challenging but can be time-consuming.)
Skills & experience
The second reason, as we roughly mentioned above, is the lack of skills and experience. Building custom designs or adding custom functionality to your website (even if it’s only a blog) may require advanced knowledge beyond your capabilities.
New tech
The third reason would be new technologies. If you’re not a web developer, you’re not up-to-date with the latest software, technologies, or even what’s working best when adding new features or a website.
UX
The fourth reason to employ a web developer is modernism, excellent optimization and the best user experience, which are all necessary for the success of your online project.
Support
The fifth reason is support. Unfortunately, building anything online is not a set-it-and-forget-it situation. And when something goes wrong, and you’re unsure about what to do, you may run into even more inconvenience. But you can always rely on the professional, seeking assistance to solve the issue as soon as possible.
How Long Does It Take To Develop A Website?
According to Spdload, developing a website can take from 80 hours and anywhere to 2000 hours. This goes for building a website from scratch and without doing industry and competition research.
But the length should be drastically lowered when using web builders because of the ready-to-use page templates, tools and features that require no coding to assemble.
Still, this doesn’t mean there will be 0 programming involved because a professional can still perform specific tweaks unique to a project.
You may also be interested in our ultimate guide on how to make a website (that doesn’t require hiring a professional).
What Does A Web Developer Do?
A web developer builds web applications, like websites, landing pages, templates, plugins, etc.
But there are two types of developers, front- and back-end.
A front-end developer is a person who deals with the stuff that you can “see” – the visual part of a website.
And a back-end developer is a person who takes care of the stuff you cannot “see” – the technical part of a website.
What’s also important to note is that many web developers do both front- and back-end. That would be a full-stack developer.
However, the truly best are the ones who specialize in one segment.
Which Language Is Best For Web Development?
According to a survey with 71k+ responses, JavaScript is still the most popular programming language of all, at 65.36%. The second is HTML/CSS at 55.08% and the third is SQL at 49.43%.
Keep in mind that a web developer usually knows at least three of the fundamental (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) languages, if not more.
The 10 Most Popular Programming Languages
Programming language | Popularity in % |
JavaScript | 65.36 |
HTML/CSS | 55.08 |
SQL | 49.43 |
Python | 48.07 |
TypeScript | 34.83 |
Java | 33.27 |
Bash/Shell | 29.07 |
C# | 27.98 |
C++ | 22.55 |
PHP | 20.87 |
Is It Difficult To Learn HTML?
No, HTML is one of the easiest, if not the easiest, programming languages to learn. And numbers don’t lie, thanks to a survey done by WPEngine.
Programming language | How many think it’s easy to learn? |
HTML | 13.3% |
Python | 9% |
JavaScript | 6.2% |
PHP | 4.9% |
Java | 4.6% |
What Software Do Web Developers Use?
The Stack Overflow survey found that npm, Docker, Git, Unity 3D, Yarn, .NET, Sublime Text and Jira Work Management are some of web developers’ more popular tools and solutions.
Most Popular Databases
MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite are the most popular databases among 63,000+ surveyed developers.
Database | Popularity in % |
MySQL | 46.85 |
PostgreSQL | 43.59 |
SQLite | 32.01 |
MongoDB | 28.3 |
Microsoft SQL Server | 26.87 |
Redis | 22.13 |
MariaDB | 17.93 |
Elasticsearch | 12.21 |
Oracle | 11.49 |
Firebase Realtime Database | 8.72 |
What’s more, coders prefer AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud as the three most common cloud platforms for work.
5 Most Popular Frameworks And Technologies
The following table is a result of 58,000+ responses.
Web framework | Popularity in % |
Node.js | 47.12 |
React.js | 42.62 |
jQuery | 28.57 |
Express | 22.99 |
Angular | 20.39 |
There are twenty more you can study further in the Stack Overflow survey.
Do Web Developers Prefer Windows, macOS, Or Linux?
Windows is still the most widespread operating system among 71,000+ coders, whether for professional or personal use.
Operating system | Popularity in % |
Windows | 48.82 |
Linux-based | 39.89 |
macOS | 32.97 |
Which Version Control Platform Do Coders Prefer?
The three Version Control platforms below are the most opted for for personal and professional use.
Version Control platform | Popularity in % |
GitHub | 55.93 |
GitLab | 28.9 |
Bitbucket | 18.42 |
Source: WPEngine, Stack Overflow
What Does Good Web Development Mean?
Good web development ensures that a web application has top-notch back-end and front-end.
But let’s have a closer look at three of the more important factors that make good web development really GOOD.
Lightweight Web Applications
One of the essential characteristics of any web development is a lightweight final product. This means no bloat, unnecessary code, scripts and anything else that may contribute to a poor user experience.
A light web app will also have an organized structure, making everything easy to access, which is handy when performing optimizations, improvements or bug fixes.
It also ensures that everyone can understand it, even if a new developer takes over.
Page Speed Statistics
We’ll only mention some of our top picks because we already have a comprehensive article written on site speed statistics.
Good web development means amazing performance, which is also how fast the website loads. Sites must load within a three-second framework, but online stores must load even quicker (preferably in less than 2 seconds).
However, a survey reported that 30% of all surveyed said they are willing to wait from six to ten seconds for a website to load.
But remember, increasing the loading speed just by 0.1 seconds can improve conversions by 8.4%.
Mobile-First Web Development
Everything online must be responsive, so there’s no good web development without mobile-friendliness.
Why?
Because more than half of all the web traffic is mobile.
Statista reported that in the fourth quarter of 2022, mobile traffic spiked to 59.16%. But there are still industries where users prefer desktop over mobile.
If you’re a (soon-to-be) developer, you may also want to check these fantastic tools for responsive web design.
Source: Statista
General Web Development Stats
Let’s quickly look at some of the more general web development-related statistics.
But if you’re interested in learning more, then check out our complete insight into website statistics.
Web Usage Statistics
In January 2023, Statista reported 5.16 billion internet users globally, most of them being social media users.
Mobile Web Statistics
As mentioned above, 59.16% of all web traffic was mobile users in Q4 2022. It’s an expected increase because most sales happen online in the year’s final quarter.
Web Browser Statistics
Chrome (64.1%) is still the most popular web browser, followed by Safari (19.2%) in second and Edge (4.2%) in third position.
How Many Websites Are There?
Even though there are reported to be a WOWing 1.1 bullion websites, “only” 199 million are actively running. And most of all domains (21.6%) are “located” in the USA – 136.3 million.
Since we’re on the topic of sites, get a dose of the best developer portfolios if you need inspiration.
Source: Statista
Conclusion
This wraps it up; you now have a broader understanding of web development.
It’s an industry on the rise, which is no surprise due to the growing use of the internet – especially mobile traffic.
You may also be interested in our web design statistics to see if there are any similarities with development. But all the graphic design stats we gathered are also a must-check.
Are you a web developer or a soon-to-be one? Does any of the stats relate to you? Which is your favorite programming language?
Feel free to leave a comment below.
Hi. I would appreciate if you don’t lump software developers in with web developers. I don’t associate with those folks.