Software Development Statistics for 2024: Trends and Insights 

Technology has become an integral part of our lives whether it’s simple apps that live on your phone to complex enterprise systems that shape various industries.  

Gone are the times when you used to call software development an industry. 

In modern times, it’s now an ecosystem that drives innovation, transforms businesses, and provides an opportunity for individuals and businesses to grow.  

The advent of emerging technologies such as cloud and AI integration just changed the way companies create and deploy software.  

Software development has become the HEART of businesses without which they would never create innovative products and services.  

In this blog, we’ll uncover the latest software development statistics that you should know in 2024. 

Software development Statistics by editorial choice  

1. The population of software developers globally is increasing day by day. The global developer population in 2024 is 28.47 million people. 

In 2020, this number was just 24.5 million which means the growth of software developers has increased significantly. Moreover, the software development industry offers a promising future because of rapid technological advancements. 

Thus, it’s a lucrative high-paying career that is attracting a pool of candidates globally. 

2. Nearly 84.7 % of the development projects that software developers deal with are related to enterprise applications.  

While 53.6% of software development projects are related to business automation and the rest 38.5% fall in the e-commerce category.  

3. 70% of software developers feel productive or more productive when they work remotely.  

When software engineers work remotely, they become happier, save a significant amount of time and money, and focus solely on their work with fewer distractions. 

4. The average cost of a software development project ranges between $3,000 -$150,000.  

The cost varies with the complexity of the software, the number of features and functionalities, the size of the development team, and the location of developers. 

5. Complex software development can go around $1 trillion.  

6. According to Grandview business research, the global size of the software development market was USD 474.61 billion in 2020. Automation of business processes increases the growth of business software and services.  

7. JavaScript is the most popular programming language used among software developers. In a stack overflow survey conducted in 2023, 65.82% of professionals reported that they have been using JavaScript. 

8. 24% of businesses prefer to outsource their software development projects. Businesses engage in software outsourcing development model to achieve cost savings, access to top-notch talent and focus on their core business activities.  

Generally, 3 out of 5 organizations outsource their app development projects to vendors.  

9. The size of the IT services outsourcing market has reached USD 668.95 billion in 2024 and it’s expected to reach USD 1.06 trillion in 2030.  

As a result, businesses spent $519 billion on IT outsourcing in 2023 which was $700 billion in 2022. 

10. The median salary of an experienced software developer is $107,790.  

An overview of the software development market  

11. Around 84.70% of companies are proficient in developing high quality enterprise app development solutions for clients. 

12. 38.5% of the software developers are involved in Front-end and back-end web app development for e-commerce projects. 

13. 15.40% of companies specialize in creating customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions.  

It means that businesses are looking for more software development players that can create innovative CRM solutions to manage customer relationships. 

Software developer demographic statistics  

14. Software developers that earn the highest pay belong to the Washington region in the United States. This region has the most competent and talented IT professionals (6.4%) than any other state in the country. 

15. According to the stack overflow survey, most software developers fall in the age group of 25-34 years. The average age of software engineer in the US is 39 years old. 

16. 73% of software engineers/developers working in the US did their bachelor’s in computer engineering or computer science. While 20% have earned a master’s degree.   

17. The United States takes the front seat for technology innovation in the world which accounts for 33% of the global market share. Moreover, it has Big 4 firms which include Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google. 

18. Though software development is a lucrative field that opens opportunities for both men and women.  

However, the findings of the developer survey state that the software development industry is male-dominated. In this tech industry, 75.7% of developers consist of men while 23% of women contribute to this field. 

It means that there is an inequitable distribution of developers based on gender. This reflects that there might be limited opportunities for women. 

Some think that software engineering is mostly male-oriented, so most girls refrain from studying STEM subjects. Others say that a hostile work environment is another reason behind this. 

19. According to the Stack Overflow Survey conducted in 2023, most software developers (26.53%) have 5-9 years of coding experience.  

While the ones with 10-14 years of experience in coding comprise 19.89% followed by 14.7% of software developers who possess 1-4 years of expertise. 

20. Most application developers are based out of New York and Atlanta.   

21. Software developers residing in the US earn the highest salary. The average salary of an application developer in Washington starts at $113,409.  

22. China has become the hub of software engineers with over 7 million people followed by India which accounts for 5.8 million software developers.  

Software development statistics related to time and cost 

23. Companies allocate 63% of their time to the design and development of new software.  

25. One out of four companies look to outsource their software development projects because it’s cost-effective, speeds up their development process and does faster product launches. 

Fortune 500 companies and tech giants including Google and Apple prefer to outsource their work to Asian companies because outsourcing is a cost-effective alternative.  

26. The average cost of a typical software development project starts at $30,000 and it generally takes 4.5 months to build software.  

The time varies with the size and complexity of the software.  

27. The cost of developing simple software or an application cost around $25,000 -$50,000.  

The medium software development project costs around $50,000 -$250,000. A large-scale complex application costs more than $250,000. 

27. Once the software is built, maintenance is like a never-ending destination. Maintenance of a software can go for 15-20 years.  

Maintenance expenses cover around 15-20% of the initial software development cost. 

28. Cost of developing a content management system (CMS) with basic features ranges between $10,000 -$100,000. 

29. The average SAAS development cost for basic features starts at $20,000 and goes around $500,000 or even more. 

Statistics on software development technologies  

30. Software developers primarily use JavaScript as it’s the popular programming language.   

31. After JavaScript, HTML/CSS comes next in terms of the most commonly used programming language. The third most used programming language around the world is Python.  

32. Microsoft Azure and AWS are the 2 most popular cloud platforms. 48.6% of the surveyed software developers prefer using the AWS cloud platform. For the rest, 26% of software developers use Microsoft Azure.  

33. GitHub, Gitlab, and Bitbucket are the most commonly used software development tools and 84% of the developers use them for seamless collaboration.  

Programming statistics related to software development  

34. The average age of a software developer is 40+ years.  

35.74% of software developers prefer to work at private organizations rather than public companies. 

36. The majority (78%) of software engineers are men. The rest, 22% of the software engineers include women. 

37. Based on ethnicity, 48.5% of software engineers are white, 34% of them are Asian followed by 8.2% software engineers that are Hispanic or Latino.  

38. 97% of applications use open-source code. Open-source software provides an environment for developers to work faster and collaborate effectively. 

39. 100 million developers use GitHub for hosting code repositories, version control, and seamless collaboration with each other in real-time.  

Developers also use this platform to pitch their ideas for software projects.  

40. The fastest-growing developer nations on GitHub include Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore and India. 

41. An Octoverse report states that India has a large developer population growth having a user base of 13.2 million developers. By 2027, it’s expected to surpass in terms of the developer’s community. 

42. The US is struggling with a talent shortage. Despite being the leading hub for starting a startup, the US struggles to find skilled tech experts because skills gaps have been increasing year on year.  

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the shortage of software developers might reach around 85.2 million by 2030. Because companies struggle to find skilled tech talent, they’re losing $8.5 trillion in revenue worldwide. 

Trends and statistics in software development  

43. The employment of software developers, testers, and quality analysts is expected to grow by 25% from 2023-2029.   

This shows that the demand for software developers is rising significantly and will continue to increase in the future. 

44. The number of IoT devices will increase threefold, that’s around 75 billion devices by 2025.   

IoT as an emerging technology facilitates interconnectivity between different devices. Leveraging such SMART technology helps businesses save time, improve efficiency, enhance customer experience, and automate repetitive tasks.  

45. Nearly 80% of Fortune 500 companies rely on offshore development centers to achieve cost savings, access to a global talent pool and reduce time to market.  

When it comes to outsourcing software development projects, India and China stand at the top. 

46. 69% of companies are leveraging cloud computing technology and experience 53% faster revenue growth than their competitors.  

Since the pandemic, businesses realized that cloud adoption should be increased, and they should adapt to the digital-first world.  

47. 84% of software developers contribute to open source. 

Out of that, 13% of software developers prefer contributing to open-source projects less than once a year. 3% of developers never contributed to any open-source project. 

48. Jira is the most used project management tool having a 39% market share. Software development teams use Jira because it provides extensive features and offers flexibility to manage big and small projects. 

49. Python has now become the fastest-growing programming language with over 8.2 million software developers. 

Its community of developers is growing because of its open-source nature. Moreover, Machine learning developers can use Python to automate backend systems. 

Also Read: Apple App Store Statistics 2024

Wrapping up  

Software development isn’t a new school concept as it has been there for ages.   

The emergence of technologies such as AI, machine learning, and cloud computing increased this field’s popularity. So, there comes the need for more software development experts who can fulfill your development needs.  

You need to stay updated with what’s going on in this industry. So, we’ve compiled a list of software development statistics in 2024 that you should be aware of because software development is an ever-evolving and dynamic field.