Software engineers form part of the workforce around the world. As of 2016, it is estimated that there are 21 million professional software developers.
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United States
As of 2016, it was estimated that 3.87 million professional software developers worked in the US out of a total employed workforce of 152 million (2.54%).
Summary
Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2002, about 612,000 software engineers worked in the U.S. - about out of every 200 workers. There were 55% to 60% as many software engineers as all traditional engineers. This comparison holds whether one compares the number of practitioners, managers, educators, or technicians/programmers. Software engineering had 612,000 practitioners; 264,790 managers, 16,495 educators, and 457,320 programmers.
Software Engineers Versus Traditional Engineers
The following two 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.
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.
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, 1⁄2 of computer science educators emphasize the practical (software engineering) (16,495) and 1⁄2 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. Computer science is larger than all engineering, and larger than all physics and chemistry.
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.
India
There has been a healthy growth in the number of India's IT professionals over the past few years. From a base of 6,800 knowledge workers in 1985-86, the number increased to 522,000 software and services professionals by the end of 2001-02. It is estimated that out of these 528,000 knowledge workers, almost 170,000 are working in the IT software and services export industry; nearly 106,000 are working in the IT enabled services and over 230,000 in user organizations.