Software Demographics

The stereotype of programmers as young men appears to have some merit too. The average software worker is significantly younger than the United States labor force. As Figure 7-1 shows, the age structure of the software workforce peaks at about 30 to 35 years old, which is about 10 years younger than the peak for other types of technical workers.

Figure 7-1. The biggest group of software workers is 30 to 35, which is about 10 years younger than the biggest groups of workers in other technical occupations.

Source: "A Moving Target: Studies Try to Define the IT Workforce"^[17]

The majority of software developers are male. In the latest year for which data is available (2000), 72 percent of computer and information science bachelor degrees and 83 percent of the Ph.D.s were awarded to men.^[15] In high school, only 17 percent of people taking the advanced placement test for computer science are female, which is the lowest of any subject.^[16]

Programmers are younger than average and tend to be male. The comparison to Pony Express riders begins to look less and less like an exaggeration (though there's no evidence that computer programmers are any more "wiry" than average).