Highlights from the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey

In May 2024, over 65,000 developers from 185 countries responded to Stack Overflow’s annual survey, offering deep insights into the coding world, technologies in demand, AI adoption, and developer experiences at work.

Here are some of the key highlights from this comprehensive survey.

Methodology and Participation

65,437 responses were collected, with 48,019 respondents providing salary information. The survey, conducted from May 19, 2024, to June 20, 2024, had a median completion time of 21 minutes.

Respondents were primarily recruited through Stack Overflow’s channels, including onsite messaging, blog posts, and social media.

Developer Demographics

The survey’s age distribution was diverse, with most developers (36.5%) between 25 and 34 years old.

Notably, 21.4% of respondents were 18-24, indicating a solid influx of young talent in the coding community.

Education and Learning

Interestingly, 66% of developers reported having a BA/BS or MA/MS degree. This is even though only 49% of them learned to code in school, underscoring the growing importance of self-learning and alternative educational resources.

Online resources are the top choice for learning to code, with 82% of developers relying on them.

API and SDK documentation are favored and preferred by 90% of developers for learning.

Technology and Tools

JavaScript continues to dominate as the most used programming language, with 62.3% of respondents using it in the past year.

Rust, on the other hand, remains the most admired language, boasting an impressive 83% admiration score. This reflects Rust’s growing reputation for performance and reliability.

In the realm of databases, PostgreSQL has become the most popular choice, used by 49% of developers. This marks a significant shift from its debut in the 2018 survey, when it was used by only 33%.

Among other tools, Docker is highly favored among professional developers (59%), highlighting its importance in modern DevOps practices.

Top paying technologies

Erlang developers take the top spot this year for the highest reported median salary.

AI Adoption and Sentiments

AI tools are increasingly becoming integral to the development process.

This year, 76% of respondents reported using or planning to use AI tools, up from 70% last year.

Notably, 72% of developers hold a favorable view of AI tools, although this is a slight decrease from 77% last year. This dip could be attributed to growing pains and unmet expectations as AI tools evolve.

Below is a list of the most used AI Search and Developer Tools

Top Benefits of AI Tools

1. Increasing productivity (81%)
2. Speeding up learning (62.4%)

However, ethical concerns remain prominent. Misinformation in AI results is the top ethical issue (79.4%), followed by worries about source attribution (64.7%).

Work and Employment

Employment remains strong among developers, with 84% working full-time, part-time, or freelancing.

Hybrid work continues to be popular, with 42% of developers working in a hybrid model.

Interestingly, in-person work has increased to 20% from 16% last year.

This means that 62% of developers go to the office at least once a week.

Conclusion

Reading directly from other developers’ experiences and preferences can help you take the proper steps to boost your career.

We hope these highlights provide valuable insights into the current state of the developer community and the tech industry.

And one day, daily.dev will also be part of the survey! 🚀

If you want to read the whole survey, you can visit: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2024