2016 New Coder Survey

the first open data survey on new coders.
15K+ people learning to code all over the world.

CodeNewbie and FreeCodeCamp


Location
Gender
Ethnicity
Age

Gender

What's your gender?

13,746 respondents

Disability

Do you receive disability benefits from government?

13,530 respondents

Military

Have you served in your country's military before?

13,550 respondents

Age

How old are you?

13,613 respondents

Education

What's the highest degree or level of school you have completed?

13,679 respondents (If currently enrolled, highest degree received.)

58% have earned at least a bachelor’s degree.

What was the main subject you studied in university?

8,450 respondents

Computer Science was the most popular major, and an additional 15% studied some form of engineering.

Family

What's your marital status?

4,010 respondents

Do you have children?

4,012 respondents

How many children do you have?

2,554 respondents

Money

About how much money did you make last year (in US Dollars)?

7,329 respondents

Do you have any debt?

13,610 respondents

Do you financially support any dependents?

13,640 respondents (Include a spouse, children, elderly relatives, and relatices with disabilities.)

Do you have student loan debt?

6,371 respondents

About how much do you owe in student loans (in US Dollars)?

3,514 respondents

Do you financially support any elderly relatives or relavites with disabilities?

3,996 respondents

Do you have a home mortgage?

6,371 respondents

About how much do you owe on your home mortgage (in US Dollars)?

1,501 respondents

Do you have high speed internet at your home?

13,625 respondents

Employment

Are you already working as a software developer?

15,537 respondents

24% of respondents with 5+ years of programming experience aren't working as software developers.

Are you willing to relocate for a job?

5,487 respondents

A majority are willing to relocate.

Do you consider yourself under-employed?

8,645 respondents (Underemployed means working a job that is below your education level.)

Which field do you work in?

7,608 respondents

A vast majority are already in a technology-related field.

Regarding employment status, are you currently ...

12,904 respondents

Two thirds are currently working.

Location

Which country do you currently live in?

13,610 respondents

People from 169 countries responded to the survey.

About how many people live in your city?

13,630 respondents

Their cities span a wide range of urbanization levels.

Are you an ethnic minority in your country?

13,645 respondents

A quarter of respondents are ethnic minorities in their country.

Language

Which language do you speak at home with your family?

13,582 respondents

Nearly half are non-native English speakers. They grew up speaking one of 152 languages.

Career & Money

Would you prefer to work for a...

11,189 respondents

40% want to either freelance or start their own business.

Would you prefer to work...

6,739 respondents

Which one of these roles are you most interested in?

6,503 respondents

A vast majority are interested in working as web developers, as opposed to other developer roles.

About how much money do you expect to earn per year at your first developer job (in US Dollars)?

6,077 respondents

The most expected salary is $60K annually while the average expectation is $53,700.

When do you plan to start applying for developers jobs?

6,747 respondents

Most are already applying for developer jobs, or will start applying within the next year.

Bootcamp

Have you attended a full-time coding bootcamp?

15,380 respondents

More than 900 respondents have attended at least one coding bootcamp.

Have you finished yet?

933 respondents

Which bootcamp did you attend?

895 respondents

How many months ago did you finish your bootcamp?

631 respondents

Based on your experience, would you recommend this bootcamp to your friends?

937 respondents

Were you able to get a full time developer job afterwards?

635 respondents

More than a half had been able to get a full-time developer job after finished a bootcamp.

How much was your salary (in US Dollars)?

330 respondents

Did you take out a loan to pay for the bootcamp?

934 respondents

A third borrowed money to attend a bootcamp.

Learning to Code

About how many months have you been programming for?

15,014 respondents

Experienced respondents without software developer's job spend much more time studying programming rather than their less experienced colleagues.

About how many hours do you spend learning each week?

14,942 respondents

Almost half (47%) of coders with 5+ years of experience who already work as software developers still spend at least 10 hours each week learning programming.

Aside from the university, how much have you spent to learn coding (in US Dollars)?

14,679 respondents

Which learning resources have you found helpful?

15,269 respondents

On average, new coders use at least three different resources for learning to code.

Which types of in-person coding events have you attended?

15,055 respondents

Most of repondents have not yet attended any in-person coding events.

Which coding-related podcasts have you found helpful?

14,740 respondents

Most of repondents do not yet listen to any coding podcasts.

x

Data for the New Coder Survey is available in .csv format here.