3 ms·
Ask HN: How many programmers/hackers are there in the world?
Wolfram alpha says it's about 400k (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=programmers+in+world) which I think is too small.
- bitsweet 15y agoMost certainly to low, GitHub has over 1 million users alone. https://github.com/blog/455-100-000-users https://github.com/blog/455-100-000-users I believe TCS, a large indian offshore company, employs over 100K programers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Consultancy_Services http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Consultancy_Services)
- glimcat 15y agoIt depends on your definition. Something like one in a couple thousand is probably reasonable, or a few million. If we're talking competent and capable of independently producing professional-grade output, you'll see another reducing factor of around 1:100 or more...so already down to a few tens of thousands. Once we start breaking that down into subfields like data mining or computer vision, the number of people in the field can get rather small.
- bejuizb 15y agoBut the question was number of programmers, Not in any particular sub-domain. Theoretically, even mathematicians can be called as programmers, only that they deal in Language called as Mathematics
- glimcat 15y agoThe question was overly vague, which is why the first thing I said was "it depends on your definition." The broad estimate is on the first line.
- keeptrying 15y agoEmployed programmers - 5 million. I saw some research done by a startup for their VC.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- pbiggar 15y agoI've heard figures bandied about a few years ago implying there were about 12 million.
- sagacity 15y agoHow long is a piece of string? :) [IMHO, it is the hackers who keep the world/universe going, because they are the ones who cause chaos/disruption (in absence of which, the 3rd law of thermodynamics would fail, causing the universe to implode).]