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There are many software engineers. Canada, the European Union, Japan, and Australia will probably find corresponding numbers of SE practitioners.

  European Union ^[1]

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  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 522,000 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 220,000 in user organizations.^[2]

  Japan

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  United States

About 1 out of every 200 workers is a software engineer. There are 55% to 60% as many software engineers as all traditional engineers. In 2002, software engineering had 612,000 practitioners; 264,790 managers, 16,495 educators, and 457,320 programmers.

  Summary

This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2010)

Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2002, about 612,000 software engineers work in the U.S. The size of all software engineering is about 60% the size of all traditional engineering. This comparison holds whether one compares the number of practitioners, managers, educators, or technicians/programmers.

^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

  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.

 15-1031           Computer Software Engineers, Applications       356,760 $34.09  $35.48  $73,800 0.7 %
 15-1032        Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software   255,040 $35.60  $36.46  $75,840 0.6 %

 17-2011   Aerospace Engineers     74,210  $34.97  $35.63  $74,110 1.1 %
 17-2021        Agricultural Engineers  2,500   $24.38  $26.79  $55,730 2.9 %
 17-2031        Biomedical Engineers    7,130   $29.04  $30.97  $64,420 1.7 %
 17-2041        Chemical Engineers      32,110  $34.85  $36.06  $75,010 1.0 %
 17-2051        Civil Engineers 207,480 $28.88  $30.29  $63,010 0.4 %
 17-2061        Computer Hardware Engineers     67,180  $34.69  $36.61  $76,150 1.1 %
 17-2071        Electrical Engineers    146,180 $32.78  $33.88  $70,480 0.4 %
 17-2072        Electronics Engineers, Except Computer  126,020 $33.62  $34.43  $71,600 0.6 %
 17-2081        Environmental Engineers 45,720  $29.52  $30.50  $63,440 0.7 %
 17-2111        Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors      34,160  $27.89  $28.77  $59,830 0.7 %
 17-2112        Industrial Engineers    151,760 $29.88  $30.57  $63,590 0.3 %
 17-2121        Marine Engineers and Naval Architects   4,810   $32.04  $32.83  $68,280 2.2 %
 17-2131        Materials Engineers     22,780  $30.09  $30.92  $64,310 1.0 %
 17-2141        Mechanical Engineers    203,620 $30.23  $31.33  $65,170 0.4 %
 17-2151        Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers      5,050   $29.70  $31.14  $64,770 2.4 %
 17-2161        Nuclear Engineers       15,180  $39.11  $39.57  $82,300 1.3 %
 17-2171        Petroleum Engineers     11,130  $40.08  $41.13  $85,540 1.4 %

  Programmers versus Technicians

Computer programmers (457,320) are considered to have less education, skill, or experience than software engineers. Engineering technicians (526,170) are considered to have less education, skill, or experience than engineers. There are 88% as many programmers as technicians.

 15-1021   Computer Programmers    457,320 $28.98  $30.62  $63,690 0.6 %

 17-3021   Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technicians        14,700  $24.83  $25.48  $52,990 1.1 %
 17-3022        Civil Engineering Technicians   88,380  $18.13  $18.71  $38,910 0.6 %
 17-3023        Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technicians       194,960 $20.65  $21.26  $44,210 0.4 %
 17-3024        Electro-Mechanical Technicians  30,360  $18.33  $19.20  $39,930 0.7 %
 17-3025        Environmental Engineering Technicians   18,770  $17.72  $18.93  $39,380 1.0 %
 17-3026        Industrial Engineering Technicians      59,700  $20.15  $21.79  $45,310 0.9 %
 17-3027        Mechanical Engineering Technicians      53,630  $19.85  $20.60  $42,850 0.5 %
 17-3031        Surveying and Mapping Technicians       55,670  $14.05  $15.27  $31,760 0.7

  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) oversea engineering projects, manufacturing plants, and construction sites. Computer management is 64% the size of construction and engineering management.

 11-3021   Computer and Information Systems Managers       264,790 $40.98  $43.48  $90,440 0.3 %

 11-9021   Construction Managers   208,360 $30.53  $34.24  $71,210 0.7 %
 11-9041        Engineering Managers    205,390 $43.71  $46.03  $95,750 0.3 %

  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, ½ of computer science educators emphasize the practical (software engineering) (16,495) and ½ 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.

 25-1021   Computer Science Teachers, Postsecondary        32,990  (4)     (4)     $55,330 1.1 %

 25-1032   Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary     29,310  (4)     (4)     $73,100 1.3 %

 25-1052   Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary       17,670  (4)     (4)     $60,800 1.3 %
 25-1054        Physics Teachers, Postsecondary 11,940  (4)     (4)     $66,960 1.0

  Other Software and Engineering Roles

 15-1051   Computer Systems Analysts       467,750 $30.24  $31.20  $64,890 0.5 %
 15-1041        Computer Support Specialists    478,560 $18.80  $20.35  $42,320 0.5 %
 15-1061        Database Administrators 102,090 $26.68  $28.41  $59,080 0.5 %
 15-1071        Network and Computer Systems Administrators     232,560 $26.35  $27.70  $57,620 0.4 %
 15-1081        Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts        133,460 $28.09  $29.51  $61,390 0.6 %

 17-3011   Architectural and Civil Drafters        101,190 $17.95  $18.78  $39,060 0.6 %
 17-3012        Electrical and Electronics Drafters     35,470  $19.76  $21.16  $44,020 0.8 %
 17-3013        Mechanical Drafters     68,280  $19.58  $20.71  $43,080 0.9 %

  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.^{[citation needed]}

  References

  See also

• Software engineering
• List of software engineering topics
• Software engineering economics
• Software engineering professionalism