We asked 20k people who they are and how they’re learning to code. Here’s the result

More than 20,000 people responded to our 2017 New Coder Survey, granting researchers an unprecedented glimpse into how adults are learning to code.

We’ve released the entire dataset of the participants’ individual responses to more than 50 questions—under the Open Data Common License—on a public GitHub repository.

In the months that follow, dozens of data scientists will pore over the data and discover all kinds of insights about people who are learning to code.

For now, I’m going to give you a high-level idea of who these new coders are, how they’re learning, and what their goals are.

Who participated?

More than 20,000 new coders responded to this survey. These are people who have been coding for less than five years.

Here are some basic facts about them:

• 62 percent of them live outside the US
• Their average age is 28 years old
• 19 percent are women
• They’ve been coding for an average of 21 months
• 25 percent have already landed their first developer job

Learner goals and approaches

Forty percent of them would like to either freelance or start their own business.

Most of them are interested in working as web developers but are also interested in a wide variety of developer specializations.

Learning resources

Demographics and Socioeconomics

What’s next?