Dec 30, 2022
Developer insights: which cities have the most developers in Germany?
Only very few cities proper exceed the number of 10,000 developers in Germany.
In my recent analysis of the numbers of software developers by the Federal Agency for Employment two things became very clear:
- Germany is decentralized.
There is not one city that dominates the landscape in terms of numbers of developers. This is equally mirrored in the number of companies, IT salespeople, product specialists and sysadmins. This is unlike countries like the UK or France.
- Most digital centers need to looked at as a region or hub.
For instance, Frankfurt as a city proper only represents about 40% of the number of developers for the hub it is part of.
That leaves us with very few cities that go over 10,000 developers — remarkable when we consider that the overall number of developers in Germany is 281,380!
The German strongholds for developers
So which cities are we talking about exactly? Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg.
The other usual “suspects” like Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Karlsruhe, Hanover and Nuremberg need to be considered in their respective “environments”. There, we find that strength is in collective and neighboring numbers :D
What do the insights identify for our four strongholds?
Software developers in Munich
- highest number of software developers out of all cities in Germany
- strong growth over the last years
- very high share of seniors/experts
- very high number of expats
- average share of men among software developers considering the national average
Exact numbers:
# 26,200 software developers
9.31% of all software developers in Germany
47% increase from 2017 to 2021
79% experts (seniors)
15% women
33% non-citizens
1% vocational trainees
Software developers in Berlin
- competing with Munich for the highest number of developers in the coming years
- next to Düsseldorf strongest growth in the last years
- very high share of seniors/experts
- highest proportion of expats
- average share of men among software developers considering the national average
Exact numbers:
# 23,620 software developers
8.39% of all software developers in Germany
59% increase from 2017 to 2021
78% experts (seniors)
15% women
38% non-citizens
1% vocational trainees
Software developers in Stuttgart
- higher share of seniors/experts
- lower number of expats
- higher share of women in comparison to the national average
- under the national average for trainees, but still high considering that big cities have low shares
Exact numbers:
# 13,220 software developers
4.70% of all software developers in Germany
33% increase from 2017 to 2021
58% experts (seniors)
16% women
17% non-citizens
2% vocational trainees
Software developers in Hamburg
- tieing with Stuttgart in terms of absolute numbers
- higher share of experts/seniors
- unexpectedly low number of expats, considering how metrolpolitan Hamburg is
- average share of men among software developers considering the national average
- under the national average for trainees, but still high considering that big cities have low shares
Exact numbers:
# 13,120 software developers
4.66% of all software developers in Germany
36% increase from 2017 to 2021
68% experts (seniors)
14% women
15% non-citizens
2% vocational trainees
Interested in more developer insights? Next to the general analysis mentioned at the beginning of this article you might be interested in our hidden champions.
This meta analysis of software development salaries in Germany might also appeal to you.
