According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the field of engineering stood at 5,377,740 in 2022. The median wage for these professionals in the same year was around $100,000, significantly higher than that for other professions, which was $66,000. Only 8% of individuals in the field were employed part-time, with the rest working full-time hours. Further estimates showed that 73% of individuals were employed in positions that required at least a bachelor’s degree. This number was higher when compared to all fields, where 62% of individuals were employed with a bachelor’s degree.
Despite the high employment rate in engineering with a bachelor’s degree, a number of these professionals held an advanced degree. Statistics by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that nearly 42% of professionals had an advanced degree in the field, which refers to either master’s or doctoral degrees or professional degrees in another field than that of their bachelor’s degree. Architecture and engineering occupations were among the most common occupations for engineers in 2022.
According to the Engineering & Engineering Technology by Numbers 2023 report, Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, and Texas A&M University awarded the highest number of engineering bachelor’s degrees in the US. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Arizona State University also ranked among the top five US universities offering the highest number of bachelor’s degrees in engineering.
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Software Engineering Outlook
According to the Occupational Handbook 2020-2030 released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 409,500 new software engineer positions are expected to be created over the 2020-2030 period. This translates to a 22% increase in employment positions, making the field’s growth around three times faster than the average occupation.
Software developers are estimated to undergo an 18% projected growth between 2023 and 2033. This is the highest rate among all engineering sub-fields, including mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, and more. While a bachelor’s degree remains the entry-level education requirement for the field, around 32% of software developers had an advanced degree in 2022. This number was also the highest among other engineering sub-fields.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates, the median annual wage for software developers was around $132,270 in May 2023. The highest 10% of these professionals earned more than $208,620, while the lowest 10% earned less than $77,020 in May 2023. The median annual wage for software developers in the top industry in which they worked was software publishing, at $143,210.
Manufacturing and finance and insurance came next, with median annual wages standing at $138,100 and $132,900, respectively. Management of companies and enterprises also ranked among the top industries for these professionals, offering a median annual wage of $131,370. Computer systems design and related services offered these professionals a median yearly wage of $127,880.
Women in Engineering
According to the Society of Women Engineers, fewer bachelor’s degrees in engineering and computer/information sciences are awarded to women as compared to men. However, the overall interest in the field has grown over the years. More than 249,00 bachelor’s degrees in engineering and computer/information sciences were awarded in the 2020-2021 academic year. The number of females attaining bachelor’s degrees in the field has more than doubled between 2011 and 2020, with the overall percentage of women compared to men increasing from 17.7% to 22.5% in the period.
With these trends in view, let’s look at the 15 countries that produce the best software engineers. You can also look at Top 20 Countries with the Best Education System in the World and 20 Worst States for Education in the US.
15 Countries that Produce the Best Software Engineers
Our Methodology
We used the QS World University Rankings for 2024 in Computer Science and Information Systems to compile a list of countries that produce the best software engineers. Our approach involved identifying the top 100 software engineering universities in the world and then selecting countries with the highest number of these top institutions. As a result, we narrowed our selection to the top countries that consistently host leading software engineering and computer sciences universities.
Moreover, we tried to focus on the average salaries of software engineers worldwide, and countries with the highest average salaries were shortlisted. Our hypothesis is that high-paying countries for software engineers attract top-quality software engineers to their industries.
First, we ranked countries on these two metrics separately and then averaged the rankings for both metrics to obtain our final rankings. The list is presented in descending order of average rank.
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15 Countries that Produce the Best Software Engineers
15. Japan
Average Rank: 16.5
Japan ranks 15th on our list of the 15 countries that produce the best software engineers. This island country is located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland in East Asia. The average salary of a software engineer in Japan is $69,946.
14. Hong Kong
Average Rank: 15
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. It is one of the most densely populated regions in the world with a population of around 7.536 million people as of 2023, according to estimates by the World Bank. Hong Kong is one of the best countries in the world to study engineering.
13. France
Average Rank: 14
France spends 5.25% of its GDP on education, making it one of the best countries in the world to attain an education. It ranks 13th on our list of the countries that produce the best software engineers. The average salary of a software engineer in France is around $78,607.
12. South Korea
Average Rank: 13.5
South Korea is an East Asian nation that occupies the southern half of the Korean peninsula. The country is famous for its educational institutions, and 31 of its universities rank among the top 1,000 universities in the QS World Ranking 2024. According to the Insider Monkey Global Education Index, it is the eighth-best country in the world for attaining education.
11. Italy
Average Rank: 13
Italy takes the 11th spot on our list of the best countries for producing software engineers. Politecnico di Milano and the University of Bologna are two of the top-ranked universities in Italy for software engineering. The average salary of a software engineer in Italy is around $71,044.
10. China
Average Rank: 12.5
China is an education and tech powerhouse. It has one of the highest numbers of software engineers and offers multiple prestigious job opportunities for industry professionals. 57 Chinese universities rank among the top 1,000 universities in the QS World Ranking 2024. China ranks tenth on our list.
9. Denmark
Average Rank: 12
Denmark is a Scandinavian country that comprises the Jutland Peninsula and several other islands. It is the second highest-paying county for software engineers, with an annual average salary of $178,362. Denmark spends 6.04% of its GDP on education.
8. Belgium
Average Rank: 11.5
Belgium is located in Western Europe and spends 6.23% of its GDP on education, making it one of the best countries in the world to attain education. It has 9 universities that rank among the top 1,000 universities in the QS World Ranking 2024. The average salary of a software engineer in Belgium is around $125,866.
7. Singapore
Average Rank: 10
Officially known as the Republic of Singapore, Singapore is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country produces some of the best engineers in the world, as it is a hub of software engineering with substantial salary growth. It ranks seventh on our list and has an average rank of 10.
6. Canada
Average Rank: 9.5
28 Canadian universities rank among the top 1,000 universities in the QS World Ranking 2024. The country spends 4.14% of its GDP on education, and takes the sixth spot on our list of the 15 countries that produce the best software engineers. The University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia are the best software engineering universities in Canada.
5. Germany
Average Rank: 9
Institutes such as the Technical University of Munich and the University of Stuttgart provide top-tier education in software engineering in Germany. The country also boasts diverse career paths for software engineers and thus naturally produces some of the best professionals in the field. Germany ranks fifth on our list.
4. United Kingdom
Average Rank: 6.5
81 universities in the UK rank among the top 1,000 universities in the QS World Ranking 2024, which is a testament to the country’s refined education system. According to the Insider Monkey Global Education Index, the United Kingdom is the second-best country for education attainment in the world. The University of Cambridge and Imperial College London are esteemed universities known for their software engineering programs in the country, producing some of the best software engineers.
3. Switzerland
Average Rank: 6
The mountainous Central European country of Switzerland takes the third spot on our list of the 15 countries that produce the best software engineers. Switzerland spends 5.04% of its GDP on education, and has 10 institutes that rank among the top 1,000 universities in the QS World Ranking 2024.
2. Australia
Average Rank: 4
Australia’s population was 26.64 million as of 2023, according to estimates by the World Bank. The University of Melbourne and the Australian National University in the country are recognized for their software engineering programs. The country is an appealing destination for software engineers due to its growing tech sector, high quality of life, and diverse cultural landscape.
1. United States
Average Rank: 2
The United States takes the first spot on our list of the 15 countries that produce the best software engineers. The country is home to some of the best universities in the world, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University, both of which are globally renowned for their exceptional software engineering programs. The US has the highest number of universities ranking among the top 1,000 universities in the QS World Ranking 2024, which is 142. The country is a global tech hub that boasts a substantial job market with lucrative salaries, career prospects, and growth opportunities.
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Disclosure. None. This article was originally published on Insider Monkey.
