Stack Overflow Developer Income and Opinion Analysis

Using the Stack Overflow Annual Developer Survey 2024 datase

Dank Extra
Stella Zhang (jz766), Jack Chen (jc2742), Ryan Lee (rjl275), Josh Green (jtg227)

2025-06-05

Introduction

Data: The Stack Overflow Annual Developer Survey 2024 dataset encompasses responses from over 65,000 developers worldwide, covering demographics, education, work experience, technology usage, and perspectives on AI in development work.

Q1: How do education level, age, country, and programming language usage influence the average annual compensation of developers?

Q2: How do developers’ opinions about AI vary based on their work background and experience?

Reasons for Investigation: We are living in a era of unprecedented development in the field of digital technologies.

Q1: Understanding these compensation trends can help developers make more informed career decisions and can also guide organizations in setting equitable salary policies.

Q2: As AI tools become more integrated into software development, it is worth exploring how developers feel about this technology.

Annual Compensation of Developers based on Education and Age

We implemented a scatter plot of developer total normalized compensation faceted by education level, which will help us understand how education level affect total compensation throughout different ages.

  • Assumption: Higher education levels are associated with higher total compensation, as advanced degrees provide specialized knowledge and skills that are valued in the tech industry.
  • Findings: On average, most developers earn similar salaries regardless of education level. However, developers with a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, or Some College experience tend to earn slightly more than those with other education levels. Additionally, compensation generally peaks for developers between the ages of 25-54, indicating that this is the prime earning period within each education category.
  • Possible Reason: The relatively small variation in average compensation across education levels suggests that experience, industry demand, and skills play a more significant role in determining salaries than formal education alone. The age-related peak in compensation aligns with career progression, where developers gain expertise and move into senior or leadership positions before salaries plateau or decline closer to retirement.

Annual Compensation of Developers based on Country

We implemented a box chart of total normalized compensation faceted by country, which will help us understand how developer’s total compensation ranged throughout each country

  • Assumption: Developer compensation varies significantly by country due to differences in cost of living, economic conditions, and demand for tech talent. We expect higher median salaries in countries with strong tech industries and high living costs.
  • Findings: Countries like the U.S., Switzerland, and Israel have the highest median developer salaries, while countries such as Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Pakistan have the lowest. There is a noticeable range within each country, with outliers earning significantly more than the median. The distribution of salaries suggests that while some countries offer higher compensation, there is still considerable variance within each.
  • Possible Reason: The disparities in compensation could be attributed to differences in economic strength, cost of living, and the presence of large tech hubs. Countries with a strong presence of major tech companies (e.g., the U.S. and Switzerland) tend to offer higher salaries. Additionally, remote work opportunities may influence these patterns, allowing developers in lower-income countries to access higher-paying jobs.

AI Perception by Company Size

We implemented a stacked Bar Chart of AI Perception faceted by company size, which will help us understand how company size influences developers’ opinions about AI.

  • Assumption: Different company sizes reflect different work cultures and technology usage, and this difference may foster divergent opinions on AI among developers
  • Findings: Suggest that company size do not significantly influence developers’ opinions on AI, as there is a small variation in the responses across company sizes
  • Possible Reason: The unfavorable sentiment towards AI performance and usage may stem from the fact that Stack Overflow is a technical discussion website for developers, and therefore users may view AI as an inferior tool for development or a crutch for unseasoned developers

AI Perception by Professional Experience Level

  • Assumption: Developers with different levels of experience may have varying perspectives on AI, with more experienced developers potentially being more skeptical or critical, while less experienced ones may be more open to AI adoption.

  • Findings: The results suggest that experience level does not significantly impact AI opinions, as the overall distribution of favorable, neutral, and unfavorable responses remains relatively stable across experience groups.

  • Possible Explanation: Developers across all experience levels likely share a common skepticism toward AI’s role in development, possibly due to concerns about AI-generated code quality, debugging complexity, and AI’s inability to replace human expertise. Additionally, since Stack Overflow is a technical discussion website, its users may naturally view AI as an inferior tool for development or a crutch for less-experienced programmers.

Thank you for listening!