We've recently been writing posts about the number and concentration of developers in the United States: How Many Developers are There By State? and How Many Developers are There By County? Today we'll be zooming in even further and estimating the number of developers there are per zip code.
Further down the page we've also included a calculator for you to lookup whichever zip code you'd like.
How Many Developers are There Per Zip Code in America?
Once again, we are dividing developers into three categories - a 'core' development category and a number of other professions where software proficiency is usually essential to the job. Both the raw data and the calculator maintain the divisions between the three.
We made a number of choropleths with the data. Here are two of them - we'd suggest using a 4K monitor to view them(!).
Here's a zoom of (raw number of) developers in California:
Top Zip Codes for Developers in America
Based on our Category 3 division, here are the top 15 zip codes for the number of developers:
| Rank | Zip Code | Developers | Percentage of Workforce |
| 1 | 94087 | 7499 | 22.21% |
| 2 | 95051 | 7112 | 19.25% |
| 3 | 94536 | 6904 | 17.46% |
| 4 | 94086 | 6378 | 22.32% |
| 5 | 94538 | 6114 | 17.45% |
| 6 | 98052 | 5865 | 15.76% |
| 7 | 94110 | 5622 | 11.45% |
| 8 | 95035 | 5309 | 13.83% |
| 9 | 95014 | 5065 | 16.28% |
| 10 | 94539 | 4935 | 17.21% |
| 11 | 95050 | 4765 | 19.03% |
| 12 | 20147 | 4755 | 12.42% |
| 13 | 92126 | 4613 | 9.64% |
| 14 | 94587 | 4517 | 11.49% |
| 15 | 98034 | 4123 | 15.90% |
And based on the percentage of workforce, here are the top fifteen (not a lot of movement):
| Rank | Zip Code | Developers | Percentage of Workforce |
| 1 | 94085 | 2975 | 22.36% |
| 2 | 94089 | 2687 | 22.36% |
| 3 | 95002 | 287 | 22.36% |
| 4 | 94086 | 6378 | 22.32% |
| 5 | 94087 | 7499 | 22.21% |
| 6 | 95051 | 7112 | 19.25% |
| 7 | 95134 | 2020 | 19.03% |
| 8 | 95053 | 293 | 19.03% |
| 9 | 95050 | 4765 | 19.03% |
| 10 | 95054 | 3090 | 19.03% |
| 11 | 94536 | 6904 | 17.46% |
| 12 | 94538 | 6114 | 17.45% |
| 13 | 94539 | 4935 | 17.21% |
| 14 | 94304 | 371 | 16.95% |
| 15 | 94306 | 2653 | 16.95% |
Lookup the Number of Developers in a Zip Code
Ready to look up any one of the 32,131 zip codes in our data set? Here's the calculator you'll need:
Methodology for Estimating Out Developers Per Zip Code
We had to do a bit of work to get these estimates.
The numbers originate from the 2016 American Community Survey crossed with the BLS Standard Job Classification System (our definition of 'developers' is laid out in our first article of the series). Next, we divide the population into the Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs), which are the smallest geographic divisions provided in the public microdata files.
Getting from PUMAs to Zip Codes is a bit complicated. We used the Missouri Census Data Center's online Geographic Correspondance Engine and exported crosswalks based on 2012 estimated populations. After that, a Python script walked through each PUMA and added the numbers up for each zip code.
If that's too many steps, you can grab the raw data behind the calculator here:
Zip Code to Developer Worksheet (CSV)
The raw data is from the University of Minnesota:
Steven Ruggles, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 6.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2015. http://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V6.0.
Other Developer Geographic Breakdowns
- (State) American Developers and Developers by State
- (County) Developers per County in America
- (CBSA) Core Based Statistical Area Software Professional Breakdown
- (CSA) Developers per Combined Statistical Area
Developer Concentration in America
Looking at the numbers at this resolution reveals how dominant engineering is in the Bay Area. There are a number of zip codes in the Bay Area where more than 1 in 5 employed workers need software proficiency for his or her job.
The zip code zoom also lets us see some other hot engineering spots. Seattle is especially prominent, as is Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. and Dallas. Print out a copy of the bigger map and look around - you might be surprised to see where engineers and developers are living!
Anything interesting pop out to you in the data? How many developers live where you live?
