Diversity in the tech industry is not only an issue of fairness but also a business issue. When we take a look at the current state of diversity in tech, statistics show that more diverse companies experience better results. Take a look at the stats below to learn more about the state of diversity in the industry.
Top 10 Diversity in Tech Statistics and Facts
Women make up 29% of workers in tech organizations.
22% of workers in tech are ethnic minorities.
75% percent of game developer respondents said they are White.
Only 10% of US science, engineering, and health doctorate holders have a disability.
Just 7% of tech employers collect demographic data about their boards of directors.
25% of Black computer science students and alumni know no one working in Big Tech.
65.5% of Google’s employees in leadership positions are White.
In 2022, White people worked in 53.4% of Twitter’s leadership roles.
Asian people are more represented in US tech than other minority groups.
Most Black people in IT occupations work in software QA and testing.
Global Tech Diversity Statistics
22% of workers in tech are ethnic minorities.
The percentage of POC in tech is generally smaller in tech teams than across all roles in organizations, counting about 16% of IT teams. However, reports are showing that the situation is gradually improving in Big Tech giants such as Apple and Google.
(Statista)
Women make up 29% of workers in tech organizations.
Women are most represented when we look at all functions in tech organizations. When it comes to IT and tech teams, they make up only about 21% of the workforce. The numbers on cybersecurity show that they are least represented with 12% only.
(Statista)
Globally, 92% of software developers are men.
A global survey from 2022 shows only 5% of software developers in the world identify as women, and another 2% identify as non-binary or genderqueer. The stats illustrate that gender diversity in tech is heavily imbalanced and that there is a long way to go.
(Statista)
75% percent of game developer respondents said they are White.
Tech diversity statistics focusing on game developers around the world show that an overwhelming percentage of developers are Caucasian. Hispanic game developers accounted for 9% of respondents, 7% were Asian, 4% were Black, and another 4% were Aboriginal or Indigenous.
(Statista)
Only 10% of US science, engineering, and health doctorate holders reported having a disability.
Given that the overall share of the US population that reports having a disability is 27%, this research on the biomedical workforce shows a discrepancy between the number of disabled people and those that obtain doctorate degrees. Between 2008 and 2018, the percentage of disabled researchers that received grants from the National Institutes of Health dropped from 1.9% to 1.2%.
(PLOS)
41% of software developers have a Bachelor’s degree.
One way to achieve diversity in the tech industry is by focusing less on formal education and more on the potential employee’s skills. Interestingly, the stats illustrate this as a significant share of software devs have primary school education only (2.46%), secondary school education only (10.8%), or some college but no degree (12.74%).
(Statista)
Statistics on Diversity and Inclusion in Tech in the US
There are significantly fewer women support specialists (-15.5 pp) and database administrators (-12 pp) compared to 2000.
The share of women operations research analysts (51%) and web developers (39.5% in 2020 and 38.7% in 2021) remained roughly the same in the twenty years of research. The percentage of computer system analysts rose from 34% to 37%, which is the only occurrence of an increase in the survey.
On the other hand, information technology demographics show significantly fewer women in tech roles: support specialists (-15.5 percentage points), database administrators (-12 pp), system administrators (-5.8 pp), hardware engineers (-8.6 pp), programmers (-6.5 pp), and developers (-4.3 pp).
(Statista)
Just 7% of tech employers collect demographic data about their boards of directors.
Even as companies are facing a tech talent shortage, only 42% have set diversity hiring goals, even though workplace diversity is a deciding factor for 76% of job seekers. The tech industry’s diversity problem is especially prominent in managerial positions — a third of employers stated their executive teams are more than 90% White.
(Built In)
25% of black computer science students and alumni don’t know anyone working in Big Tech.
Having a network is essential for young professionals in any field, providing them with more opportunities to learn and improve. However, almost 75% of students said they knew less than five people in the top ten companies, while a quarter said they didn’t know anyone. This is especially an issue when it comes to sharing job searching experiences, such as the technical interview, affecting the job seekers’ confidence.
(Karat)
Asian people are more represented in US tech than other minority groups.
Moreover, 37.1% of all software developers in the US are Asian. This is the largest share of Asian employees in any IT occupation, followed by 27.6% of software quality assurance analysts and testers. The tech occupation with the lowest percentage of Asian workers is web and digital interface design.
(Statista)
14.1% of Black people in technology occupations work as software QA analysts and testers.
Software quality assurance and testing is the IT occupation with the highest share of Black workers in the US, while 11.8% work as information security analysts and 11.9% in other computing-related fields. The lowest share of Black people worked in web development, at 4.6%.
(Statista)
11.7% of computer support specialists are Hispanic or Latinx.
Computer support specialist is the most common IT occupation among the Hispanic population, followed by 11.5% for all other tech fields and 11% for computer systems analysts. Only 5.7% of Hispanic people work in software QA and testing.
(Statista)
Stats on Diversity and Inclusion in Tech Companies
Google’s employee diversity by ethnicity increased slightly between 2014 and 2021.
Numbers about diversity in high tech show that, in 2021, around 50% of Google’s employees were White, compared to 64.5% in 2014. 42% of employees were Asian, compared to 31.5% in 2014, representing the biggest increase. The percentage of Black Google employees rose only slightly from 2.4% in 2014 to 4.4% in 2021.
When it comes to Latinx employees, they made up 6.4% of the workforce in 2021, an increase from 4.5% in 2014. Unfortunately, stats on racial diversity in tech show that the share of Native Americans in Google's workforce had remained under 1% since 2016 and was 0.8% in 2021.
(Statista)
In 2022, White people worked in 53.4% of Twitter’s leadership roles.
Although Twitter has experienced changes in structure since, in March 2022, the numbers on inclusion and diversity in the tech company’s leadership roles looked like this: 53.4% White, 20.8% Asian ethnicity, 8.2% Black, 4.6% Latinx, 3.8% Multiracial, and 1% Indigenous.
(Statista)
According to Silicon Valley tech workers’ demographics, only 3.2% of executives were Black in 2020.
For comparison, in California, in general, Black people represent 6% of the workforce. Furthermore, the official EEO report from 2014 provides additional context: in 2014, Silicon Valley diversity statistics put the percentage of Black executives below 1%.
(US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Silicon Valley Indicators, CompTIA)
Black people filled 13% of open US leadership positions in Apple, while Latinx people filled 12% in 2021.
With the growing understanding of the importance of diversity in tech, statistics illustrate a gradual improvement in some companies. Apple’s latest diversity and inclusion report shows improvement compared to the previous year. In 2021, Black and Hispanic people were hired in 25% of all open leadership positions and 41% of retail leadership roles.
(Apple)
Zoom was ranked as the most diverse and inclusive Big Tech company in 2022.
Zoom received a ranking of 9.46/10, followed by Mastercard at 7.17/10. Amazon and Paypal were at the bottom of the top 20 list, with a score below 4. Statistics on Meta/Facebook show that the company ranked 15th out of 20, or received 5.48 points out of 10.
(Statista)
Conclusion
As we’ve seen above, there is a gradual increase of diversity in tech, and the statistics are somewhat encouraging. Some of the Big Tech companies are rethinking their hiring policies and showing results. Other organizations are working with students to help them overcome the lack of opportunities, like having less access to classes and networks. The tech industry is still far from reflecting the real world, but it’s slowly getting there.
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