Capital houses more IT programmers than New York, San Francisco and any other European City
London’s tech workforce set to grow 22% by 2025
London is home to more tech talent than any other major city according to new figures from online developer community, Stack Overflow, and London & Partners, the Mayor’s official promotional company for London.
Analysis of Stack Overflow users over the last 6 months shows that London is home to more than 71,000 professional developers, greater than any other European city, the metropolitan area of San Francisco and New York City1.
Across Europe, London is attracting more developers than Stockholm, Berlin and Dublin combined and the nearest competitor city is Paris with 40,538 IT programmers.
Separate research by Oxford Economics, for London & Partners, found that the wider tech workforce in the city is predicted to grow by 22% over the next 10 years taking the number of people employed in London’s tech sector to 239,700 by 2025. Employment growth in London’s tech sector is forecast to outperform the national average, growing almost four times faster than all other sectors in the UK (total employment growth across all sectors at 6.4%)2.
The number of tech companies in London is also forecast to rise to 51,500 by 2025 according to Oxford Economics. This represents a 92% increase in the number of tech businesses since the launch of the Tech City project by Prime Minister David Cameron MP and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP five years ago.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP said: “London is a hotbed for tech talent. With Europe’s fastest growing tech hub and some of the world’s leading universities, London based businesses can benefit from access to an unparalleled talent pool. Five years on since the creation of the Tech City project, the capital’s booming tech sector has gone from strength-to-strength and continues to be a leading source of jobs and growth for the London economy.”
David Slater, Director of International Trade & Investment said: “This research underlines London’s status as the best city in the world in which to grow a tech business. A key reason why international businesses are attracted to London is the concentration of highly skilled workers, our ability to attract the best talent from around the world and our burgeoning culture of innovation and creativity. In the past few years we have helped some the world’s fastest growing technology companies establish headquarters and engineering centres in London.”
In addition to the growing number of digital businesses, tech workers are drawn to London for its competitive salaries. According to Stack Overflow’s 2015 Annual User Survey, London’s developers are amongst the best paid in Europe, earning an average of £56,830 per year. This is greater than any other European country and is more than the Middle East’s emerging tech hub, Tel Aviv3.
Dimitar Stanimiroff, Managing Director Stack Overflow EMEA said: “The insights into London’s developer landscape that we have uncovered are fascinating. The UK’s capital city is now a global powerhouse for technologists, rivalling New York and San Francisco city. For example, London based businesses can benefit from access to 25 per cent more developers and over 15 per cent more mobile developers than New York City. London is also ahead of its European counterparts for the number of back-end developers, mobile and Microsoft technologies.”
When it comes to finding the world’s Microsoft technologists, London is home to more full stack Microsoft web developers than all of the other tech cities studied, including San Francisco. London has 30,062 developers specialising in this field which is more than the combined total of Tallinn, Barcelona, Dublin, Berlin, Budapest, Stockholm and Amsterdam.
The UK’s capital city is well positioned to service needs of businesses specialising in Google’s Android mobile operating system, and Apple’s iOS system. According to Stack Overflow data, there are 9,655 developers in London working with Android – Google’s mobile operating system, and 8,732 who work on the Apple’s iOS operating system. This represents more mobile developers than all other European tech hubs.
Over the past five years some of the world’s largest technology companies such as Amazon, Google, Facebook and Skype have all established developer and engineering hubs in the capital. At this year’s London Technology Week, Amazon announced the completion of its move to London, with more than 2,000 corporate employees taking up residency in three locations across the capital. The three offices are 60 Holborn Viaduct which is the new Amazon UK corporate headquarters, Glasshouse Yard near the Barbican and a technology development centre at Leadenhall Court, home to hundreds of technology engineers.
“Innovation is at the heart of Amazon’s business and our recent move to the capital allows us to draw from a pool of talent that includes some of the best minds in the technology industry,” said Christopher North, Managing Director Amazon.co.uk. “In our London-based development centre, hundreds of highly skilled software engineers are responsible for developing the Amazon Video service for a global audience. London is a thriving hub for tech talent, making it an ideal destination to continue to expand our operations.”
Russ Shaw, founder, Tech London Advocates, comments: “London’s digital economy has experienced extraordinary success in recent years, making it the fastest growing sector of the economy. The backbone of this growth comes from talented, innovative and creative individuals from all kinds of backgrounds with world-leading skills. Growth begets growth, and London should continue to be a ‘magnet’ for world-leading talent, developed in the UK and welcome from all destinations beyond the UK. London’s reputation as a global tech hub should be defined by the diversity and richness of its talent.”
