Diversity in Tech by the Numbers: Age, Race, & Gender

In 2014, Google released its employment diversity numbers, and they were nothing short of terrible. 83% of Google tech employees were men, with 60% of the entire tech workforce being white and another 34% being Asian. There was, however, one positive outcome from the release: After Google released its report, the rest of the tech community began making an effort to be more transparent as well. Needless to say, that wasn’t enough to keep Google from taking some heat for their results.

Luckily, a healthy public shaming is enough to make a company change their ways, right? Especially Google. After all, it’s Google — they’re good at everything. At least that’s what we thought until we saw the numbers for 2017. (Pay especially close attention to the ratios of black and hispanic employees.)

At the end of the day, confronting such a massive problem requires employers at the forefront of the industry to roll their sleeves up and do something about. If these numbers tell us anything, it’s that the sleeves are still rolled down over white, hairy, male arms. (Well, at least white and male.)

And when it comes to tech, it’s the only one of these fields where women are underrepresented more than they were in 1990. (No that’s not a typo.)

All of these numbers are capped off by terrible retention in the industry. Women are leaving tech at an alarming rate — but not because of the roles or responsibilities. It’s the culture.

Racial Diversity in Tech

Gender diversity might have you shaking your head, but it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. The percentage of black and Hispanic employees at major tech companies is especially low, making up just one to three percent of the tech workforce. In total, the ratio of African Americans and Hispanics to coworkers is about half in the tech sector of what it is in the rest of the private sector. Oh, and did we mention that 83% of all tech execs are white?

Stackoverflow is a widely used developer tool who publishes an annual developer survey. That survey was a cause for alarm in 2016, when only 5.8% of 55,128 responses came from women. The number was so low that Stackoverflow even felt the need to qualify it, saying “Our survey results demonstrate a dramatic disparity in tech among men and women. In fact, we know women make up a more significant portion of the developer workforce than this suggests.”

They went on to state that the results of the survey weren’t accurately reflective of the larger portion of female developers in South Korea, India and China. One country they didn’t mention? The United States.

The same survey had a plenty to say about the average age in the tech world as well: The average age of developers is 29 years old, with the median coming in at 27.

From all of these numbers it’s clear that tech companies are predominantly white, male and young. It’s an industry that very much reflects the same ratios of diversity it sees at the leadership level. And as it stands, it’s one that seems very much closed to “outsiders.”

Tech hiring still relies heavily on poaching and incentives. Who can offer the better perks? Dry cleaning? Hot breakfasts? Work from home? Travel stipend? Between all of this, the hiring process is ripe for disruption. As a recruiter it’s where you can have the most impact. In fact, it’s up to recruiters to begin that disruption at the job description, interview, and hiring phases, meeting an unsustainable ecosystem head on with new ideas, methodologies and practices.

Step one: Make your move.

Step two: Get leadership to buy in.

Step three: Watch the company culture follow.

If you’d like to learn more about increasing and supporting diversity & inclusion in your organization, learn about our Diversity course, part of our Tech Recruiter Certification Program.