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How Many IT Professionals are in Ukraine in 2024?

The IT industry in Ukraine has shown impressive growth, with the number of IT professionals reaching 281,607 in 2024. However, this number could have been even higher. Unfortunately, due to warfare and blackouts, Ukraine’s economy has suffered significantly, which has impacted the development of the country’s technology sector.

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ukraine developers in 2023

Key Takeaways:

  1. The IT industry in Ukraine is experiencing robust growth. As of 2024, the number of IT professionals has reached approximately 281,000 (+1.32% Y2Y).
  2. IT professionals predominantly work in outsourcing companies (44%), product companies or startups (39%), and outstaffing (13%).
  3. The majority of IT professionals (87%) operate under the individual entrepreneurship model. However, some are formalized under the Labor Code (6%), and there’s a smaller fraction operating as gig contractors (1%).
  4. By 2025, the number of IT individual entrepreneurs is predicted to rise to 347,000.
  5. Kyiv and the Kyiv region host the largest number of IT professionals (30% of total), followed by the Kharkiv region (13%), and Lviv (11%).
  6. Despite the ongoing warfare, all regions experienced an increase in the number of registered IT professionals, including those severely impacted by the war.
  7. The IT workforce is predominantly male (71.7%), with women making up 28.3%.
  8. Despite the growth, IT professionals make up only 1.5 to 2.0 percent of the working population in Ukraine, indicating substantial room for growth.

Ukraine is one of many Eastern European nations becoming popular as an offshore/nearshore location for Western countries. But how many developers are currently working in Ukraine and how have these numbers changed over the past year?

As of February 24, 2024, there were 275,279 individual entrepreneurs (IE) in Ukraine working in the IT sector. This information is from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, provided by Ukrainian analytical service YouСontrol.

Over a year of full-scale war, the number of IT professionals registered as individual entrepreneurs increased by 31,793 people, or by 13%. The growth rate of the number of IT professionals in 2022 was no different from the previous one – in 2021, the number of individual entrepreneurs in IT also increased by 13%. This article will look at the dynamics by year and changes over the past two years in more detail.

Distribution of IT specialists in Ukraine by positions (data from 2022)

Distribution of IT specialists in Ukraine by positions (data from 2022)

Historical data and forecast

According to the “Portrait of an IT Specialist”, in 2022, 87% of Ukrainian IT specialists worked according to the individual entrepreneurship model. Approximately 6% were formalized according to the Labor Code, another 1% as gig contractors, and in 2023 there may be an increase in the number of IT professionals who are formalized this way.

YearNumber of IT Individual Entrepreneurs (in thousands)
201689
2017102
2018123
2019150
2020183
2021212
2022240
2023271.7
2024 (predicted)307.1
2025 (predicted)347.0

Popularity of IT KVEDs (Ukrainian Classification of Types of Economic Activities)

The most popular KVED code under which IT professionals in Ukraine work remains “62.01 Computer Programming” – 186,147 specialists, or 69% of all IT professionals who have open individual entrepreneurship, are registered under it.

In second place is “62.02 IT Consulting” (36,801 professionals, or 14% of all individual entrepreneurs in IT).

In third place is “63.11 Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Activities” (33,412 professionals, 12% of all IT individual entrepreneurs). The number of professionals registered under this code increased by 20% over the year, compared to 13% for all IT KVED codes in general.

Number of IT professionals by region

The largest number of IT professionals is registered in Kyiv and the Kyiv region – together they make up 30% of all IT professionals, or almost 81,000 people. Second in the number of registered IT individual entrepreneurs is Kharkiv region: there are more than 34,000 professionals here, or 13% of the total number of IT individual entrepreneurs. Then comes Lviv (approximately 30,000 professionals, or 11% of all registrations).

Despite the full-scale war, the number of IT professionals registered as individual entrepreneurs has increased in all regions. Even in Kharkiv, Kherson, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions, where active military operations are taking place due to Russian aggression, there has been growth of approximately 10%, although this is less than in other regions.

Women in Tech

In 2024 in Ukraine Women in Tech distribution:

  • Women – 28.3%,
  • Men – 71.7%.

By Company Type

There were almost no changes by type of companies: 44% of the surveyed specialists work in outsourcing companies, and 39% – in product companies or startups, 13% – Outstaffing.

However, not all professionals who have open individual entrepreneurship use it. According to surveys in the Telegram channels (sample – 7,320 professionals), approximately 11% of IT professionals in Ukraine have individual entrepreneurship open in Ukraine but do not use it (do not receive money on it).

Source of this Analysis: It was done by Irina Ippolitova from Dou.ua, where the calculation methodology is described in more detail.

Key takeaways

Using these data, I want to calculate the final number of IT specialists and Developers working in Ukraine or temporarily abroad. For this, we proceed from the figure of 275,279 IE registered specialists. We subtract those who, according to the survey, have individual entrepreneurship but do not provide services – this is minus 11%. And we add another 13% of IT specialists who do not work through the IE scheme.

The IT industry in Ukraine has shown impressive growth, with the number of IT professionals reaching 281,000 in 2024. However, this number could have been even higher. Unfortunately, due to warfare and blackouts, Ukraine’s economy has suffered significantly, which has impacted the development of the country’s technology sector.

Number of IT specialists in Ukraine in 2024

So, in total, we get (275,279-11%)/87% = ~281,607 IT specialists working in Ukraine in February 2024. (+1.32% Y2Y) This is only 1.5 to 2.0 percent of the working population, meaning there is room for growth at least twofold.

The number of IT employees is expected to grow to 347 thousand in the next two years.

Among them by type of company:

Company TypePercentageNumber of Specialists
Outsourcing44%123,907
Staffing13%36,609
Product companies/Startups39%109,827

Outsourcing and Outstaffing employees together – 160,516.

Distribution of IT Professionals in Ukraine by Job Position in 2023

Job PositionPercentage (%)Number of Professionals
Software Engineer50.3%139,899
QA Engineer16.6%46,159
Manager (CTO, Manager, Sales Manager)8.7%24,181
HR/Recruiter4.8%13,341
Analyst/Data Science5.8%16,121
Designer3.3%9,182
DevOps, SRE3.1%8,616
Marketing2.4%6,671
Support/SysAdmin2.3%6,393
Game Developer0.9%2,501
Total100.0%277,945

Number of Software Developers in Ukraine in 2023

Ukraine is home to more than 139 thousand software developers. And 72% of software engineers are male.

Sources:

FAQ

How many IT professionals are there in Ukraine?

According to our reports from February 2024, there were over 281,000 IT employees working in Ukraine, making it one of the largest Tech sectors in Eastern Europe.

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