Developers active this year.
What share of developers have been active on GitHub in the last 12 months?
Where GitHub reports a last-activity date (about two in five profiles), 53.8% of UK developers were active in the last 12 months, against 50.1% in China (n=70,367).
Sample: 70,367 developers · source: public GitHub profiles · data to 24 September 2026
By city
| City | Figure | Sample (developers) | In words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 56.5% | 315 | Reading: 56.5% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=315). |
| Cambridge | 56.3% | 1,261 | Cambridge: 56.3% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=1,261). |
| Oxford | 56.3% | 961 | Oxford: 56.3% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=961). |
| South Yorkshire | 56.1% | 684 | South Yorkshire: 56.1% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=684). |
| West Midlands | 55.7% | 946 | West Midlands: 55.7% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=946). |
| Edinburgh | 54.8% | 1,851 | Edinburgh: 54.8% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=1,851). |
| Liverpool City Region | 54.4% | 522 | Liverpool City Region: 54.4% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=522). |
| West Yorkshire | 54% | 1,053 | West Yorkshire: 54% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=1,053). |
| Belfast | 53.5% | 563 | Belfast: 53.5% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=563). |
| Nottingham | 53.4% | 502 | Nottingham: 53.4% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=502). |
| Greater Manchester | 53.3% | 2,475 | Greater Manchester: 53.3% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=2,475). |
| Glasgow | 53.2% | 1,147 | Glasgow: 53.2% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=1,147). |
| London | 53.2% | 26,895 | London: 53.2% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=26,895). |
| Cardiff | 52.7% | 440 | Cardiff: 52.7% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=440). |
| Bristol | 52.4% | 1,335 | Bristol: 52.4% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=1,335). |
| Southampton | 51.6% | 349 | Southampton: 51.6% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=349). |
| Tyne and Wear | 51.1% | 644 | Tyne and Wear: 51.1% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=644). |
| Brighton and Hove | 48.5% | 600 | Brighton and Hove: 48.5% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=600). |
UK vs China
| Country | Figure | Sample (developers) | In words |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 50.1% | 103,068 | China: 50.1% active in the last 12 months (UK 53.8%; n=103,068). |
How this is measured
Profiles whose last public activity is within the 12 months before the data date, among profiles where the last-activity date was collected (about two in five; the rest are left out). Those profiles are not a random sample (they are more often recently active), so the share describes them, not every developer. Country segment: mainland China. Source: public GitHub profiles and their public repositories (the teky search dataset; each finding's date is the date the data runs to). Population: GitHub accounts whose stated location we confirm as the UK or mainland China — the geocoder's country is re-checked against the location text (DevLocation), which drops "Cambridge, MA", "Stanford, CA", "Birmingham, AL" and "Philadelphia, PA"-style mis-codes and bare town names shared with a larger place abroad, and Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan; organisation accounts and profiles with no GitHub account are excluded. It describes developers who publish on GitHub and state where they are, not every developer: it leans towards open-source contributors, academics and students, and Chinese developers also use Gitee, so China is under-represented. n = developers (GitHub accounts) unless the insight says otherwise.
Cite this
Free to quote with a credit and a link.
ProdReady Recruitment (2026). Developers active this year. Data to 24 September 2026. https://ProdReadyRecruitment.com/research/dev_activity
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