When Do Programmers Retire? Is 35 the End?

Let’s talk about the truth, rumor, and endgame of programmers

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

Why don’t we see a decent number of grey-haired software developers in the industry? Where do all the programmers go when they are older? Do companies cut out older programmers?

If a programmer in their 50s applies for a position with some in their 20s or 30s, how many companies will hire them? There are a lot of myths about this issue, and there are some hard truths too.

It’s certainly shocking to see 40, even 35, considered “old” sometimes. The term old is used here to mean when programmers plan to retire or switch their jobs.

Let’s talk about some statistics.

Statistic: Is 40 the New 60 for Programmers?

I found some conflicting statistics among some surveys. In 2019 Stack Overflow surveyed 66,329 professional developers from all around the world. Here’s the result:

Graph by Author

Of the total number of professional developers, 71.7% are under 35 years old and 85% are under 40 years old. This is unusual compared to almost any other…