London home to more tech firms than world’s other major cities

More technology businesses call the UK capital home than any of the world’s other major cities, according to figures released by online developer community Stack Overflow, and London & Partners.

Analysis of Stack Overflow users during the last six months has shown that London contains over 71,000 professional developers, more than Stockholm, Berlin and Dublin combined.

The city also beats other global tech hubs New York and San Francisco, with the nearest competitor in Europe Paris at 40,538 IT programmers.

Meanwhile, research by Oxford Economics has predicted that London’s tech workforce will grow by 22% over the next 10 years, increasing to 239,700 by 2025 – while the number of tech companies will increase to 51,500 by 2025.

Additionally, the city’s tech sector is expected to grow by 6.4%, almost four times faster than employment growth in all other sectors. Stack also revealed developers in London are also amongst the best paid in Europe, earning an average of £56,830.

Boris Johnson MP, mayor of London, 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.”