The web and tech industry is a veritable sausage party. We don’t need surveys to prove it but we have surveys to prove it. State of surveys have been running for a decade now.
Let’s look at the 2025 survey demographics:
Yes I think “sausage party” is accurate. Weißwurstfest even. And yes cock jokes are part of the problem. When I worked in London in the early 2010’s every tech meet-up was plaid shirts and IPA frosted moustaches. Larger tech conferences were better. They had a few women attending and occasionally allowed to speak and a better variety of beers. I worked and mingled with a good bunch of lads. Even good lads make cock jokes after a craft beer. Just a joke, innit? When you read accounts like Ana Rodrigues’ it’s easy to think “not my lads” but then you remember the boisterous punchlines, and that one guy… but he was more of a tagalong.
Some of us grow up but the industry doesn’t. These days I work remotely and don’t get out much but I get the impression little has changed. Certainly the online bro-culture amplifies the worst traits. Now we have LLMs built by and trained on that culture. Ain’t that wonderful.
The State of surveys continue to report alarming numbers. Are they a fair representation of the industry? Do they help or hinder diversity?
Miriam Suzanne raised the concern in 2024.
These correlations don’t tell us much without knowing how representative the data is. I’m just not sure what I’m looking at, or how it should be read. But it concerns me that browsers use surveys like this as a primary gauge of developer interest – seemingly without asking who’s represented, or who might be missing from the data.
What do survey demographics tell us? - Miriam Suzanne
As Miriam noted the State of surveys do influence browser vendors.
The focus areas for 2026 include several areas identified as top interop issues in the State of HTML and State of CSS surveys.
Interop 2026: Continuing to improve the web for developers - Rachel Andrew
Yet survey after survey after survey the demographics remain the same. Maybe the web industry is actually dominated by white guys (and now their new chat box companions). Oh and 60–70% of those surveyed report “None” under “Disability Status” so there’s that too.
This is all kind of a big problem, obviously. Other humans need to use the web. Their voices need to influence the web platform. Maybe if we actually listened we could support more diverse needs and spend less time fast-tracking bro-tech.
So yeah I mock the State of surveys because what are we doing here? Why are we looking at these numbers and concluding: “Wow! I can’t believe Axios is still popular in [current year]!” Lack of diversity is the only relevant takeaway that means anything. I don’t know if these surveys are part of the problem. I know they’re not the solution. But who knows, if we keep asking six times a year maybe diversity will improve?
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