Permanent, full-time employment in the industry and services sectors: Software Developers or Computer Programming, in 2025, is related to the Annual Employment Survey 2024.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT): The total number of people in Ireland in 2024, working in the ICT sector, was 136,686, 109,031 in foreign-owned firms and 27,655 in Irish companies.
Software Developers / Computer Programming in total had 42,384 people in the year.
Irish-owned firms in 2024 had a total number of people of 2,528 in programming.
Foreign-owned companies that are mainly American and have facilities in Ireland had a total headcount of 39,836.
Total permanent, full-time employment in Government agency-assisted companies operating in all sectors amounted to 504,831 in 2024.
Among foreign-owned companies, total permanent, full-time employment reached 299,059 in 2024, representing a 2,237-job increase (0.8%) over the previous year and the highest employment level recorded during 10 years.
Total permanent, full-time employment among Irish-owned companies amounted to 205,772 in 2024.
The total of 505,000!
This is a denominator.
The total result is 8.4% ICT Employment
The 2,528 Irish result is 0.51 ICT Employment
Why Ireland Is Becoming a Magnet for Top Software Developers?
"Ireland’s journey from a small European nation to a global tech powerhouse is nothing short of remarkable. But its real strength lies in its ability to blend innovation with authenticity."
However, most programmers in Ireland work for foreign firms.
For Foreign-owned: 19,197; 15,9972; 39,856 and 34,006, which totals 109,031.
Stripe, INC. was founded in San Francisco by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison in 2010
8,500 are employed. (2025)
On October 9, 2025, the financial services company opened its new Dublin headquarters at One Wilton Place.
Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin was with Stripe cofounder John Collison and the Chief Revenue Officer Eileen O’Mara.
Sripe is classified as foreign-owned.
Euristat: Glossary - ICT specialists
ICT (Information and Communication Technology) specialists are defined as "workers who have the ability to develop, operate and maintain ICT systems, and for whom ICT constitutes the main part of their job".
Operationalised in terms of ISCO (International Standard Classification of Occupations) codes, ICT specialists belong to one of the following occupations:
I. ICT managers, professionals and associate professionals:
133 - ICT Service managers;
25 - Information and communications technology professionals (Software and multimedia developers and analysts, and Database specialists and systems administrators);
35 - Information and communication technicians (ICT operations and user support technicians and Communications technicians),
II. Other unit groups that primarily involve the production of ICT goods and services:
2152 - Electronic engineers;
2153 - Telecommunication engineers;
2166 - Graphic and multimedia designers;
2356 - Information technology trainers;
2434 - ICT sales professionals;
3114 - Electronics engineering technicians and
742 - Electronics and Telecommunications Installers and Repairs.
How Many Software Developers Are There in The World?
Disscusion
In 2023, foreign-owned enterprises were responsible for 84% (€5.9 billion) of all business R&D expenditure in Ireland, while Irish-owned enterprises accounted for just 16% (€1.1 billion). This continues a long-standing trend where indigenous firms lag multinational groups in R&D activity.
"Business Expenditure on Research and Development 2023 as reported in 2025 by the Central Statistics Office (CSO)
- €7.0bn was spent in the business sector on R&D of which €1.1 billion was by Irish-owned enterprises and €5.9 billion was by Foreign-owned enterprises
- There were 40,956 people employed in R&D in Ireland in 2023, 11,565 Female and 29,392 Male
- The top 10 enterprises accounted for €4.0 billion of the total share of R&D expenditure in 2023, excluding the top 10 R&D expenditures amounted to €3.0 billion."
In 2023, business-funded R&D accounted for more than three-fifths of total R&D expenditure in Sweden (63.5%), Germany (62.6%) and Belgium (60.2%).
By contrast, a substantial part of R&D expenditure was funded by the Government sector in Luxembourg (50.0%), Greece (41.6%), Spain (38.3%), Lithuania (38.1%), Italy (36.9%), Latvia (36.4%), Cyprus (36.2%), and Estonia (35.7%).
In 2023, considerable differences also emerged in R&D funding from the Rest of the world, with relatively high shares recorded in Ireland (42.4%), Bulgaria (41.9%), Czechia (31.1%), Latvia (25.3%) and Slovenia (24.1%).
The Higher education sector played a relatively small role in funding R&D expenditure in most countries, exceeding 3.0% in the southern countries of Malta (9.7%), Spain (4.1%), Cyprus (3.2%), Croatia (3.1%), and, in addition, in Lithuania (3.6%), Poland (3.1%) and France (3.2%), while being modest in the rest of the countries.
The private non-profit sector was likewise of marginal significance across the EU, exceeding 3.0% only in Denmark (8.0%) and in Sweden and Cyprus (both with 3.2%).
Ireland would not be a wealthy country but for the great benefit of foreign firms.
"In Ireland’s headline productivity and R&D levels have always flattered to deceive because multinationals have a bigger presence in the Irish economy and because these companies typically spend more on R&D than average firms," The Irish Times.
Unicorn startups in Ireland (Nov, 2025)
A "unicorn" is a privately held startup company that has a valuation of over $1 billion.
All of them are American, headquartered in Dublin to take advantage of low taxes.
There may be no activity following the work of a commercial lawyer or accountant.
Relying on the USA
"There are 973 U.S. firms with operations in Ireland, according to the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland in 2025."
According to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council: "Looking at data from the Internal Revenue Service in the US, Ifac estimates that the manufacturing and ICT sectors accounted for around 87% of the Corporation Tax paid by large US-owned multinationals in Ireland between July 2016 and June 2023."
Ifac says Corporation Tax may be even more concentrated than previously thought.
Apple, Microsoft, and Google (Alphabet) are likely the top three 3 taxpayers to the Irish Government.
"This matters when assessing how exposed Ireland’s corporation tax revenues are to tariffs and US trade policy changes more generally.
"So far, tariff hikes have focused only on goods, while ICT services have not been directly impacted - for now, at least" — Ifac says.
The home front
It's not just programmers who are missing. This year, Ryanair celebrated its 40th birthday.
There was no other significant Irish-born business event in Ireland during the same time period.
In early June 2025, Cliff Taylor of The Irish Times wrote: "The Irish economy grew by 22% over the past year" according to the latest estimates from the Central Statistics Office.
"Think about it. The figures suggest that for every €1 of activity last year, there was €1.22 in 2025. Even comparing GDP in the first quarter of this year with the last quarter of 2024, there is a rise of close to 10 per cent"
The population of the European Union is 450 million.
Ireland's GDP per capita highest in the world! — 1
Irish software developers were at O.5% in 2024 while the total was 8.4% — 2