Visualizing the Diversity of the Tech Industry

Visualizing the Diversity of the Tech Industry

With the recent leak of the “Google Manifesto” and the maelstrom of media backlash that followed, it seems that concerns around diversity in the technology industry have finally reached a boiling point.

Today’s infographic from Information is Beautiful breaks down the demographics of 23 major tech companies, based on statistics from 2016. It also provides comparisons to the composition of the U.S. population in general, the top 50 U.S. companies, Congress, and Fortune 500 CEOs.

Which Companies Employ the Most Women?

With just a focus on the major companies on this list, here is a breakdown that shows which companies employ the most women:

The above list already illustrates why diversity is such a concern for many observers of the industry: even the companies with the most women on their rosters have proportions lower than U.S. population average of 50%.

In contrast, here are the companies on the list that employ the fewest women, as a proportion of their workforce:

Google, which is at the center of debate right now, did not make the list of the companies with the fewest women – but it’s not far off with a workforce comprised of 31% women.

What’s Changed in the Last 12 Months?

According to Information is Beautiful, here is what has changed in the last 12 months as of their last update (April 2017):

• Facebook, Apple, eBay, and Microsoft all had their ratio of women increase by 1%.
• LinkedIn had their ratio of women increase by 3%.
• Google’s gender ratio stayed the same.
• Microsoft increased the ratio of non-white employees by 3%, and Facebook by 2%.
• Google, Apple, and eBay increased ratio of non-white employees by 1%.
• LinkedIn lost 3% of its non-white employees.
• Asian staff accounted for the majority of increases in ethnic diversity, while the ratio of Hispanic employees remained static.

To get an even better sense of the data, we recommend visiting the interactive version of Information is Beautiful’s graphic, which shows numbers for 2014 and 2015 as well.