About three working Americans in a hundred hold a computing job. That is where the country starts. Where it finishes depends on how many people reading a page like this one decide to be the fourth.
There is no federal instrument that measures coding literacy. No NAEP assessment, no PIAAC scale, no Census question. The most cited estimate is Dr. Bryson Payne, Professor of Computer Science at the University of North Georgia, TEDx 2018: "fewer than 9 million of us, less than 3%, can read and write code." Federal arithmetic lands in the same neighbourhood from a completely different direction.
Meanwhile: in 2024 China's share of global R&D spending (30%) exceeded the United States' (29%) for the first time. The US held 39% in 2000. And 61% of American computer science master's and doctoral degrees now go to temporary visa holders.
The five findings
Three in a Hundred
No federal instrument measures coding literacy. What can be measured, measured three ways, with the workings shown.
Sixty-One Percent
61% of US computer science graduate degrees go to temporary visa holders. A recruitment strategy, not a talent strategy.
The Year We Were Passed
In 2024 China's share of global R&D spending exceeded the United States' for the first time.
Nineteen Fifty-Eight
Sputnik launched in October 1957. The National Defense Education Act was signed in September 1958.
Tomorrow's Leadership
Everyone who will run this country's technical infrastructure in 2050 is alive today, and most are not being taught.
Each of the five is a full package: the finding, eight roles, all 51 states, and every one of the 3,152 counties in the United States. A search from anywhere in the country has an answer written for that place.
Eight roles, and the one thing only each of them can do
| Role | What it holds |
|---|---|
| If you are the student | Yours to decide — and one course is worth more than you were told |
| If you are the parent | Four questions, asked once, on the record |
| If you are the teacher | You can decide this — the belief that you are unqualified is the bottleneck |
| If you sit on a school board | You can decide this — you control the catalog |
| If you employ people | You can decide this — sponsor an apprenticeship |
| If you hold or seek office | You can decide this — twelve states require it, thirty-nine do not |
| If you run a county or a workforce board | You can decide this — you hold WIOA money and the provider list |
| If you are changing careers | Yours to decide — and you are the fastest route to the number moving |
You cannot get from three in a hundred to first in the world by drawing from a slice of the country. There is no arrangement of the remaining population that reaches the target. It is not a diversity argument — it is a capacity argument, and it is why every group on this site is counted separately and then counted here once.
Every campaign
Amigos en Acción runs eight. Each takes one group and one barrier; the last one is the sum of them.
Start with Three in a HundredSite index
Photographs on this campaign are licensed stock used as illustration — not portraits of the people inside the federal counts. Full credits: CREDITS.md.