What share of software developers are Black?

5.4%, against 12.7% of everyone employed — about 121,716 people. BLS Current Population Survey, 2025.

AP Computer Science in high school: a route into computing — Nine Point Five

Q: Can you get into computing through ap computer science in high school?

2,246 Black students took AP Computer Science A in 2020. 715 of them were girls. This route only exists where the course is offered and actually runs. 80% of Black students attend a school that offers computer science, which is the good news; enrolment is where the number falls.

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Depends on your school

Black professionals in a meeting with laptops — licensed illustration, not a person in the statistic. The Narrowing — Nine Point Five — ap computer science. — Black professionals in a meeting with laptops. Licensed illustration — not a person in the statistic. Photo: Pexels

Congratulations on getting curious about computer science. Your track starts with two courses your school may already offer.

There are two AP Computer Science courses. AP Computer Science Principles teaches you the foundations of the field. AP Computer Science A is where you begin writing real programs.

Take Principles first. What you learn there is what you will use in the second course to do the actual programming.

In 2020, Black students were 6.9% of AP Computer Science Principles exam takers and 3.5% of AP Computer Science A takers, against roughly 15% of American K-12 enrolment. In absolute terms: 2,246 Black students took AP Computer Science A in the entire country, and 715 of them were girls. This is a number you could fit in a high school gymnasium.

The College Board's own data says what to do about it. Black students who take AP Computer Science Principles are about three times more likely to go on to AP Computer Science A, and more than three times more likely to major in computer science. For 68% of Black students in the class of 2019 who took it, AP Computer Science Principles was their first AP STEM course of any kind.

That is the single most actionable finding in this campaign. The broad course is not a consolation prize for the real one — it is the thing that produces the real one. A school deciding which AP to add should know that.

This route only exists where the course is offered and actually runs. 80% of Black students attend a school that offers computer science, which is the good news; enrolment is where the number falls.

The ladder, in one table

Where	Black share	Against 12.7% of all workers
Everyone employed in the US	12.7%	—
Computer & mathematical occupations	9.5%	0.75×
Software developers	5.4%	0.43×
Technology jobs overall	8%	0.63×
C-suite technology executives	3%	0.24×

Occupation rows: BLS Current Population Survey, 2025 annual averages. Technology-industry and executive rows: CompTIA via McKinsey, 2022 — a different instrument on a different base, shown here because the direction is the point and stated separately because the sources are not the same.

What is already paid for

Pell grants — do not have to be repaid, and most families who qualify never file. studentaid.gov.
WIOA — federal training money through your local workforce board. Every county is covered. Not a loan. CareerOneStop.
Registered apprenticeships — a wage from the first day. apprenticeship.gov.
Employer tuition reimbursement and certification vouchers — among the least-claimed benefits in American employment. Ask in writing.
HBCU institutional and federal aid — ask the specific school's financial aid office for the net price, not the sticker price.

Programme names, amounts and deadlines change. These are the doors; verify current terms with the source before counting on a number.

All eight routes The campaign

Sources. Occupation shares: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey Table 11, 2025 annual averages, reproduced as published. Degree counts: National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, 2021–22; degree-share trend: National Science Foundation NCSES. High school access, participation and the earnings effect: Code.org Advocacy Coalition, State of Computer Science Education, and the underlying study, Liu, Conrad & Blazar, EdWorkingPaper 24-904 — which reports roughly 8% overall and a 10-to-14% range across subgroups including Black students, not a standalone 12%, and we say so rather than quoting the friendliest point in a range. AP exam composition: College Board via the Kapor Center, 2020. HBCU figures: UNCF Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute. Population and geography: Pew Research Center; rural poverty patterns: USDA Economic Research Service. County economic type and needs classifications: USDA ERS County Typology Codes; labour markets: 2020 Commuting Zones. County counts are computed from the committed county file at build time, not asserted.

Photographs on this campaign are licensed stock used as illustration — not portraits of the people inside the federal counts. Full credits: CREDITS.md.