Northern Ireland (NI) is the top region in the UK in terms of opportunities for software developers, according to research from the Code Institute.

NI has around 9,744 opportunities available for software developers, but with an average salary of £43,690, lower than other regions in the UK on average.

The region also has the highest amount of coding roles as a proportion of total available jobs, 6.2 per cent, and these pay an average of 40 per cent more than other available roles in the country.

London came in second in the Code Institute’s rankings with 250,280 jobs available for software developers at an average salary of £68,019.

The Southeast and Scotland came third and forth in the rankings.

The Southeast offers 179,144 total coding jobs at an average salary of £53,000, while Scotland had 57,247 developer jobs at an average salary of £51,215.

At the other end of the scale, the East Midlands was ranked as the worst region for coding jobs by the research, offering the smallest percentage of available roles - 1.7 per cent - and a pay increase of 40 per cent compared to average jobs in the region.

In terms of specific cities, Belfast took the top spot in the rankings, followed by Cambridge, Gloucester, and Bangor.

Salford was ranked the worst city in the UK in terms of opportunities for software developers.

“Right now, there are massive opportunities for new software developers across the UK,” said a Code Institute spokesperson. “For years, there has been talk of a digital skills gap, but this has increased to gorge proportions since 2020.”

“Even prior to the pandemic, governments and local councils throughout the UK were working on digital skills policies.”

They added: “Throughout the pandemic, software development roles held firm, especially given that every business became more reliant on technology than ever before.”

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