What changed in seven years of open source

In 2017, GitHub surveyed 5,500 open source contributors to profile the people building and maintaining the software ecosystem. This year the survey was repeated, drawing 8,400 responses from visitors to open source repositories. The goal was to measure how the community has shifted through rapid technological and social change, and the results are now publicly available.

Security now shapes adoption decisions

The 2024 survey introduced questions about secure by design practices for the first time. The responses show that security has moved from a maintenance concern to an adoption criterion: 82% of respondents consider secure by design practices important when choosing open source software, and 62% weigh security when deciding where to contribute.

A horizontal stacked bar graph comparing the importance of various factors when deciding to use open source software. The responses for the different factors are for 2017 and 2024, with responses categorized as very important to have (pink), somewhat important to have (green), not important either way (peach), somewhat important not to have (light blue), very important not to have (dark blue), and don’t know what this is (red). Factors like active development, responsive maintainers, and an open source license remain highly valued across both years, with the majority marking them as very or somewhat important. New in 2024, secure by design also shows significant importance. A welcoming community and widespread use continue to be priorities, while a contributing guide and a code of conduct show increased importance. A contributor’s license agreement (CLA) remains mixed, with a notable portion indicating they don’t know what this is.

AI tools are now mainstream in development

Adoption of AI-assisted development has grown quickly. In this year's survey, 72% of participants reported using AI tools such as GitHub Copilot for coding or writing documentation.

A horizontal stacked bar graph showing how frequently respondents engage in or observe six AI-related activities, categorized as Frequently (pink), Occasionally (green), Rarely (dark purple), and Never (orange). For 'writing code or documentation with assistance from AI,' about half of respondents reported 'Never,' with smaller segments indicating 'Rarely,' 'Occasionally,' or 'Frequently.' Similarly, using AI assistance in other tasks supporting software development showed a majority in 'Never' and 'Rarely,' while smaller portions engaged 'Occasionally' or 'Frequently.' Activities like 'contributing to projects that use publicly available AI models and developing AI infrastructure (e.g., models, datasets, orchestration)' saw most respondents selecting 'Never,' with limited engagement in 'Rarely' and 'Occasionally.' The same trend applies to 'contributing to projects using non-public AI models,' with minimal 'Frequent' engagement. However, for 'awareness of and following applicable ethics, governance, and security practices when engaging in these activities,' a notable portion followed these practices 'Frequently' or 'Occasionally,' though many still reported 'Rarely' or 'Never.'

The contributor base is slowly diversifying

The demographic makeup of the open source community has shifted since the first survey. Respondents identifying as ethnic minorities increased from 13% in 2017 to 18% in 2024, while those identifying as immigrants rose from 27% to 31%. That gradual change brings a wider range of perspectives into the ecosystem.

A horizontal bar graph comparing responses from 2017 and 2024 to the question: 'Thinking of where you were born, are you a member of an ethnicity or nationality that is considered a minority in that country?' The bars are color-coded, with pink representing 2017 and dark purple representing 2024. In 2017, 78.9% of respondents answered 'No,' compared to 70.2% in 2024, indicating a decrease. The percentage of respondents answering 'Yes' increased from 13.4% in 2017 to 18.2% in 2024. Those who were 'Not sure' rose slightly from 4.6% to 6.5%, while those who chose 'Prefer not to say' increased from 3.2% to 5.1%.

Investing in the next phase

GitHub is committing $1.25M through its Secure Open Source Fund to help maintainers tackle security challenges. The company is also calling on organizations, governments, and funders to invest in open source as a public good.

Since the last survey, more than 75 million new users have joined GitHub. The full dataset, covering attitudes on privacy, harassment, funding, and community health, is available at opensourcesurvey.org.