A second year of GitHub Innovation Graph data
The GitHub Innovation Graph data release now covers two full years of regular updates since its launch. The project provides aggregated statistics on public software development activity across the globe, serving researchers, policymakers, funders, and engineering organizations. Alongside the latest data, GitHub has refreshed the bar chart race visualizations on the global metrics pages for git pushes, repositories, developers, and organizations.
What the data powered in 2025
Over the past year, Innovation Graph data appeared in a broad set of academic papers, conference presentations, news coverage, and major industry reports. The studies applied the datasets to questions ranging from collaboration networks and institutional history to software complexity and economic measurement.
Academic studies
Recent scholarship using Innovation Graph data includes work from economists and social scientists exploring how historical factors shape digital activity today. A Federal Reserve Board economist examined how the density of Protestant mission stations correlates with participation in digital production across African countries (Olana, Deriba, “Historical Institutions and Modern Digital Capabilities: New Evidence from GitHub in Africa,” November 2025).
Researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Chicago used the Innovation Graph economy collaborators dataset to analyze cross-national collaboration in open-source software development, finding connections to common colonial histories (Xu, Henry, et al., “The Structure of Cross-National Collaboration in Open-Source Software Development,” November 2025). A social network analysis from researchers at Midwestern State University and Tarleton State University highlighted the small-world structure of global open-source software collaboration on GitHub (Zhang, Guoying, et al., Journal of Global Information Management, 2025).
Another line of work leverages the geographic distribution of programming languages to measure the software complexity of nations, showing that this metric predicts GDP, income inequality, and emissions (Juhász, Sándor, et al., Research Policy). Each of these papers complements earlier research linking open source to economic value, labor markets, and AI-driven productivity.
Conferences, press, and reports
The Innovation Graph was featured at venues including the 10th Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy, the OpenForum Academy Symposium 2025, the 2nd CEU Vienna Data Analytics Jamboree, and Wharton’s 3rd Annual Business & Generative AI Conference.
Two The Economist pieces in 2025 drew on GitHub data to examine China’s approach to open technology and India’s potential as a different kind of AI superpower. The data also contributed to the 2025 Stanford AI Index Report, the 2025 WIPO Global Innovation Index, and a report from the National Law School of India University on the rise of FOSS in India.
What’s next
Moving through 2026, the Innovation Graph team says its focus will be on strengthening collaboration, welcoming new contributors, and making it easier for people to apply the data in their own work—whether for strategy, research, product development, or policy.
