Did you know that this week (December 8-14) is Computer Science Education Week? There are resources available via the previous link to help encourage kids to learn to code, to bring computer science education to your school or district, and more. While the concept is mainly aimed at encouraging schools to teach more computer science and more kids to (want to) learn computer science, it can address a much, much wider audience. ‘Computer Science’ can sound like a big scary unknown thing if you’re someone who has never done any type of programming before, but it doesn’t have to be.

The handy infographic below takes a look at some of the statistics about computer science in the US.

If you’re lazy, I’ll sum it up for you: You need to learn to code, or the job market will leave you behind – and fast.

Start with an hour of code, and move on from there. Whether you’re 9 (they have a learn t0 code program featuring the characters from Frozen) or an adult (you can do something much more serious, like Angry Birds), there’s something there for you to learn.

And if you didn’t like my super quick summary of the graphic below, you can keep on reading.

Computer science, gender equity, and the job market

• By 2020 there will be 1,000,000 more jobs than students in computer science
• Computer programming jobs are growing at 2x the national average, and computer science is a top paying college degree
• There is a huge job/student gap in computer science. Of STEM jobs, 60% are computer science, and only 2% of STEM students are computer science students
• Less than 2.4% of students graduate with a computer science degree, and that number has been dropping over the past decade
• Of the students who take AP computer science in high school, only 8% are students of color and only 15% are women
• 57% of bachelor’s degrees are earned by women, but only 12% of computer science degrees are earned by women
• Most schools don’t even offer computer programming classes
• In 25 of 50 states, computer science can’t even count towards high school math or science graduation requirements