A Sneak Peek Into the State of PostgreSQL 2024

Software trends may come and go, but PostgreSQL continues to be a bastion of resilience and innovation. With more than 35 years of active development under its belt, this relational database has established itself as a cornerstone of the open-source ecosystem—and as part of its community, we’re happy to celebrate it once more by sharing the results of the fifth edition of the State of PostgreSQL survey. 🎉

The 2024 State of PostgreSQL survey ran for two months (September 1 through October 31), and 688 people provided responses. If you answered our questions, shared the survey on social media, or sent it to a friend—thank you! Your support is everything to us.♥️

So, sit back and grab your beverage of choice as we highlight 2024’s trends in PostgreSQL adoption, usage, and community engagement. Drum roll, please. 🥁 Here are some key insights from the 2024 State of PostgreSQL survey:

• Decline in new user adoption: There are fewer new PostgreSQL users. Only 4.1 % of respondents reported less than one year of experience with PostgreSQL, down from 8.1 % in 2023.
• AI tools on the rise: 55.3 % of PostgreSQL developers now use AI tools, a sharp increase from 36.9 % in 2023. This highlights AI's growing role in development workflows. Check our State of PostgreSQL AI blog post to learn more about how PostgreSQL users are building with AI.
• Versatility across use cases: 60 % of respondents use PostgreSQL for both personal and professional projects, a significant 20 % increase from last year.

Curious about what else we uncovered? 👀 Read on for a comprehensive dive into the State of PostgreSQL in 2024, and don’t forget to check out the full report!

The State of PostgreSQL 2024 Demographics

Let’s start by finding out who are this year’s State of PostgreSQL respondents.

What is your primary geographic location?

For another year, respondents from EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) dominated the survey, representing over half of all participants. North America remains steady at 25 %, while APAC (Asia-Pacific) saw a notable dip, dropping from 12 % to 7 %. These shifts underline PostgreSQL's stronghold in EMEA and opportunities for growth in APAC.

How long have you been using PostgreSQL?

Seasoned PostgreSQL users are on the rise. Respondents with 15+ years of experience surged to 21 % from 11 % in 2023, while those with 10-15 years of experience also saw an uptick. However, new user adoption is declining sharply, with users having less than two years of experience dropping from 23.8 % in 2023 to just 12.5 % this year.

What is your current profession or job status?

The top industries using PostgreSQL remain Software/SaaS (21 %), Information Technology (18 %), and Finance/Fintech (18 %). Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals entered the top five for the first time, highlighting PostgreSQL’s growing appeal in diverse fields.

In terms of job roles, Backend Software Developers (28 %), Fullstack Developers (16 %), and Database Administrators (12 %) lead the way.

The PostgreSQL Community

How did you first find out about PostgreSQL?

Workplace environments are becoming a primary introduction point for PostgreSQL, with 30 % of respondents reporting they learned about it from colleagues or work settings. This marks a small but steady increase over last year’s 28 %. Technical forums and online communities remain stable at 6 %, while 25 % of respondents—second only to workplace discovery—can’t recall where they first encountered PostgreSQL.

Have you ever contributed to PostgreSQL?

Note: In 2024, we added Developer Relations to the multiple-choice options.

This year, the question "Have you contributed to PostgreSQL?" expanded to include multiple contribution options. While 58 % of respondents reported no contributions, the remaining 42 % have engaged with PostgreSQL in diverse ways:

• Advocacy: 17 %
• Bug reporting: 16 %
• Hosting user groups or meetups: 11 %
• Documentation: 9 %

These findings highlight the many ways developers contribute beyond just writing code, enriching the PostgreSQL ecosystem.

How would you rate your ability to connect with the PostgreSQL community? 

As opposed to last year’s numbers, respondents are finding it slightly easier to connect to the community than in previous years, with Medium (43 %) and Extremely easy (18 %) responses up by two percentage points from 2023.

A total of 384 respondents answered bonus questions, shedding light on what they like the most about the PostgreSQL community:

In your experience, what’s the best thing about the PostgreSQL community / what do you like the most?

Ecosystem and Tools

PostgreSQL’s ecosystem is one of its strongest assets, offering a rich array of tools and extensions that enhance its already robust feature set. This year’s survey explored which PostgreSQL features, complementary tools, and extensions resonate most with users. Here's what the PostgreSQL community highlighted in 2024.

What is your favorite PostgreSQL feature?

When asked about their favorite PostgreSQL features, respondents overwhelmingly pointed to extensibility, which remains PostgreSQL’s standout capability. This was followed by JSON support, prized for its flexibility in managing semi-structured data, and replication, a key enabler of high availability and fault tolerance.

👉 Interested in PostgreSQL replication? Check out our guide.

What other tools do you use that complement PostgreSQL?

Respondents highlighted the tools they most frequently use alongside PostgreSQL, with TimescaleDB emerging as the top choice for time-series and analytics workloads. This was followed by Redis, often used for caching and real-time applications, and PgBouncer, valued for its connection pooling capabilities.

👉 Get our Support team’s advice on PgBouncer.

What are your top three favorite or most frequently used PostgreSQL extensions?

The top three PostgreSQL extensions this year demonstrate its versatility across industries and use cases. For the second consecutive year, PostGIS led the pack, favored for its advanced geospatial data capabilities. Pg_stat_statements remains a favorite for performance monitoring, while TimescaleDB rounds out the top three for its time-series database capabilities.

👉 Learn how to optimize your queries with pg_stat_statements.

Read the Report

We hope you enjoyed this sneak peek of our State of PostgreSQL 2024 survey! If you’d like to learn more insights about the PostgreSQL community, including why respondents chose PostgreSQL, where they go to find jobs requiring PostgreSQL experience, and how they use AI with PostgreSQL, don’t miss our complete 2024 State of PostgreSQL report. 

Finally, a genuine word of appreciation to all the remarkable partners who have collaborated with us on this survey and helped us capture the collective experience of developers using PostgreSQL:

Community members: Jimmy Angelakos, Andrew Atkinson, Ryan Booz, Software & Booz, Elizabeth Christensen, Henrietta Dombrovskaya, Floor Drees, Stefan Fercot, Douglas Hunley, Gülçin Yıldırım Jelinek, Valeria Kaplan, Jan Karremans, Philip Marks, Doug Ortiz, Tech Bits, Steven Pousty, Anastasia Raspopina, Daniel Sarosi, Jeremy Schneider, Stefanie Janine Stölting, Shaun Thomas

Companies: Aiven, Basedash CYBERTEC, Data Bene, DataCloudGaze, Data Egret, Device Insight, EDB, KM.ON, Mark Gurry Associates, Neon, ParadeDB, PG Weekly, Plotly, ProOpenSource, simplyblock, Tembo, Timbira, Trebellar, United Manufacturing Hub, Xata

Communities: Barcelona PostgreSQL User Groups, Kadin Yazilimci, Madrid PostgreSQL User Groups, PgDay CMH, PG Day Chicago, Prague PostgreSQL Meetup

Thank you for amplifying our reach and enabling us to connect with more developers across various channels!