Chase Crewdson, Vice President of Cambria Corporation
Before we prove this let's see what ChatGPT has to say
Strengths: Large and highly skilled IT workforce, excellent English proficiency, a long history of outsourcing, and a robust IT infrastructure. Industries: Software development, customer support, data processing, and mobile app development. Considerations: Time zone difference with the US and Europe, which can be both an advantage and a challenge depending on the required overlap in work hours.
Strengths: Strong English proficiency, cultural alignment with Western countries, especially the US, and expertise in customer support and back-office processes. Industries: BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), customer service, data entry, and software development.
Considerations: The focus is more on BPO, but the IT sector is growing rapidly. Ease of English communication and Technical ability made the Philippines the world's "BPO Capital". If you are outsourcing a complicated programming project it is more important yet. So lets focus on English in evaluating the Philippines and its competitors.
So much for Artificial Intelligence! The “English First” organization ranks Indian English proficiency as MODERATE and ranked #60 in the world. The Philippines, is rated as HIGH Proficiency and #20.
A pause is needed here. If you are looking for one or two programmers you can probably find them anywhere. Population becomes a key factor if you need many programmers over a long period. Especially if they are to be part of your staff. When you go out to hire more you don't want to find that they are just not available.
On our introductory page we claimed that nobody else is even in the same league. Now it is time to back that claim up. Such a claim is already suggested by the title often given to the Philippines of “the world’s BPO Capital”. 2 This was originally earned after they overtook India two decades ago as the world’s leading center for call centers.
Here we are concerned with the outsourcing of Computer Programming.
A pause is needed here. If you are looking for one or two programmers you can probably find them anywhere. Population becomes a key factor if you need many programmers over a long period. Especially if they are to be part of your staff. When you go out to hire more you don't want to find that they are just not available.
You can always find and train call center representatives, but programming skills are not that easy to find. Only a small fraction of a population has the ability and interest to write software. So a first requirement for a world leader in programming is simple – it is the population they can draw upon.
In the table on the right side, you can see that the Philippines falls in with technically advanced countries such as the United States, Germany and Japan with about 1% of their population being programmers. The second group, all of whom are competitors with the Philippines in the outsourcing market, have a much smaller share of programmers in the population.
| Countries | Details |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Population | 341,908,935 13 |
| AsOf | 2024 |
| Programmers | 4,400,000 14 |
| Pct | 1.29% |
| Country | Philippines |
| Population | 119,000,000 15 |
| AsOf | 2024 |
| Programmers | 1,300,000 |
| Pct | 1.09% |
| Country | Germany |
| Population | 83,250,045 |
| AsOf | 2024 |
| Programmers | 901,000 |
| Pct | 1.08% |
| Country | Japan |
| Population | 122,631,432 |
| AsOf | 2024 |
| Programmers | 1,200,000 |
| Pct | 0.98% |
| Country | Ukraine |
| Population | 37,893,253 13 |
| AsOf | 2024 |
| Programmers | 200,000 14 |
| Pct | 0.53% |
| Country | India |
| Population | 1,442,477,901 |
| AsOf | 2024 |
| Programmers | 5,800,000 |
| Pct | 0.40% |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Population | 229,379,082 16 |
| AsOf | 2024 |
| Programmers | 872,162 |
| Pct | 0.38% |
| Country | Brazil |
| Population | 217,707,516 |
| AsOf | 2024 |
| Programmers | 500,000 |
| Pct | 0.23% |
It is not easy to apply this data because a base percentage of programmers is needed internally before many programmers are available for outsourcing to other countries. So we leave it to the reader to judge this information. But one thing is clear. The Philippines programmer population is a healthy share of the total population and a client can rest easy about finding the talent he is looking for. Not only that but he will be able to speak directly to them in English!
| Country | Population13 | AsOf | Programmers14 | Pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 341,908,935 | 2024 | 4,400,000 | 1.29% |
| Philippines | 119,000,000 | 2024 | 1,300,00015 | 1.09% |
| Germany | 83,250,045 | 2024 | 901,000 | 1.08% |
| Japan | 122,631,432 | 2024 | 1,200,000 | 0.98% |
| Ukraine | 37,893,253 | 2024 | 200,000 | 0.53% |
| India | 1,442,477,901 | 2024 | 5,800,000 | 0.40% |
| Nigeria | 229,379,082 | 2024 | 872,16216 | 0.38% |
| Brazil | 217,707,516 | 2024 | 500,000 | 0.23% |
A healthy population of programmers will only take your search for help so far. For an easy collaboration you will need to be able to speak to them and be understood.
As any American who has struggled to understand Indian English 3 will tell you, the quality of the English has to be considered. An organization called English First (EF) [see box] Ranks the countries in the world by the quality of their English The Philippines is 20th most proficient out of 120 countries.
The largest ranking of countries by English Proficiency is English First (EF). The ranking is based on test data from over 2 million adults. 12. a rank of 20 means 20th of all the non-native English speaking countries. So Categories based on the scores are defined as follows:
By comparison, the strongest competitor to the Philippines, India, ranks 60th.
Almost all are European countries with a small English Speaking population and, more important perhaps, high programmer salaries. An exception, and the only other Asian country to score high with English First, is Singapore. But with a population of 5.6 million it would likely be difficult to assemble a sizable team of talented programmers. Also Singapore, with a cost of living 5 times higher than the Philippines would not be a good choice for outsourcing companies looking for lower cost.
This brings us to the heavy-weights with enormous populations and a high percentage of English speakers. They are listed below together with their English First ratings.
| Countries | Details |
|---|---|
| Country | Philippines |
| English Speakers | 113,000,000 4 |
| EF Score | 578 |
| EF Rank | 20 |
| EF Rating | High |
| Country | Nigeria |
| English Speakers | 121,544,394 5 |
| EF Score | 562 |
| EF Rank | 27 |
| EF Rating | High |
| Country | India |
| English Speakers | 129,000,000 6 |
| EF Score | 504 |
| EF Rank | 60 |
| EF Rating | Moderate |
| Country | Bangladesh |
| English Speakers | 19,838,772 7 |
| EF Score | 504 |
| EF Rank | 60 |
| EF Rating | Moderate |
| Country | Pakistan |
| English Speakers | 108,000,000 8 |
| EF Score | 497 |
| EF Rank | 64 |
| EF Rating | Low |
Nigeria is making efforts in this market. They may emerge as a significant competitor for the Philippines in future years. They are held back now by government regulatory issues and inadequate infrastructure8.
India ties Bangladesh at #60, just ahead of Pakistan at #64. The proficiency ratings are an average over the English speaking population and you would expect half the population to be above the average and half below. India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are clustered around the dividing point between “Moderate” and “Low Proficiency”.
Imagine the proficiency distribution to be a bell curve centered between 60 and 64. The lower half of these populations will be in the Low category. Most of the rest will be in the Moderate category and a small percentage in the High category.
The above is a stark contrast to the Philippines where the Average is High Proficiency, and the score is at the upper end of the High Proficiency range.
Consequently, we would expect most of the Philippine population to be in the High Proficiency range but with a significant number in the Very High category. Some studies say 14% of Filipinos speak English as their first language 9,10,11, a finding that is consistent with this conclusion.
So choose the Philippines and you can count upon being able to talk directly with programmers on the project. This is important. It is sometimes hard enough to communicate your wishes to programmers in your own office without having to go through a middle man or struggle with the language.
The largest ranking of countries by English Proficiency is English First (EF). The ranking is based on test data from over 2 million adults. 12. a rank of 20 means 20th of all the non-native English speaking countries. So Categories based on the scores are defined as follows:
