2021 Chinese Programmer Salary Survey: City and Role Breakdown
Based on a sample of 352,948 programmers collected in January 2021, the nationwide average monthly salary was 14,915 CNY with a median of 12,500 CNY, and the report details city‑wise average wages and a comprehensive comparison of salaries across dozens of technical job functions between January 2020 and January 2021.
In January 2021 a dataset of 352,948 programmers was collected, revealing a national average monthly salary of 14,915 CNY and a median of 12,500 CNY; 96 % of respondents earned between 3,500 CNY and 85,000 CNY.
City‑wise average salaries (in CNY) are shown below, with Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen leading the market and only these four cities exceeding the national average.
Rank
City
Average Salary
Minimum Salary
Median
Maximum Salary
Number of Recruitments
Percentage
1
Beijing
17870
5813
16500
45000
28076
8.79%
2
Shanghai
17369
5750
16500
45000
59712
18.70%
3
Shenzhen
17263
5750
15500
45000
51306
16.07%
Additional rows omitted for brevity
The data shows that while the top three cities enjoy the highest average wages, cities like Hangzhou experienced a salary decline, highlighting regional disparities and the limited reliability of a single national average figure.
Job‑function salary comparison (January 2021 vs. January 2020) is presented in the following table; many roles, especially in AI, Big Data, and cloud‑related fields, saw notable increases.
Function
2021 Jan
2020 Jan
ADAS
20243.0
18479
Android Developer
13211.0
15016
BI Engineer
NaN
14124
CAE
16435.0
14166
CTO
39624.0
30921
Cocos2d‑x Developer
13402.0
17327
DSP
17572.0
17704
ETL
13098.0
13782
GIS
12246.0
12969
Hadoop Engineer
16795.0
17170
Artificial Intelligence
20394.0
19750
Big Data
15909.0
17069
Blockchain Development
19633.0
20787
Data Scientist
30686.0
29646
Deep Learning Engineer
22606.0
21937
Machine Learning
20570.0
21563
Search Algorithm Engineer
44375.0
34290
Additional rows omitted for brevity
Overall, software engineers saw their average salaries rise from about 13,000 CNY to 14,000 CNY, while AI‑related positions experienced even larger jumps, suggesting that high‑skill, cutting‑edge fields continue to command premium compensation.
These findings can help professionals benchmark their earnings, guide career planning, and inform employers about competitive salary levels across cities and technology domains.
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