Cybersecurity is now the fastest-growing IT occupation in the UK with a 128% increase since 2021, according to a new report from Socura, the managed detection and response provider.

Using Office of National Statistics data, Socura’s Their Next Job Was in Cyber report reveals that cybersecurity is now the fastest growing tech occupation in the UK, with the number of people in cyber roles more than doubling between 2021 and 2024, hitting 65,000 in March this year.

Despite that growth rate, the report found that there are still not enough cybersecurity professionals to tackle rising threats, with only one security professional for every 86 companies, and nearly ten times more programmers and software developers than cybersecurity experts.

As of March 2024, there are more than 550,000 programmers and software developers in the UK, over 200,000 IT business analysts and managers in each role, and more than 100,000 professionals working as IT network specialists and directors. 

Examining cyber roles by gender reveals an even starker imbalance. While the number of women working in cybersecurity has increased from 6,800 in 2021 to 11,400 in 2024, they still only make up 17.5% of cyber roles, with 53,600 out of 65,000 UK cybersecurity professionals being men.

The cyber gender gap has widened in recent years, as women had previously made up nearly a quarter (23.8%) of the cybersecurity workforce in December 2021.

“Attracting more workers, particularly women, into cyber remains a key challenge for the industry,” said Dr Kathryn Jones, senior lecturer and head of computer science and informatics at Cardiff University.

“Gender imbalance and the low representation of women is a wider issue in the tech sector, not only cyber security. The number of women enrolled on computer science and software engineering courses, for example, is typically also low. Cybersecurity is an exciting and varied career choice but more initiatives like the NCSC’s Cyber First Girls competition are needed to raise awareness.”

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Multiple studies have found a concerning decline in the number of women working in cybersecurity roles. A report from ISC2 recently noted that only 4% of cybersecurity teams have a majority of women, with a staggering 11% lacking any female representation at all.

There might be some hope on the horizon, however, as the number of women opting to study computing at degree level this academic year has increased 8% from last year, while the number of girls taking computing at A-level in 2024 increased by 28.6% to over 3,000 students.