Google reveals nationalities of students in open source-focused Summer of Code 2016

Every summer, many students get excited for some well-deserved time off from studies; well, if their region practices such a vacation, that is. In some cultures, school is year-round. While this is unfortunate from the standpoint of socializing and having fun, it arguably keeps the students on track for great success.

For students that are particularly motivated and education-focused, Google hosts its legendary Summer of Code. This program pairs future developers with open source projects. Not only do these young folks learn, but they get to contribute to the projects as well. Today, the search giant shares the nationalities of the students participating in Summer of Code 2016. For the first time ever, Albania has a representative -- woo-hoo! This may surprise you, but the USA is not the most-represented nation. The top country, however, may shock you -- or not.

"We share statistics from Google Summer of Code (GSoC) every year — now that 2016 is chugging along we’ve got some exciting numbers to share! 1,202 students from all over the globe are currently in the community bonding period, a time where participants learn more about the organization they will be contributing to before coding officially begins on May 23. This includes becoming familiar with the community practices and processes, setting up a development environment, or contributing small (or large) patches and bug fixes", says Mary Radomile, Open Source Programs, Google.

Radomile further says, "in our upcoming statistics posts, we will delve deeper into the numbers by looking at universities with the most accepted students, gender numbers, mentor countries and more".

I look forward to these additional figures as well. Google Summer of Code 2016 is certainly diverse from a nationality perspective, but other aspects remain to be seen.

This may be a bit embarrassing for Google, but its math seems incorrect. While the search giant claims 1,202 students participating, my tally only shows 1191. For whatever reason, its numbers are in conflict, with a difference of 11. Either way, I have sorted the list by number of students, rather than alphabetically by country, so we can better compare. As you can see, the USA is only number two, with India taking top honors.

Are you surprised by the figures? Check them out below and tell me in the comments.

Photo Credit: Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH / Shutterstock