An outfit called the Progressive Policy Institute and its Chief Economic Strategist, Michael Mandel,  estimates that the European Union, plus Switzerland and Norway, has a ‘surprising’ 1.64 million App Economy jobs as of January 2016. A sign, says Mandal, of a growing and vital tech sector this side of the pond.

The PPI has also released numbers for the US (using the same methodology) which revealed that it had just 20, 000 more appsters than Europe at 1.66 million.

“We focus on the App Economy because the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, followed by the opening of the innovative App Store in 2008, created a profound and almost unprecedented economic force,” writes Mandel. “It was a match made in heaven - handheld powerful computers that were always connected to the Internet, combined with the ability for developers to write and maintain the mobile applications that made smartphones useful.”

Source: Progrssive Policy Institute

“Our analysis shows that the European App Economy includes 1.64 million jobs as of January 2016,” writes Mandel. “Companies employing workers with App Economy skills include large and small app developers; software and media companies; financial and retail companies; industrial companies; health and education enterprises; leading European and non-European tech companies; nonprofits and government suppliers; and large accounting and consulting firms.”

The PPI says its aim is to present consistent set of App Economy job estimates so that policymakers can compare their country’s performance with that of other countries. The ultimate objective is to be able to track the growth of the App Economy globally, and to see which countries are benefitting the most. Ideally we should be able to link App Economy growth to policy measures implemented by governments.

Next stop will see the PPI rank the top European App Economy cities.