Case Studies

The results of our 2018 SAS, R, or Python survey have been released! Click here to see our latest analysis.

I’ve been recruiting analytics talent for over 30 years, and now over the past few years I have watched open source R seemingly catapult to popularity alongside the proprietary standby SAS. Despite hearing more about R from clients and candidates than ever before, determining whether R was actually more popular than SAS proved difficult. A quick Google search for “R vs. SAS” returns more than a few pages dedicated to each side, as well as several heated LinkedIn discussions relating to the topic, with no definitive answers.For my latest “flash survey” I wanted to quantify the preferences of the Burtch Works network, and asked one simple question: Which do you prefer to use, R or SAS?

With even more participants responding that couldn’t seem to pick just one or picked neither, this tells me that such a seemingly simple question has a more complex answer. Here are just a few of the entertaining responses we received:

• “I am a purist, so SAS.”
• “R - unless you have a ‘both rock’ category – it’s a close one.”
• “Never learned how to use R. Too damn old.”
• “R. But isn’t the debate more between R and Python?”
• “SAS as long as I’m not paying for it.”
• “SAS. What’s ‘R’? (Joking…)”

Curious as to how these results may vary by factors like industry or years of experience? I know I am! I can’t wait to dig into the data, and in the next few weeks will be posting a full write-up on the blog with our findings. Thanks to all who participated and stay tuned!To see our deeper dive into the survey results, including how preferences vary by years of experience, education, region, and industry, please visit The Deeper Dive: SAS vs. R Follow Burtch Works on Twitter or LinkedIn to get the best quantitative career news and blog updates delivered right to your news feed, and check out our YouTube channel for access to all our latest salary information and webinars!