We have collected some statistics about the Cisco CCIE certification which is considered to be the top spot you could get in the Cisco certification pyramid. A lot of people would be asking me about the total number of CCIEs who are present in the world, the starting salaries of CCIEs and also which CCIE track would be considered to be most demanded in Job openings, so we did some research and presenting you the results below. If you too wish to become CCIE, you should check out the courses offered by the SPOTO Club.

Total number of CCIEs in the world:

Firstly we would like to let you know that these numbers aren’t officially published by Cisco but I have done some research and also read some Cisco Live presentations where they leaked some numbers. The latest official number of the total CCIEs in the world comes from a Cisco Live presentation slide and the numbers are as following (Latest update of the numbers below is March 2, 2013):

• Total number of CCIEs in the world (all tracks): 38,005
• Total of Routing & Switching CCIEs: 27,552
• Total of Security CCIEs: 4,264
• Total of Service Provider CCIEs: 3,142
• Total of Voice CCIEs: 2,341
• Total of Wireless CCIEs: 64

Also, the same presentation slide above would be showing the numbers of multiple CCIEs are shown as below:

• Total of Routing & Switching + Security CCIE: 1026
• Total of Routing & Switching + Service Provider CCIE: 1053
• Total of Routing & Switching + Voice CCIE: 502
• Total of 3 or more CCIEs: 511
• Total of 4 or more CCIEs: 110
• Total of 5 or more CCIEs: 25
• Total of 7 CCIEs: 1

Average CCIE Starting Salaries:

Another important figure that would be interesting the people, the most important one, is the starting salary of CCIE professionals. After all, you don’t get the CCIE just for fun correct! You would be expecting also a nice salary increase! Of course, the salary of CCIE professionals would be depending a lot on which company they work, in which country, etc. The numbers below, based on our research, are for the USA:

• Wireless CCIE average starting salary (per annum): $110,000
• Routing & Switching CCIE average starting salary (per annum): $120,000
• Voice CCIE average starting salary (per annum): $140,000
• Security CCIE average starting salary (per annum): $165,000
• Data Center CCIE average starting salary (per annum): $175,000

I hope the numbers above would be able to inspire some of you to push harder for this prestigious certification.

CCIE Demand by Track in Job openings:

From the entire number of job openings, the CCIE track with most demand is the standard Routing & Switching CCIE track.

See the percentages below for all tracks:

• Routing & Switching CCIE: 73% of all Job opportunities
• Voice CCIE: 21% of all Job opportunities
• Security CCIE: 4% of all Job opportunities
• Data Center CCIE: less than 1%
• Wireless CCIE: less than 1%

Thus, this would be able to prove that the CCIE is considered to be quite an exclusive certification. I suppose another reason is the sheer cost of trying to clear it with most candidates which would be making an average attempt rate of 2-3. After all, each attempt would cost you about $1500 plus travel, plus all the training costs plus all the time which would be required for studying for this exam. Also, if you too wish to prepare for the CCIE Certification, you should prepare for it and you should check out the courses, which are being offered at the SPOTO Club.