It is difficult to determine which

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

s are "most widely used" because the meaning of the term varies by context. One language may occupy the most programmer-hours, another may have the most lines of code, a third may utilize the most CPU time, and so on. Some languages are very popular for particular kinds of applications: for example, Python for

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

for backend server development, C in embedded applications and operating systems;

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

web development Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications ...

and other languages for many kinds of applications.

Methods

Various counts have been proposed to indicate a language's popularity, each subject to a different bias over what is measured. These counts include the number of: * job advertisements that mention the language * times the language is mentioned in web searches, as with

Google Trends Google Trends is a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top web search query, search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time. ...

* estimates of

lines of code Source lines of code (SLOC), also known as lines of code (LOC), is a software metric used to measure the size of a computer program by counting the number of lines in the text of the program's source code. SLOC is typically used to predict the am ...

written in the language (which may underestimate languages not often found in public searches) * references to the language found using a

web search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

* projects in the language on

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirroring ...

and

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, cont ...

* postings in

Usenet newsgroup A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distin ...

s about the language * commits or changed source lines for

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...

projects in the language on

Open Hub Black Duck Open Hub, formerly Ohloh, is a website which provides a web services suite and online community platform that aims to index the open-source software development community. It was founded by former Microsoft managers Jason Allen and ...

* courses on the language sold by programming bootcamps * students enrolled in programming classes teaching the language around the world * videos on the language on YouTube * postings on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...

Stack Exchange Stack Exchange is a network of question-and-answer (Q&A) websites on topics in diverse fields, each site covering a specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process. The reputation system allows th ...

about the language

Indices

Different Indices calculate a programming language's popularity based on different metrics. For example: The IEEE Spectrum publishes the rankings by taking the data points from an array of matrices including Google, GitHub, Reddit, and Twitter to calculate the overall rank for the 2021 list with keeping in the account factors like job demands, Reliability, and Current trends that sum up to say Python is the top programming language of 2021. Several indices have been published: * The monthly ''

TIOBE Programming Community Index The TIOBE programming community index is a measure of popularity of programming languages, created and maintained by TIOBE Software BV, based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. TIOBE stands for ''The Importance of Being Earnest'', the title of an 18 ...

'' has been published since 2001, showing the top 10 languages graphically, the top 20 languages with a rating and delta, and the top 50 languages by rating. The numbers are based on searching the Web with certain phrases that include language names and counting the numbers of hits returned. In 2021, the top ranking languages included: C, Python, Java, C++, and C#. * The ''PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language'' index is an indicator based on

, reflecting the developers' searches for " tutorial", instead of what pages are available. It shows the popularity trends since 2004, worldwide or separated for 5 countries. As of 2021, the top ranking were: Python, Java, JavaScript, and C#. * The ''RedMonk Programming Language Rankings'' are derived from a correlation of programming traction on

(usage) and

Stack Overflow In software, a stack overflow occurs if the call stack pointer exceeds the stack bound. The call stack may consist of a limited amount of address space, often determined at the start of the program. The size of the call stack depends on many facto ...

(discussion). As of June 2021, the top ranking were: JavaScript, Python, Java, PHP, CSS. * ''Trendy Skills'' searches and extracts from popular advertising websites the skills and technologies that employers are seeking and classifies them in categories, one of which is ''Programming Languages''. It displays trends for one or more skills or categories during specified time ranges. Data is also accessible via a public API, so anyone can generate their own statistics. * ''

Indeed Indeed is an American worldwide employment website for job listings launched in November 2004. It is an independent subsidiary of multinational holding Recruit Co. Ltd. It is co-headquartered in Austin, Texas, and Stamford, Connecticut, with ...

2016 survey'' combed through job listings, identifying mentions of programming languages. *

's annual ''Developer Survey'' which polls site users. In 2021, the most popular were: JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Python, and SQL. *

IEEE Spectrum ''IEEE Spectrum'' is a magazine edited by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The first issue of ''IEEE Spectrum'' was published in January 1964 as a successor to ''Electrical Engineering''. The magazine contains peer-reviewe ...

's annual ranking of top programming languages. In 2021 it used 11 metrics from 8 sources:

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Hacker News Hacker News (sometimes abbreviated as HN) is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship. It is run by the investment fund and startup incubator Y Combinator. In general, content that can be submitted is defined as " ...

, Career Builder, and IEEE Xplore Digital Library, according to which the top languages were Python, Java, C, C++, and JavaScript. The interactive ranking app allows adjustment of each metric's weight, and also filtering languages by "type" (Web, Mobile, Enterprise, Embedded).

References

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