Python wins Tiobe language of the year honors

To the surprise of probably no one, Python has won the Tiobe programming language of the year award for 2024, given to the language with the highest increase in ratings in Tiobe’s index of language popularity during the year.

In a post accompanying the January index, Paul Jansen, CEO of software quality services provider Tiobe, said Python gained a “whopping” 9.3% increase in ratings in 2024. Tiobe had predicted a Python win for 2024 last month.

Python’s increase outdistanced the ratings increases of Java (2.3%), JavaScript (1.4%), and Go (1.2%). “Python is everywhere nowadays, and it is the undisputed default language of choice in many fields,” Jansen said. “It might even become the language with the highest ranking ever in the Tiobe index. Python’s only serious drawbacks are (and thus leaving room for competition) its lack of performance and that most errors occur run-time.”

Tiobe’s monthly index is based on a formula assessing the number of skilled engineers worldwide, courses, and third-party vendors pertinent to a language. Popular web sites such as Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, Bing, and more than 20 others are used to calculate the ratings.

Elsewhere in the Tiobe index for 2024, the C language declined in popularity and was surpassed by C++ and Java. The main reason for this was that C was replaced by C++ in a lot of embedded systems, Jansen said. “Java and C++ are currently fighting for the top 2 position. The other interesting thing is that PHP said a final farewell to the top 10 and is replaced by Go, which is a top 10 keeper.”

Jansen also remarked on Rust and Kotlin. “Rust is still getting more popular. Despite the amazing speed of Rust programs, its steep learning curve will never make it become the lingua franca of the common programmer unfortunately. Kotlin, on the other hand, disappointed: it didn’t break through and even lost (possibly permanently) its top 20 position in 2024.” Also noted in Jansen’s report were the rises of Zig, which climbed from 149th place to 61st in 2024, and Mojo, which jumped from 194th place to 68th place. “I have high hopes that [Mojo] will get close to a top 20 position in 2025,” Jansen said.

The Tiobe index top 10 for January 2025:

1. Python, with a rating of 23.28%
2. C++, 10.29%
3. Java, 10.15%
4. C, 8.86%
5. C#, 4.45%
6. JavaScript, 4.2%
7. Go, 2.61%
8. SQL, 2.41%
9. Visual Basic, 2.37%
10. Fortran, 2.04%

The alternative Pypl Popularity of Programming Language index assesses popularity based on how often language tutorials are searched on in Google. The Pypl index top 10 for January 2025:

1. Python, with a 29.8% share
2. Java, 15.35%
3. JavaScript, 7.96%
4. C/C++, 7.17%
5. C#, 6.36%
6. R, 4.63%
7. PHP, 3.87%
8. TypeScript, 2.84%
9. Rust, 2.8%
10. Objective-C, 2.65%