Python appears to be increasing its lead over other programming languages, according to a measure of the popularity of top coding options.
The Tiobe Programming Language Index has placed Python at number one since October 2021, but according to the March version of the ranking, the gap between it and other coding languages has widened.
“The gap between Python and the rest has never been greater,” he said.
The Tiobe index aims to help developers check whether their programming skills are still up to date and help companies make strategic decisions about which programming language they should adopt for new software.
Python made its debut in the early 1990s, but has only recently gained popularity (it was in eighth place just a decade ago), finding fans in both the web development and data science communities.
In November 2020, Python became the second most popular language in the Tiobe index. That was the first time in almost 20 years that C and Java were not the top two languages in the index.
In October 2021, however, Python became the index's top language, which at the time Tiobe attributed to its “ease of learning, huge number of libraries, and widespread use across all types of domains.”
The rest of the top languages in the Tiobe index remain fairly stable, which is not surprising since it can take a long time for developers to learn a new language.
In second place is C, followed by C++, Java, C#, JavaScript, SQL, Go (a new entrant to the top 10 in February this year) and finally Scratch and Visual Basic.
Is Python really that popular among developers? It's complicated
Part of Python's appeal has been to people who may not consider themselves developers, but who still need to write a little code from time to time to get their work done.
According to Stack Overflow's 2023 developer survey, Python is the third most popular language overall, but digging into the data provides a little more context.
Python is only the fourth most popular language among professional developers and is the third most popular language for those learning to code.
But it's the most popular language for “other programmers” in the survey, which would include people who code a little but wouldn't describe themselves as developers.
The most recent Python Developer Survey from the Python Software Foundation and JetBrains found that data analysis is the most common use of Python, followed by web development, machine learning, DevOps, systems administration, and writing automation scripts.
It was found that around a third of Python users (so-called 'Pythonists') involved in data analysis and machine learning considered themselves data scientists.
