Python has been giving C, C++ and Java a run for their money throughout 2020.
Python continues to gain momentum with developers across the world.
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has had a hugely successful run in 2020, with its ever-growing popularity helping it quickly rise up the ranks in programming language circles and giving the likes of C, C++ and Java a run for their money.
It’s now on track to become TIOBE’s programming language of the year for the fourth time, after also winning the title in 2018, 2010 and 2007. That’s a record in the history of the TIOBE index from the Dutch software company.
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According to the database’s index for December 2020, Python saw the highest increase in ratings over the course of 2020, seeing a positive change of 1.90% overall. In terms of overall popularity, Python now ranks as the third most widely-used programming languages worldwide with a rating of 12.21%. In second place is Java, which has a rating of 12.53%, and C, which remains the world’s most popular programming language with a rating of 16.48%.
December’s Index suggests that Python has actually slipped down the rankings since November, when the programming language
overtook Java for the first time.
Despite this, Paul Jansen, CEO of TIOBE, suggested that: “Chances are very low that any language will come close to Python this last month of the year,” meaning, “that Python is probably going to win the title for the fourth time.”
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Rounding out the top 10 most popular programming languages in December were C++,
C#,
Visual Basic, JavaScript,
PHP
and R. In terms of positive change, programming languages
C++,
R and Groovy are runners-up in TIOBE’s language of the year title, which saw their ratings grow by 0.71%, 0.60% and 0.69% respectively. R in particular has proved one to watch in this year, jumping from 20th place in TIOBE’s index in August 2019 to 8th place in August 2020. The programming language is used for statistical software and data analysis.
The TIOBE index tries to offer an indicator of the popularity of programming languages based on the number of skilled workers, courses and third-party vendors, using ratings gleaned from popular search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu. The index is updated once a month.
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