JavaScript, Python and Java continue to rule RedMonk's programming language rankings

Python tied with Java as the second most popular programming language

JavaScript, Python and Java continue to be the most popular programming languages among developers, according to the latest Programming Language Rankings report released by IT consultancy RedMonk.

According to RedMonk, its January 2020 positions were decided by first extracting rankings from code-hosting repository GitHub and developer Q&A website Stack Overflow and then combining them "for a ranking that attempts to reflect both code (GitHub) and discussion (Stack Overflow) traction".

JavaScript maintained its top position in RedMonk's list, as measured by the number of public projects based on the language stored with GitHub and the number of StackOverflow tags.

Python tied with Java as the second most popular programming language in the list. This is the first time since 2012 that a programming language other than JavaScript or Java has taken the number two slot in the list. The primary reason for Python's growing popularity, according to Redmonk, is its accessibility and its usefulness for scientific and AI-oriented programming, as well as in specialised arenas such as finance.

But, Python is not the fastest growing language. A survey by GitHub in November last year revealed Dart as the fastest growing language, with its usage growing by 532 per cent, thanks to growth of Google's cross-platform development framework Flutter. The second fastest growing language was Rust with 235 per cent growth. Python was at third spot in that list; it was up by 151 per cent.

PHP is the fourth most popular programming language in RedMonk's list, followed by C# and C++. There was a tie between Ruby and CSS for the seventh spot. Similarly, the ninth slot was occupied by two languages, TypeScript and C.

TypeScript had jumped to 12th place in RedMonk's March rankings. It was at 17th spot a year ago and 26th three years ago. TypeScript was released by Microsoft seven years ago to cater to JavaScript developers maintaining large JavaScript apps.

RedMonk's rankings for the top 20 spots are as follows:

1. JavaScript
   2. Python
   2. Java
   4. PHP
   5. C#
   6. C++
   7. Ruby
   7. CSS
   9. TypeScript
   9. C
   11. Swift
   12. Objective-C
   13. Scala
   13. R
   15. Go
   15. Shell
   17. PowerShell
   18. Perl
   19. Kotlin
   20. Haskell