Python has emerged as the second most popular programming language surpassing Java, according to the TIOBE Index updated for November 2020.
However, C continues to hold the top-most position as the most popular programming language with it also achieving a slight increase in its popularity compared to October 2020.
“For the first time since the start of the TIOBE index nearly 20 years ago, Java and C don’t make up the top 2 positions any more. C is still number one, but it is Python that claims the second position now,” Peter Jansen, the CEO of TIOBE Software which runs the TIOBE Index, said.
According to some people, Jackson said that Python’s recent surge in popularity is due to booming fields such as data mining, AI and numerical computing. However, he feels that Python’s popularity has to do with general demand.
“I believe that Python’s popularity has to do with general demand. In the past, most programming activities were performed by software engineers. But programming skills are needed everywhere nowadays and there is a lack of good software developers. As a consequence, we need something simple that can be handled by non-software engineers, something easy to learn with fast edit cycles and smooth deployment. Python meets all these needs,” Jansen explains further.
TIOBE (The Importance of Being Earnest) is one of the most popular rating indexes for programming languages, which calculates ratings based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third-party vendors. The index is updated once a month. Popular search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu are also used to calculate the ratings.
The TIOBE Index can be used to check whether your programming skills are still up to date or to make a strategic decision about what programming language should be adopted when starting to build a new software system.
Based on research data as of November 2020, here is the list of the top programming languages in 2020, according to the TIOBE Index.
- C
- Python
- Java
- C++
- C#
- Visual Basic
- JavaScript
- PHP
- R
- SQL
With Python steadily rising the charts, it will be interesting to see if Python will be able to replace C as the number one programming language.
