2020 September China Programmer Salary Survey and Programming Language Rankings

Average Salary

In September 2020, China recruited 352,733 programmers with an average salary of ¥14,469 and a median of ¥12,500; 95% of salaries ranged from ¥5,250 to ¥35,000.

Major City Salaries

Salary distributions for Java programmers in major cities are shown below:

Java Programmers

September 2020 recruitment numbers and 2019 salary data for Java developers in various cities are listed, e.g., Beijing hired 11,930 Java developers with an average salary of ¥18,996, while Shanghai hired 20,486 with an average of ¥17,707.

Similar detailed figures are provided for Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Nanjing, Xiamen, Suzhou, Dalian, Chongqing, Tianjin, Changchun, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Jinan, Kunming, Shenyang, Harbin, and other cities.

By Function (First‑Tier Cities)

2020 September China Programming Language Ranking

The TIOBE index for September 2020 shows C++ performing exceptionally well, with the ranking headline: C++表现异常突出 .

Historically, C++ originated as “C with Classes” ( 类 ) and later adopted the ++ operator to signify its evolution.

Standard evolution milestones: C++98 (1998), C++03 (2003), C++11 (2011), C++14 (2014), C++17 (2017), C++20 (2020).

C++ peaked at 17.53% market share in 2003, fell to a low of 4.55% in 2017, and is now the fastest‑growing language (+1.48%) due to the C++20 release.

Java’s share decreased by 3.18% compared to September 2019 but remains the second‑ranked language.

In the top‑10 ranking, PHP and R swapped positions in September, while other languages remained stable.

Top 1‑20 Programming Languages

Top 21‑50 Programming Languages

Historical Rankings (1988‑2020)

Programming Language Celebrity List (2003‑2019)

The TIOBE index is based on counts of engineers, courses, and third‑party vendors worldwide.

Programming Language Market Share

Salary Note

The lowest salary excludes the bottom 5%; salaries below this threshold are not unusual, nor are salaries above it.

Note that "cpp" refers to C++, "cshape" to C#, and C/C++ are often grouped together in recruitment data.