2024 Programming Language Rankings: What SlashData’s Survey Reveals

SlashData, a leading developer research firm, released preliminary results of its 26th Developer Nation survey.

The survey gathered feedback from over 10,000 developers across 135 countries, highlighting the latest trends in programming language popularity and community growth.

Key Findings

JavaScript Remains Leading

JavaScript is still the most popular language with 25.2 million active developers, up 4 million from last year.

Adoption is especially strong among experienced developers, indicating growth comes from developers adding JavaScript to their skill set rather than newcomers.

Python Overtakes Java for Second Place

Python has become the second‑largest language with 18.2 million developers, surpassing Java’s 17.7 million.

Python’s community grew by 2.1 million in the past 12 months, driven by rising interest in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Java continues to grow modestly, maintaining a solid base in backend and web development but losing ground in desktop and mobile domains.

Emerging Languages Show Rapid Growth

Rust and Go are the fastest‑growing languages.

Rust’s user base nearly doubled over the past two years, reaching 4 million developers by early 2024, thanks to its performance and memory‑safety features, which are increasingly important in security‑critical areas.

Go supports 4.7 million developers, widely used in backend services for its simplified concurrency handling and comprehensive standard library.

Challenges for Novice Developers

Only 52 % of new developers use JavaScript, compared with over 62 % of experienced developers, suggesting adoption increases with experience.

Languages such as PHP and C# are less popular among newcomers, possibly reflecting shifts in education focus or early‑career paths.

Survey Methodology

The Developer Nation survey was conducted online from November 2023 to February 2024 to capture a representative sample of the global developer community.

Methodology included careful weighting to correct regional and sample bias, providing a balanced view of the developer landscape.

Conclusion

These insights reveal dynamic changes in language popularity and adoption. JavaScript remains dominant, especially among experienced developers, while Python’s rise is fueled by its strengths in AI and machine‑learning domains. Rust and Go’s rapid growth reflects their performance and concurrency advantages.

Data Summary

2024 Q1 programming language community sizes: