RedMonk Q1 2019 Rankings: Which Programming Languages Really Lead the Pack?

Among various trend lists, Java, C, and Python have become the new “iron triangle” of programming languages, but what is the current state of language usage among developers?

RedMonk, a US software developer industry analysis firm that publishes language rankings twice a year, released its Q1 2019 ranking. Unlike the monthly TIOBE list, RedMonk’s data come from the code‑sharing community GitHub and the discussion platform Stack Overflow.

GitHub data are sourced from GitHub Archive, while Stack Overflow metrics are gathered via its Data Explorer tool, allowing developers to see emerging language trends.

The top‑20 languages in the ranking are:

1. JavaScript

2. Java

3. Python

4. PHP

5. C#

6. C++

7. CSS

8. Ruby

9. C

10. Objective‑C

11. Swift

12. TypeScript

13. Scala

14. Shell

15. Go

16. R

17. PowerShell

18. Perl

19. Haskell

20. Kotlin

The list shows that JavaScript, not Java, is the most popular language, and the overall ranking has changed little since the June 2018 list.

Generally, the top 10‑12 languages remain stable month to month and year to year, making it hard for new languages to break into the upper ranks.

Notable changes include TypeScript rising four spots to #12, reflecting its close relationship with JavaScript and growing ecosystem; Go and R each dropping one position; Kotlin climbing eight spots into the top 20; while Clojure, Groovy, and Scala fell modestly.

For the full report, see the RedMonk article linked below.