Which Programming Languages Dominated 2019? TIOBE, PYPL & Stack Overflow Rankings Revealed

Intro: 2019 is ending, and this article presents the year‑end rankings from TIOBE and PYPL, supplemented with data from Stack Overflow, to explore the most important programming languages of 2019.

The three ranking lists—TIOBE, PYPL, and Stack Overflow—attempt to answer which languages are most valuable and widely used. All three agree that the young language Go appears in the top 20 of each list.

TIOBE Ranking

TIOBE released its December 2019 programming language chart. The top five remain unchanged: Java stays first, followed by C, Python, C++, and C#.

Upcoming candidates for the annual “Programming Language of the Year” include Java (+1.3%), C (+1.8%), Python (+1.9%) and C# (+1.4%). Among the top five, only C++ slipped in 2019, while Python shows strong growth and is a likely contender for the top spot. Go also performs well due to the rise of IoT.

Top 10 programming languages (TIOBE index trend 2002‑2018) and other language rankings are illustrated in the following charts:

PYPL Ranking

PYPL (PopularitY of Programming Language) uses a different algorithm from TIOBE: it counts searches for “language + tutorial” rather than “language + programming”. This emphasizes languages with strong learning resources.

In PYPL, Java ranks second, while Python claims the top spot, followed by JavaScript at third. Python shows the largest popularity increase last year. Kotlin, Go, and Dart also rise, with Kotlin gaining particular traction in mobile development and being chosen by Google as the preferred language for Android apps.

Employment Market Challenges

For developers, especially newcomers and students, the job market question is which languages are most in demand and offer the highest compensation. According to Stack Overflow’s survey of 88,883 respondents, Python is the most popular (25.7%), followed by JavaScript (17.8%), Go (15%), and TypeScript (14.6%).

All About Money

Salary considerations are crucial. The survey shows that developers using Scala, Go, Objective‑C, and Ruby enjoy strong earnings, with an average annual income of about €70,000.

Conclusion

Different measurement methods yield different results, making direct comparisons difficult. Overall, TIOBE and PYPL rankings indicate that established languages such as Java, JavaScript, and Python remain dominant, while newer languages like Julia and Go merit close observation.