Why Is Perl Surging Back Into the Top 10? Insights from the TIOBE 2025 Rankings

The TIOBE index for September 2025 shows Perl making a strong comeback, jumping from rank 27 last year to rank 10 this month, while Python remains the dominant language.

Perl's Surge in the TIOBE 2025 Ranking

Perl, once criticized for being hard to read, has overtaken many modern languages and entered the top ten. The chart below illustrates Perl’s recent rise compared to Python’s steady growth.

Historical Context

Perl peaked at rank 3 in 2005, becoming a major player in the programming world. However, the split between Perl 5 and Perl 6 (later renamed Raku) caused community fragmentation.

Perl 6 struggled to gain traction and eventually became Raku, now ranked 129, while Perl 5 saw declining use as developers moved to newer languages.

Current Top‑Ten Rankings (September 2025)

The top ten programming languages are:

Rankings Beyond the Top Ten

Ranks 11‑20, 21‑50, and 51‑100 are shown in the following charts.

Why Is Perl Back?

Possible reasons include a surge in Perl‑related books on Amazon (four times more than PHP and seven times more than Rust) and renewed interest due to frequent updates to Perl 5. Some speculate that the retirement of many veteran Perl developers has opened space for new contributors.

Despite the mystery, the data shows Perl’s “paper‑world” popularity remains strong.

Conclusion

The TIOBE index provides a useful snapshot of language trends, but the choice of language should depend on the specific problem domain rather than rankings alone.