Why Python Rises and C/C++ Decline: Insights from the April TIOBE Index

April 2024 TIOBE Index Overview

The April 2024 TIOBE Programming Language Index was released. The Top 5 rankings are unchanged: Python , C , C++ , Java , and C# . Python is the only language with a positive month‑to‑month change, rising 0.78 percentage points to a 16.41 % market share.

Python’s Continued Growth

Python’s market‑share increase is attributed to its simple syntax, extensive standard library, and dominant ecosystem of third‑party packages for web development, data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and scientific computing. Ongoing AI adoption is expected to sustain or accelerate this growth.

Memory‑Safety Debate and Decline of C / C++

A 19‑page report from the U.S. White House Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) titled “Back to Basics: The Path to Secure Software” recommends avoiding languages prone to memory‑safety bugs, specifically C and C++, and suggests Rust as a safer alternative. The report has sparked discussion in the developer community. According to the TIOBE data, C’s market share fell from 11.17 % to 10.21 % and C++’s share fell from 10.70 % to 9.76 %.

Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++, publicly rebutted the report, emphasizing modern C++’s safety features and the importance of tooling and development processes. Nevertheless, the index reflects a measurable decline for both languages in this month.

PHP’s Historical Decline

PHP, once a top‑three language for web development, dropped to its lowest position within the Top 20 in the April 2024 ranking. The index attributes the decline to competition from modern web frameworks (e.g., Rails, Django, React) and recurring security concerns. PHP still powers many small‑to‑medium sites and the WordPress CMS, but its overall popularity has receded.

Full Rankings and Long‑Tail Languages

The report lists languages ranked 21‑50 (provided as an image in the original release) and supplies a textual enumeration for ranks 51‑100, which includes:

ABC, ActionScript, Apex, APL, AutoLISP, Bash, bc, Boo, Carbon, CFML, CHILL, CIL, CL (OS/400), Clojure, Cobra, Curl, DiBOL, Eiffel, Elixir, Elm, Groovy, Hack, Icon, Idris, Inform, Io, J, LabVIEW, Lingo, LiveCode, Maple, MQL5, Nim, OCaml, OpenEdge ABL, Oz, PL/I, PostScript, PowerShell, Pure Data, Q, Racket, Ring, Smalltalk, SNOBOL, Solidity, SPARK, SPSS, Wolfram, X++

Historical Context

Historical charts in the release illustrate:

Top 10 language trends from 2002‑2024.

Overall ranking evolution from 1988‑2024 (based on 12‑month averages).

A “celebrity” ranking of languages from 2003‑2023.

Methodology of the TIOBE Index

The TIOBE Index measures language popularity by aggregating the number of skilled engineers, available courses, and third‑party vendors. Data sources include major search engines (Google, Baidu, Bing) and technical community sites (Wikipedia, etc.). The index reflects relative popularity, not language quality or code volume, and can be used by developers to benchmark skill relevance and inform language selection for new projects.

For detailed methodology, see https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/programming-languages-definition/.