The 9 Most In-Demand Programming

Languages of 2016
Posted onJanuary 27, 2016
Glassdoor recently published a report on the top 25 lucrative, in-demand jobs. More than half of
the jobs listed are in tech and require programming skills. If you’re interested in a fast-growing
and lucrative career, you might want to make learning to code next on your checklist!
Next comes the hard part – deciding on the best programming language to learn.

To help narrow things down, we compiled data from Indeed.com (database including current
computer programmer jobs). While this isn’t an extensive list, it does provide insight into the
most in-demand programming languages sought after by employers.

Breakdown of the 9 Most In-Demand Programming

Languages
1. SQL
It’s no surprise SQL (pronounced ‘sequel’) tops the job list since it can be found far and wide in
various flavors. Database technologies such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server
power big businesses, small businesses, hospitals, banks, universities. Indeed, just about every
computer and person with access to technology eventually touches something SQL. For instance,
all Android phones and iPhones have access to a SQL database called SQLite and many mobile
apps developed Google, Skype and DropBox use it directly.

2. Java
The tech community recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of Java. It’s one of the most widely
adopted programming languages, used by some 9 million developers and running on 7 billion
devices worldwide. It’s also the programming language used to develop all native Android apps.
Java’s popularity with developers is due to the fact that the language is grounded in readability
and simplicity. Java has staying power since it has long-term compatibility, which makes sure
older applications continue to work now into the future. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon
and is used to power company websites like LinkedIn.com, Netflix.com and Amazon.com.
3. JavaScript
JavaScript – not to be confused with Java – is another one of the world’s most popular and
powerful programming languages, and is used to spice up web pages by making them interactive.
For example, JavaScript can be used to add effects to web pages, display pop-up messages or to
create games with basic functionality. It’s also worth noting that JavaScript is the scripting
language of the World Wide Web and is built right into all major web browsers including Internet
Explorer, FireFox and Safari. Almost every website incorporates some element of JavaScript to
add to the user experience, adding to the demand for JavaScript developers. In recent years
JavaScript has also gained use as the foundation of Node.js, a server technology that among other
things enables real-time communication.
4. C#
Dating from 2000, C# (pronounced C-sharp) is a relatively new programming language designed
by Microsoft for a wide range of enterprise applications that run on the .NET Framework. An
evolution of C and C++, the C# language is simple, modern, type safe and object oriented.

5. C++
C++ (pronounced C-plus-plus) is a general purpose object-oriented programming language based
on the earlier ‘C’ language. Developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs, C++ was first released
in 1983. Stroustrup keeps an extensive list of applications written in C++. The list includes
Adobe and Microsoft applications, MongoDB databases, large portions of Mac OS/X and is the
best language to learn for performance-critical applications such as “twitch” game development
or audio/video processing.
6. Python
Python is a general purpose programming language that was named after the Monty Python (so
you know it’s fun to work with)! Python is simple and incredibly readable since closely
resembles the English language. It’s a great language for beginners, all the way up to seasoned
professionals. Python recently bumped Java as the language of choice inintroductory
programming courses with eight of the top 10 computer science departments now using Python to
teach coding, as well as 27 of the top 39 schools. Because of Python’s use in the educational
realm, there are a lot of libraries created for Python related to mathematics, physics and natural
processing. PBS, NASA and Reddit use Python for their websites.
7. PHP
Created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, PHP was never actually
intended to be a new programming language. Instead, it was created to be a set of tools to help
Rasmus maintain his Personal Home Page (PHP). Today, PHP (Hypertext Pre-Processor) is a
scripting language, running on the server, which can be used to create web pages written in
HTML. PHP tends to be a popular languages since its easy-to use by new programmers, but also
offers tons of advanced features for more experienced programmers.
8. Ruby on Rails
Like Java or the C language, Ruby is a general purpose programming language, though it is best
known for its use in web programming, and Rails serves as a framework for the Ruby Language.
Ruby on Rails has many positive qualities including rapid development, you don’t need as much
code, and there are a wide variety of 3rd party libraries available. It’s used from companies
ranging from small start-ups to large enterprises and everything in-between. Hulu, Twitter,
Github and Living Social are using Ruby on Rails for at least one of their web applications.
9. iOS/Swift
In 2014, Apple decided to invent their own programming language. The result was Swift – a new
programming language for iOS and OS X developers to create their next killer app. Developers
will find that many parts of Swift are familiar from their experience of developing in C++ and
Objective-C. Companies including American Airlines, LinkedIn, and Duolingo have been quick
to adopt Swift, and we’ll see this language on the rise in the coming years.
http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

TIOBE Index for September 2016

September Headline: Julia enters top 50 for the first time
It was a matter of time until Julia would hit the top 50. This month it did so. The Julia
programming language is meant for numerical computing. It combines functional programming
paradigms with high speed. In other words, readable and stable code that performs. Chances are
high that Julia will gain even more popularity the next few months. This new entry might make
you curious what other languages are expected to reach the top 50 soon. I would put my bets on
Hack (number 77), Kotlin (entering the top 100 this month at position 99) and TypeScript (still
183 but watch my words).
The TIOBE Programming Community index is an indicator of the popularity of programming
languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the number of skilled
engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. Popular search engines such as Google,
Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu are used to calculate the ratings. It is
important to note that the TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the
language in which most lines of code have been written.
The index can be used to check whether your programming skills are still up to date or to make a
strategic decision about what programming language should be adopted when starting to build a
new software system. The definition of the TIOBE index can be found here.

Sep 2016 Sep 2015 Change Programming Language R

1 1 Java 18

2 2 C 10

3 3 C++ 6.

4 4 C# 5.

5 5 Python 4.

6 7 JavaScript 2.

7 6 PHP 2.

8 11 Assembly language 2.
Sep 2016 Sep 2015 Change Programming Language R

9 8 Visual Basic .NET 2.

10 9 Perl 2.

11 13 Delphi/Object Pascal 2.

12 12 Ruby 1.

13 16 Swift 1.

14 10 Objective-C 1.

15 17 MATLAB 1.

16 34 Groovy 1.

17 14 Visual Basic 1.

18 19 R 1.

19 44 Go 1.

20 18 PL/SQL 1.

Ratings (%)20022004200620082010201220142016051015202530Monday, Apr 5,

2010● Perl: 3.553%TIOBE Programming Community IndexSource: www.tiobe.com
Java
C
C++
C#
Python
JavaScript
PHP
Assembly language
Visual Basic .NET
Perl
Other programming languages
The complete top 50 of programming languages is listed below. This overview is published
unofficially, because it could be the case that we missed a language. If you have the impression
there is a programming language lacking, please notify us at tpci@tiobe.com. Please also check
the overview of all programming languages that we monitor.

Position Programming Language

21 SAS

22 ABAP

23 Dart

24 COBOL

25 D

26 Scratch

27 Fortran

28 Lisp

29 F#

30 Lua

31 Ada

32 Scala

33 Transact-SQL
Position Programming Language

34 Prolog

35 LabVIEW

36 Logo

37 Apex

38 Q

39 Scheme

40 Haskell

41 RPG (OS/400)

42 Erlang

43 Bash

44 Ladder Logic

45 Rust

46 Awk

47 Julia

48 Alice

49 VHDL
 Position Programming Language

50 Clojure

The Next 50 Programming Languages

The following list of languages denotes #51 to #100. Since the differences are relatively small,
the programming languages are only listed (in alphabetical order).

 (Visual) FoxPro, 4th Dimension/4D, ABC, ActionScript, APL, AutoLISP, bc, BlitzMax, Bourne
shell, C shell, CFML, CL (OS/400), Common Lisp, Crystal, Eiffel, Elixir, Forth, Hack, Icon, IDL,
Inform, Io, J, Korn shell, Kotlin, Maple, ML, Modula-2, MQL4, MS-DOS batch, NATURAL, NXT-
G, OCaml, OpenCL, Oz, Pascal, PL/I, PostScript, PowerShell, REXX, S, Smalltalk, SPARK,
SPSS, Standard ML, Stata, Tcl, VBScript, Verilog, Z shell

This Month's Changes in the Index

This month the following changes have been made to the definition of the index:

 Manjunath Babu suggested to rename Mathematica to Wolfram, because Wolfram is the official
name of the programming language. As a consequence, Wolfram lost its top 100 position and is
currently #109.
 There are lots of mails that still need to be processed. As soon as there is more time available
your mail will be answered. Please be patient.

Very Long Term History

To see the bigger picture, please find below the positions of the top 10 programming languages
of many years back. Please note that these are averagepositions for a period of 12 months.

Programming Language 2016 2011 2006 2001 1996

Java 1 1 1 3 14

C 2 2 2 1 1

C++ 3 3 3 2 2
Programming Language 2016 2011 2006 2001 1996

C# 4 5 6 11 -

Python 5 6 7 24 23

PHP 6 4 4 8 -

JavaScript 7 9 8 7 19

Visual Basic .NET 8 30 - - -

Perl 9 8 5 4 3

Ruby 10 10 18 32 -

Lisp 27 12 12 15 7

Ada 28 16 15 16 6

Programming Language Hall of Fame

The hall of fame listing all "Programming Language of the Year" award winners is shown below.
The award is given to the programming language that has the highest rise in ratings in a year.

Year Winner

2015 Java

2014 JavaScript

2013 Transact-SQL
2012 Objective-C

2011 Objective-C

2010 Python

2009 Go

2008 C

2007 Python

2006 Ruby

2005 Java

2004 PHP

2003 C++

I ’m a programmer by profession and instruction and over time I’ve made

myself acquainted with several programming languages. This is my two
cents worth to someone who wants to get into programming and be relevant
and useful in these modern times; learn JavaScript and learn it good, and
don’t forget these equally important compatriots HTML(5), CSS and SQL.
With that you can now ready to work with the productive tools of
JavaScript, (JavaScript’s children) i.e jQuery, Cordova, AngularJs, NodeJs
and Express, MongoDb, AJAX e.t.c. You are now good enough to thrive. But
don’t just stop there, learn Java (you need a language with wich you can
code your own web-services and multicore-optimized
[forktask/join…Stream API] servlets with ease and beauty of thought
process), and also learn C/C++ and Assembly Language if you personally
want to have a deeper understanding of how computing devices work
(people can now regard you as somewhat certified computer specialist).