Top 15 Programming Languages by Usage Statistics [2026]

TL;DR: JavaScript is the most used programming language in 2026, used by 68.9% of professional developers in Stack Overflow's latest survey, ahead of HTML/CSS, SQL and Python. Python, fourth, gained 7.3 points in a year and ranks first on the TIOBE and PYPL indexes. On GitHub, TypeScript passed Python in August 2025 to become the language with the most contributors.

Python lost 8.22 points of its TIOBE Index rating between September 2025 and September 2026, falling from 25.98% to 17.76%. Over the same year, its share of programming tutorial searches on PYPL rose from 30.2% to 52.1%. Both indexes still rank Python first. Developers answering Stack Overflow’s survey put JavaScript first, and GitHub’s contributor counts put TypeScript first.

The 15 Most Used Programming Languages in 2026

JavaScript, HTML/CSS, SQL and Python are the languages most professional developers work with, according to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025, the latest edition. The last column is each language’s TIOBE rank, which counts search results rather than developers.

Rank	Language	Professional developers using it (2025)	Change since 2024	TIOBE rank (Sep 2026)
1	JavaScript	68.9%	+4.1 pts	6
2	HTML/CSS	63.1%	+9.8 pts	Not ranked
3	SQL	61.4%	+7.1 pts	8
4	Python	54.9%	+7.3 pts	1
5	Bash/Shell	48.9%	+14.5 pts	51 to 100
6	TypeScript	48.8%	+5.3 pts	39
7	C#	29.9%	+1.1 pts	5
8	Java	29.7%	-0.9 pts	4
9	PowerShell	23.1%	+9.1 pts	32
10	C++	21.8%	+0.9 pts	3
11	C	19.2%	+1.6 pts	2
12	PHP	19.1%	+0.4 pts	14
13	Go	17.4%	+2.9 pts	12
14	Rust	14.5%	+2.5 pts	10
15	Kotlin	11.5%	+1.4 pts	26

The Top 15 Programming Languages, Ranked by Usage

1. JavaScript

More professional developers use JavaScript than any other language: 68.9% in the 2025 survey, up from 64.8% a year earlier. Only 0.2% of professional JavaScript users write nothing else. It is the browser’s own language, so web stacks pull it in, and nine in ten professional developers who write PHP or HTML/CSS also write JavaScript.

Its standing is strongest in the survey and weaker everywhere else. TIOBE ranks JavaScript sixth, at 2.76%, and its share of PYPL tutorial searches fell from 7.0% to 3.3% in the year to September 2026. GitHub still counted 2.15 million JavaScript contributors in 2025, but GitHub’s Octoverse 2025 report says its growth slowed as developers moved to TypeScript.

The survey shows that move too. Among professional JavaScript users, 62.8% also use TypeScript. Only 46.8% of JavaScript users want to keep using it next year, well below TypeScript’s 58.0%.

2. HTML/CSS

HTML/CSS is the language learners meet first. Of people learning to code, 68.7% used it in the past year, more than any other language, as did 63.1% of professional developers. TIOBE and PYPL leave it out because it is markup and styling rather than a programming language, but Stack Overflow keeps it on the list.

It posted the second-largest gain in the survey, up 9.8 points from 53.3%. Part of that is a change in how people answered: the average professional developer ticked 6.1 languages in 2025, against 5.4 in 2024, so the most used languages gained points across the board. Relative gains are the better guide to real movement.

Most HTML/CSS users also write JavaScript: 89.3% of professional developers who use it. Its pay follows the front-end market: a US median of $150,000 and a worldwide median of $77,449, the second-lowest of the 15 after PHP.

3. SQL

SQL is the language developers pick up on the job. Only 48.4% of people learning to code used it, against 61.4% of professional developers. That 13-point gap in favour of working developers is the second-widest on this list, after TypeScript.

Its usage rose 7.1 points in a year, from 54.3%, and it climbed on TIOBE as well, from 11th to 8th, with a 2.16% rating in September 2026. SQL sits under most data work, and 57.7% of professional SQL users also write Python.

Developers like it more than its reputation suggests. Of SQL users, 56.4% want to keep using it, the same admired share as Python and Go and well ahead of Java or PHP. The pay sits in the middle of the pack, with a US median of $150,000 and $80,000 worldwide. SQL skills carry into AI work too: our breakdown of AI engineering skills and salaries finds US developers who use pgvector, the vector search extension for PostgreSQL, earning a median $191,500.

4. Python

Python gained 7.3 points to 54.9% of professional developers, more than JavaScript or SQL and in line with the 7-point rise Stack Overflow reports across all respondents. Among learners it is used by 65.8%, and among professional developers aged 18 to 24 by 69.1%, against 44.8% of those aged 55 to 64. Younger developers start with Python.

It is also the language of AI work. Octoverse counts 2.6 million Python contributors on GitHub, up 48% in a year, and Python sits in 582,196 new AI repositories, close to half the total. Our ranking of AI programming languages by usage shows how Python compares with the rest in AI projects. The trackers disagree about Python more than any other language:

PYPL’s series shows how sudden its jump was. Python’s share of tutorial searches held between 28% and 31% in September of each year from 2020 to 2025, then reached 52.1% in September 2026:

PYPL counts tutorial searches only, so a surge there says more people are learning Python, not that more companies run it. The pay is strong for a language this common: a US median of $160,000 and $81,870 worldwide. Our guide to the cost to hire a Python developer compares freelance rates by country.

5. Bash/Shell

Bash/Shell made the biggest jump in the survey, from 34.4% to 48.9% of professional developers, a gain that took it level with TypeScript. Shell scripts are the glue of build and deployment work.

AI projects lean on them. In AI-tagged repositories on GitHub, Octoverse names Shell the fastest riser of 2025, up 324%, as teams script evaluation harnesses, data preparation and deployment pipelines.

Nine of the ten languages in this chart gained users, but not at the same pace, and scripting moved furthest:

PowerShell climbed 9.1 points and HTML/CSS 9.8, while Java slipped. TIOBE does not register the shift at all. It lists Bash in its unranked band between 51st and 100th place. Shell users earn a worldwide median of $87,550, the third-highest of the 15 after Go and Rust, and 66.3% of them also write Python.

6. TypeScript

TypeScript is the most used language on GitHub. It overtook both Python and JavaScript there in August 2025, according to Octoverse:

In the Stack Overflow survey it is used by 48.8% of professional developers, up 5.3 points, but by only 26.5% of learners. That 22-point gap is the widest on this list: TypeScript is a language people adopt at work, where it adds types to JavaScript codebases, and 88.6% of professional TypeScript users still write JavaScript alongside it.

It is also the best-liked of the six most used languages, with 58.0% of users wanting to keep it. TIOBE is the outlier. It ranks TypeScript 39th, at 0.43%, behind Lua and PowerShell, a reminder that its search-based method counts pages about a language rather than the people shipping code in it.

7. C#

C# is the language older developers keep. It is used by 36.9% of professional developers aged 55 to 64 and 29.1% of those aged 18 to 24, the reverse of the pattern for Python and TypeScript. Overall, 29.9% of professional developers used it in 2025, up 1.1 points, and 55.8% of its users want to stay with it.

The indexes are cooler. C# holds fifth place on TIOBE but lost 2.16 points in a year, to 4.22%, the second-largest fall in its top 20 after Python’s. Its PYPL tutorial share fell from 4.8% to 1.6%. On GitHub, Octoverse puts its contributor growth at about 10.6%, steady rather than fast, which it ties to enterprise and game tooling.

US pay for C# is among the lowest on the list, a median of $140,000, level with PowerShell and above only PHP, though its worldwide median of $81,210 is typical. It shares a base with Windows infrastructure: 57.9% of professional PowerShell users write C# as well.

8. Java

Java is the only language on this list whose usage fell in the survey, from 30.6% to 29.7% of professional developers, in a year when the average developer added languages. It also has the third-lowest admired score of the 15: 41.8% of Java users want to keep using it, ahead of only PHP and PowerShell.

That is not a collapse. Java is fourth on TIOBE at 7.54% and second on PYPL, with 13.3% of tutorial searches, and Octoverse counted about 175,000 new Java contributors on GitHub in 2025, up 20.7%, growth it calls enterprise-driven. Students still learn it: 41.3% of learners used Java, far more than the 26.5% who used TypeScript.

The pay holds up. Java developers in the US earn a median of $160,000, level with Python and TypeScript. Our breakdown of the cost to hire a Java developer shows freelance rates in ten markets.

9. PowerShell

PowerShell has the lowest admired score of the 15. Only 35.4% of its users want to keep using it, yet usage went the other way, up 9.1 points to 23.1% of professional developers, the third-largest gain in the survey.

PowerShell is the scripting shell of Windows and Azure, which suggests much of its use comes with the job rather than by choice.

It sits low in the indexes. TIOBE ranks it 32nd, at 0.49%, and it is 15th on PYPL. In the survey, 57.9% of professional PowerShell users also write C#, the other half of the Microsoft stack.

The pay is better than its reputation. PowerShell users earn a US median of $140,000 and a worldwide median of $83,531, above the worldwide medians for JavaScript, Python and Java.

10. C++

C++ is far more common in study than in paid work. Of people learning to code, 40.0% used it in the past year, against 21.8% of professional developers, a gap of 18 points. Only C has a wider lead among learners.

TIOBE ranks C++ third at 8.67%, down 0.13 points, after C passed it this year. PYPL groups C and C++ together, at 8.0% of tutorial searches, third behind Python and Java.

Among professional developers, C++ usage rose 0.9 points, and 46.6% of its users want to keep using it. It pays a US median of $150,000 and $81,870 worldwide, the same worldwide median as Python. On GitHub it holds a steady place in AI infrastructure: Octoverse counted more than 7,800 AI repositories using C++, up 11%.

11. C

C gained more than any other language in TIOBE’s top 20 this year. Its rating rose 1.63 points to 10.28%, and it passed C++ for second place behind Python. Python, C, C++ and Java together hold 44.25% of the index:

TIOBE measures how much the web says about a language, through search results, so a rise there means more pages mention C, not that more developers write it.

The survey shows a smaller shift. C is used by 19.2% of professional developers, up 1.6 points, and by 40.9% of learners, the widest learner lead of any language on this list. Of professional C users, 68.1% also write C++. C developers earn a US median of $150,000, and 45.0% of C users want to keep using it.

12. PHP

PHP pays the least of the 15 languages in the survey: a US median of $130,000 and $62,648 worldwide, about $15,000 below the next-lowest worldwide median, for HTML/CSS.

Its user base is steady. 19.1% of professional developers wrote PHP in 2025, almost unchanged from 18.7%, and 90.6% of them also wrote JavaScript, the highest overlap on this list. Half of professional PHP users, 50.6%, describe themselves as full-stack developers, against 35.3% of all professional developers.

Developers are lukewarm: 38.9% of PHP users want to keep using it, second-lowest after PowerShell. TIOBE ranks PHP 14th at 1.04%, and PYPL seventh at 2.0%. Our look at the cost to hire a PHP developer breaks freelance rates down by country.

13. Go

Go pays the most of the 15 in both markets. Employed professional Go developers in the US report a median of $180,000, and $92,812 worldwide, the only language in the group above $90,000:

Usage is growing from a small base, up 2.9 points to 17.4% of professional developers. More respondents want to work with Go next year than used it this year, 27.4% against 16.5%. Go is the language of Kubernetes and Docker, which makes it a staple of cloud infrastructure teams, and 70.2% of professional Go users also write Python.

TIOBE and PYPL see less of it. Go fell from eighth to 12th on TIOBE, losing 1.22 points to 1.10%, and it is 19th on PYPL.

14. Rust

Rust is again the survey’s most admired language. Stack Overflow’s published figure is 72%, and our calculation from its response file gives 72.5% of Rust users wanting to keep using it. Far fewer developers use it: Rust is 14th by usage, at 14.5% of professional developers, which leaves it alone in the top left of the chart:

Demand runs ahead of use. 34.2% of respondents want to work with Rust next year, more than twice the 14.9% who used it. Younger developers lead: 23.8% of professional developers aged 18 to 24 use Rust, against 6.0% of those aged 55 to 64.

TIOBE shows the same momentum, with Rust climbing from 18th to 10th in a year, to 1.34%. Rust developers earn a US median of $173,500, second only to Go among these 15, and 73.5% of them also write Python.

15. Kotlin

Kotlin is the least used language on this list and one of the best paid. 11.5% of professional developers used it in 2025, up 1.4 points, and they earn a US median of $170,000, third behind Go and Rust. The worldwide median is $82,374.

Most Kotlin developers also know Java: 68.1% of professional Kotlin users wrote Java in the past year. Google made Kotlin its preferred language for Android apps in 2019, and 18.0% of professional Kotlin users are mobile developers, five times the 3.6% share across all professional developers.

More respondents want Kotlin than use it, 14.0% against 10.8%, but only 51.0% of current users want to keep it. TIOBE ranks Kotlin 26th at 0.67%, and it is 20th on PYPL. Lua, Ruby and Dart are the next languages down in the survey, each used by under 9% of professional developers.

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FAQs

What is the most used programming language in 2026?

JavaScript, by developer count: 68.9% of professional developers used it in the Stack Overflow 2025 survey. By other measures, TypeScript leads GitHub contributors and Python leads the TIOBE and PYPL indexes.

Why do TIOBE and Stack Overflow rank languages differently?

They measure different things. Stack Overflow asks developers what they used; TIOBE counts search results about each language, and PYPL counts tutorial searches. A language can be in daily use and still rank low on search counts, as TypeScript does.

Which programming language pays the most?

Go, among the 15 most used: US professional developers who use it report a median of $180,000, ahead of Rust at $173,500 and Kotlin at $170,000.