Which are the most popular programming languages in 2021? The list of most commonly used programming languages in 2021 vary depending on the source. Let’s compare September 2021’s PYPL index ranking with that of Stack Overflow’s 2021 Developer Survey.
Top 10 programming languages (PYPL)
According to the PYPL index, these are the most popular programming languages as of September 2021:
- Python
- Java
- JavaScript
- C#
- PHP
- C/C++
- R
- TypeScript
- Swift
- Objective-C
Here is a table of the PYPL index’s ranking with further details about the programming languages:
| Position | Language | Last stable release | Designed by | Influenced by |
| #1 | Python | Python 3.10.4 | Guido van Rossum | ABC, Ada, ALGOL 68, APL, C, C++, CLU, Dylan, Haskell, Icon, Java, Lips, Modula-3, Perl, Standard ML |
| #2 | Java | Java SE 17 | James Gosling | Ada 83, C#, C++, CLU, Eiffel, Lisp, Mesa, Modula-3, Oberon, Object Pascal, Objective-C, Smalltalk, Simula67, UCSD Pascal |
| #3 | JavaScript (JS) | ECMAScript 2021 | Brendan Eich | AWK, HyperTalk, Java, Scheme |
| #4 | C# (C Sharp) | C# 10.0 | Anders Hejlsberg | C++, Cω, Eiffel, F#, Haskell, Icon, J#, J++, Java, ML, Modula-3, Object Pascal, VB |
| #5 | PHP | PHP 8.1.4 | Rasmus Lerdorf | C, C++, Hack, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl |
| #6 | C | C17 | Dennis Ritchie | ALGOL 68, Assembly, B (BCPL, CPL), FORTRAN, PL/I |
| #6 | C++ | C++20 | Bjarne Stroustrup | Ada, ALGOL 68, C, CLU, ML, Mesa, Modula-2, Simula, Smalltalk |
| #7 | R | R 4.1.3 | Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman | Common Lisp, S, Scheme, XLispStat |
| #8 | TypeScript | TypeScript 4.6.2 | Microsoft | C#, Java, JavaScript |
| #9 | Swift | Swift 5.6 | Chris Lattner, Doug Gregor, John McCall, Ted Kremenek, Joe Groff and Apple Inc. | C#, CLU, D, Haskell, Objective-C, Python, Ruby, Rust |
| #10 | Objective-C | Objective-C 2.0 | Tom Loe and Brad Cox | C, Smalltalk |
The PYPL index is regularly updated, so this ranking might vary over time.
Top 10 programming languages (Stack Overflow’s 2021 Developer Survey)
According to Stack Overflow’s 2021 Developer Survey, these are the most commonly used programming languages in 2021 (among the >83K people surveyed):
- JavaScript
- HTML/CSS
- Python
- SQL
- Java
- Node.js
- TypeScript
- C#
- Bash/Shell
- C++
Here is a table of Stack Overflow survey’s ranking with further details about the programming languages:
| Position | Language | Last stable release | Originally designed by | Influenced by |
| #1 | JavaScript (JS) | ECMAScript 2021 | Brendan Eich | AWK, HyperTalk, Java, Scheme |
| #2 | HTML | Living Standard (2022) | WHATWG | |
| #2 | CSS | CSS 3 | World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) | |
| #3 | Python | Python 3.10.4 | Guido van Rossum | ABC, Ada, ALGOL 68, APL, C, C++, CLU, Dylan, Haskell, Icon, Java, Lips, Modula-3, Perl, Standard ML |
| #4 | SQL | SQL:2016 | Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce | Datalog |
| #5 | Java | Java SE 17 | James Gosling | Ada 83, C#, C++, CLU, Eiffel, Lisp, Mesa, Modula-3, Oberon, Object Pascal, Objective-C, Smalltalk, Simula67, UCSD Pascal |
| #6 | Node.js | Node.js 17.8.0 | Ryan Lienhart Dahl | C++, Javascript |
| #7 | TypeScript | TypeScript 4.6.2 | Microsoft | C#, Java, JavaScript |
| #8 | C# | C# 10.0 | Anders Hejlsberg | C++, Cω, Eiffel, F#, Haskell, Icon, J#, J++, Java, ML, Modula-3, Object Pascal, VB |
| #9 | Bash/Shell | Bash 5.1.16 | Brian Fox | |
| #10 | C++ | C++20 | Bjarne Stroustrup | Ada, ALGOL 68, C, CLU, ML, Mesa, Modula-2, Simula, Smalltalk |
According to the PYPL ranking, Python, Java and JavaScript also led the ranking of the most popular programming languages in 2020. But, according to Stack Overflow’s 2020 Developer Survey, Rust, TypeScript and Python were last year’s top three programming languages among the developers they surveyed. Python is also among the most popular programming languages in cloud solutions.
