Tech & AI

The Most Popular Programming Languages

The programming languages with the highest ratings in the TIOBE Index for October 2026, a monthly measure of search visibility. Python leads at 19.23%, and Julia returned to the top 20 this month for the first time in three years.

In the spotlight Microsoft
Video thumbnail for PyCon US's keynote speaker video on Guido van Rossum, creator of Python

Pictured: video thumbnail for PyCon US's keynote-speaker video on Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python, #1 with a 19.23% TIOBE rating.

Rank Language TIOBE rating Change vs Oct 2025 (points) First appeared Created by / steward Typing / paradigm Typical use
1Python19.23%−5.231991Guido van Rossum; Python Software FoundationDynamic; multi-paradigmAI and machine learning, data science, scripting, web back ends
2C11.33%+2.041972Dennis Ritchie (Bell Labs); ISO standardStatic; proceduralOperating systems, embedded devices, drivers
3C++8.87%+0.041985Bjarne Stroustrup; ISO C++ committeeStatic; multi-paradigmGames, browsers, finance, performance-critical software
4Java8.41%+0.061995James Gosling (Sun); OracleStatic; object-orientedEnterprise back ends, Android apps, large systems
5C#3.79%−3.152000Anders Hejlsberg; MicrosoftStatic; multi-paradigmWindows and .NET apps, games (Unity), cloud services
6JavaScript2.77%−0.641995Brendan Eich (Netscape); Ecma TC39Dynamic; multi-paradigmWeb pages and apps, Node.js servers
7Visual Basic2.20%−1.021991Alan Cooper and MicrosoftStatic; object-oriented, event-drivenWindows business and desktop applications
8R2.06%+0.551993Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman; R FoundationDynamic; functional, arrayStatistics, data analysis, research
9SQL1.97%+0.201974Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce (IBM); ISO standardDeclarative query languageQuerying and managing databases
10Rust1.44%+0.242010Graydon Hoare (Mozilla); Rust FoundationStatic; multi-paradigm, memory-safeSystems software, browsers, infrastructure
11Go1.39%−0.532009Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, Ken Thompson (Google)Static; concurrent, proceduralCloud services, networking, DevOps tools
12PHP1.26%−0.121995Rasmus Lerdorf; The PHP GroupDynamic; multi-paradigmWeb servers and content sites
13Fortran1.12%−0.581957John Backus and team (IBM)Static; procedural, arrayScientific and numerical computing
14Swift1.03%+0.092014Chris Lattner and team (Apple)Static; multi-paradigmiPhone, iPad and Mac apps
15Scratch0.97%−0.182007MIT Media LabDynamic; visual, block-basedTeaching children to code
16COBOL0.89%+0.031959CODASYL committeeStatic; proceduralBanking, insurance and government mainframes
17Perl0.88%−0.781987Larry WallDynamic; multi-paradigmText processing, system scripting
18Julia0.88%+0.422012Jeff Bezanson, Stefan Karpinski, Viral Shah, Alan EdelmanDynamic; multiple dispatchNumerical and scientific computing
19Delphi/Object Pascal0.83%−1.031995Borland; EmbarcaderoStatic; object-orientedDesktop and business applications
20MATLAB0.83%−0.331984Cleve Moler; MathWorksDynamic; array-basedEngineering, simulation, numerical analysis

Basis and caveats: ranked by each language's rating in the TIOBE Index for October 2026, published at the start of the month, and nothing else. TIOBE estimates a language's share of search interest from queries such as “<language> programming” on more than 20 sites, including Google, Bing, Amazon and Wikipedia. As of October 2026 it also searches the Mandarin Chinese equivalent, “<language> 编程”, weighted at 44.2% of the English terms, so some of the changes in the “Change” column (TIOBE's own figures against October 2025) come from the wider data rather than from developers switching languages. TIOBE says the index is not about the best language or the one with the most code written. Other indexes, among them the Stack Overflow Developer Survey, GitHub Octoverse, PYPL, RedMonk and IEEE Spectrum, measure other things and give different orders, so this ranking shows search visibility and is not a verdict on use or quality. The top 20 are listed; ratings below Delphi/Object Pascal and MATLAB (0.83%) are under a percentage point each. “First appeared” is the year of the first public release or design. Where two languages round to the same rating (Perl and Julia at 0.88%, Delphi/Object Pascal and MATLAB at 0.83%), TIOBE's order is kept.[1][2][3]

The Top 10

#1

Python — 19.23%

Python has held first place for years, and October 2026 is no different, with 19.23% of TIOBE's measured search interest. That is 5.23 points below a year earlier, but TIOBE added Chinese-language search terms this month, so part of any shift reflects wider data coverage. It is still 7.9 points clear of C. Guido van Rossum began it as a hobby project in the late 1980s and released it in 1991. Its dominance in AI and data work is the main reason it stays on top.[1][2][3]

#2

C — 11.33%

C stays second at 11.33%, up 2.04 points on a year ago, one of the biggest gains among the leaders. Dennis Ritchie created it at Bell Labs around 1972 to write the Unix operating system, and much of the software underneath everything else, from operating systems to microcontroller firmware, is still written in it.[1][4]

#3

C++ — 8.87%

C++ is third at 8.87%, just 0.46 points ahead of Java. Bjarne Stroustrup began extending C with classes in the early 1980s, and the language is now maintained by an ISO committee. It is the usual choice where speed matters, from game engines to trading systems.[1][4]

#4

Java — 8.41%

Java holds fourth at 8.41%, up 0.06 points from October 2025, and trails C++ by less than half a point. Sun Microsystems released it in 1995, and Oracle now stewards it. Its “write once, run anywhere” virtual machine made it a fixture of corporate back ends and Android development.[1][4]

#5

C# — 3.79%

C# is fifth at 3.79%, down 3.15 points from a year earlier, the largest fall in the top 10 after Python's. Microsoft released it in 2000 under Anders Hejlsberg as part of .NET. It is used for Windows software, cloud services and, via Unity, a large share of video games.[1][4]

#6

JavaScript — 2.77%

JavaScript is sixth at 2.77%, down 0.64 points. Brendan Eich wrote the first version at Netscape in 1995, and every web browser runs it. Its low TIOBE score is a good example of the method's limits: indexes based on developer surveys or code hosting typically place it much higher, because TIOBE counts searches for “programming” pages rather than how much code is written.[1][4]

#7

Visual Basic — 2.20%

Visual Basic is seventh at 2.20%, down 1.02 points. This entry is the modern .NET version, which TIOBE counts separately from Classic Visual Basic (#24 this month). Microsoft introduced the original in 1991, built on a drag-and-drop prototype by Alan Cooper, and it remains common in older business applications.[1][4]

#8

R — 2.06%

R climbs from 13th to 8th at 2.06%, up 0.55 points, and passes SQL, the only order change inside the top 10 that TechRepublic highlighted. Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman at the University of Auckland began it in the early 1990s as a free language for statistics, and the R Foundation now supports it.[1][2][4]

#9

SQL — 1.97%

SQL rises from 10th to 9th at 1.97%. Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce at IBM designed it in the mid-1970s for querying relational databases, and it became an ISO standard. It describes what data to fetch rather than how, which is why TIOBE labels it differently from general-purpose languages, but still counts it.[1][4]

#10

Rust — 1.44%

Rust takes tenth at 1.44%, up from 16th a year earlier. Graydon Hoare started it as a personal project that Mozilla later sponsored, and it reached version 1.0 in 2015. Its ownership rules prevent whole classes of memory bugs without a garbage collector, and a Rust Foundation now looks after it.[1][2][4]

Programming Languages Software TIOBE Coding Technology

Sources

  1. TIOBE, “TIOBE Index for October 2026” — tiobe.com/tiobe-index
  2. TechRepublic, “TIOBE Index for October 2026: Python Rises as Julia Rejoins the Top 20” — techrepublic.com
  3. TIOBE, index definition and this month's change (Mandarin Chinese search terms) — tiobe.com/tiobe-index
  4. Origin years, creators and stewards (rows 2–20 and the write-ups): each language's own project or standards body pages, and Wikipedia's language articles — en.wikipedia.org