JavaScript continues to be the most commonly used programming language, according to survey of software developers

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September 2023 - Information Technology

JavaScript continues to be the most commonly used programming language: A survey of software developers has revealed that Javascript is still the top programming language used amongst software developers, for the 11th year running. More than 3 in 5 developers said they use Javascript (63.61%),  followed by HTML/CSS (52.97%) in second place.

The annual survey by Stack Overflow polled more than 90,000 developers (including professional developers and those new to the field), to learn more about how they go about learning, and which tools they are currently using, as well as how they level up. It focused on a range of areas including technology, AI and work and community.

The survey revealed that Python (49.28%) has become more popular than SQL (48.66%) taking the third spot as the most common programming language, while TypeScript (38.87%) and Bash/Shell (32.37%) were also popular choices. Making up the top 10 was Java (30.55%), C# (27.62%), C++ (22.42%) and C (19.34%).

Amongst those learning to code, HTML/CSS was used marginally more than Javascript (60.73% vs 60.51% respectively), followed by Python (56.57%) and SQL (35.29%).

Coding outside of work

When asked about coding outside of work, 70.42% of professional software developers said they do it as a hobby, while more than a third (36.54%) said they code for professional development or self-paced learning from online courses. A quarter of respondents said that they contribute to open-source projects (24.72%), while around one in five (19.33%) said they take on freelance or contract work. Bootstrapping a business (13.95%) and school or academic work (11.71%) were also cited, while just 11.94% said they do not code outside of work.

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