Python Tops IEEE's List Of Most Popular Programming Languages

IEEE Spectrum, the popular magazine published by the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences, has released its annual list of top programming languages of 2019.

Python has grabbed the first position in the list, making it the most popular programming language in 2019. The second position in the list is acquired by Java, followed by C, C++, and R. Python’s popularity should not come as a surprise to coders and developers. Many popular platforms and software like YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, and Spotify are written in Python.

10 Most Popular Programming Languages [As Per IEEE Spectrum]

Python
Java
C
C++
R
Javascript
C#
Matlab
Swift
Go

Parameters Used By IEEE Spectrum

To compile its list of most popular programming languages in 2019, IEEE Spectrum uses 11 metrics from 8 different sources. To begin with, the organization picked up more than 300 languages from GitHub. Next, it used the volume of Google search results by using the template “X programming” where “X” is the name of the language. This filtered out the languages that had low number of search results.

The next step involved categorizing languages on the basis of their usage in the following categories: Web, mobile, enterprise/desktop, or embedded environments.

This resulted in a set of 52 languages. IEEE Spectrum also included data from other popular platforms like Google Trends, Twitter, GitHub, Reddit, Hacker News, CareerBuilder, IEEE Job Site, and IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

On the basis of these parameters, IEEE assigned a score to each programming language. Python, which appears on the top of the list of most programming languages in 2019, gained 100.0 points, runner up Java secured 96.3 score, and the third-positioned C got the score of 94.4.

You can refer to the methodology page here.

IEEE Spectrum’s methodology might fuel some questions from developers but the same method is also used by other organizations like TIOBE who compile similar lists.

What are your views on the IEEE’s list of most popular programming languages in 2019? Does Python deserve the top spot?