The Top Programming Languages in 2020 by IEEE Spectrum

Venkatarangan Thirumalai
2 min readJul 30, 2020

In the list published by IEEE Spectrum on the top programming languages for 2020, it is interesting to see the change in trends.

My observations:

  1. Python (as expected) retains the top slot for the last four years.
  2. JavaScript is slowly raising in popularity, it would’ve been in the top 2, had it not been for AI, ML & Python.
  3. C# suddenly has vanished from the top 10 this year, feels odd as the comments in the article page point out.
  4. Similarly, PHP going out from the top 10 for last two years, I am surprised with this — as WordPress which is powered by PHP, still runs over 30% of the Internet websites.
  5. Java remaining static in #2 or #3 for all the five years. Not surprising, enterprises and Android apps use it a lot.
  6. Apple’s Swift remaining in #9 for the two years, I would’ve expected it to raise.
  7. Data Science language “R” remaining static in #5 or #6 for all the five years.
  8. Slow raise of Google’s Go Lang. I feel this deserves to be raising more.
  9. Inclusion of Matlab, I don’t know enough to explain this.
  10. Arduino is an odd item here as the article’s comment section has highlighted.
The Top Programming Languages from 2016 to 2020 published by IEEE Spectrum

What do you think? What are the programming languages you use everyday? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: The lists for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 can be seen from IEEE Spectrum website.

Originally published at https://venkatarangan.com on July 30, 2020.

--

--

Venkatarangan Thirumalai

A Founder Catalyst and a Microsoft Regional Director (Honorary).