Is Java losing its popularity? Which is the most used programming language? Which are the fastest-growing languages? All of these questions have been answered in the Octoverse by GitHub. Octoverse is a yearly report by GitHub that reveals the state of programming languages and their trends.

Also, read GitHub vs GitLab

Let’s take a look at the key takeaways from the Octoverse.

Trends in programming languages 2014-2022 (1)

Trends in programming languages 2014-2022

JavaScript remains the most used programming language.
Python remained in the second position, while Java remained steady in the third. It is interesting to note that Java has been around for more than 30 years but still is one of the most used programming languages.
Typescript jumped from the 10th position to the 4th in 2020. In 2022, it remained steady as the 4th most used programming language.
PHP dropped down from its rank in 2022. The language stood in the 3rd position in 2014 but dropped to 6th last year. In 2022, PHP dropped to the 7th position, losing the 6th position to C++.
Shell, C, and Ruby remain in the 8th, 9th, and 10th positions, respectively.

Java shows no signs of wear! Why is Java still popular in 2023?

Java has been around for more than 30 years. But what makes it the most used language with no signs of slowing down in terms of popularity? Let’s take a look.

Java is an open-source programming language with extensive documentation.
Java is one of the most user-friendly languages. It offers a simple learning curve for new developers. Java is easier to learn if you’re already familiar with C and C++.
Java is a WORA programming language. WORA stands for ‘write once, run anywhere. Java can run on various operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS.
Java has an extensive and rich library of APIs. These APIs can cater to various applications such as networking, parsing XML, etc.
In its 30 years of existence, Java has acquired one of the largest and most robust communities.
Java offers a suite of extensive automation tools, editors, and debuggers in the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Some of the most popular IDEs are Netbeans, Eclipse, IntelliJ, etc.

Which were the fastest-growing programming languages in 2022?

Hashicorp Configuration Language (HCL) showed a staggering 56.1 percent growth in 2022.
Following closely, Rust showed a growth of 50 percent in 2022 as compared to 2021.
Typescript and Lua grew by over 37 and 34 percent, respectively.
Other programming languages which showed more than 20 percent growth this year are Go, Shell, Makefile, C, Kotlin, and Python.

Other key takeaways from the Octoverse:

Programming languages are most used for application development. In 2022, Lua was heavily used for game development.
For cloud-based applications and scripting, developers preferred faster languages such as Go.
For mobile application development, developers used languages like Kotlin, Dart, Flutter, etc., in 2022.

So, these were some of the top programming languages statistics for 2022. Stay tuned to learn more about the programming languages and their usage, popularity, etc., in 2023.

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Ritvik Gupta

Ritvik is a copywriter and content writer who has worked with fast-scaling startups such as GoMechanic and Pitstop. He runs his own automotive blog as well.