Python ranks first on the TIOBE index at 17.76% for September 2026, yet that rating sits 8.22 points below a year earlier. Usage data moves the other way: 57.9% of Stack Overflow’s 2025 respondents worked in Python, up from 51% in 2024. This guide sets those Python popularity statistics beside GitHub contributor counts, PSF survey results and 2025 job postings, each labeled by what it measures.
Python Popularity Statistics
How Popular Is Python in 2026?
Python ranks first on the TIOBE index for September 2026 with a 17.76% rating. C follows at 10.28% and C++ at 8.67%.
TIOBE builds its rating from search engine results on Google, Bing, Wikipedia, Amazon and more than 20 other sites. The index does not measure lines of code written or the number of users.
C# sits fifth at 4.22%, down 2.16 points on the year, a shift tracked in these C# market share and developer statistics.
Source: TIOBE Index, September 2026
IEEE Spectrum’s 2025 default ranking, weighted toward IEEE members’ interests, also kept Python in the top spot. GitHub’s Octoverse 2025 ranked it second by monthly contributors, behind TypeScript.
Sources: IEEE Spectrum Top Programming Languages, 2025; GitHub Octoverse 2025, August 2025
Python’s TIOBE Rating Since the July 2025 Peak
| Month | Python TIOBE rating |
|---|---|
| May 2025 | 25.35% |
| July 2025 | 26.98% |
| February 2026 | 21.81% |
| September 2026 | 17.76% |
Source: TIOBE Index monthly releases, May 2025 to September 2026
July 2025’s 26.98% passed Java’s 26.49% from June 2001, the index’s first month and its previous high, according to coverage of that release.
The September 2026 reading is 8.22 points below September 2025. No other top-20 language posted a larger year-over-year decline.
TIOBE CEO Paul Jansen said in February 2026 that more specialized languages, naming R and Perl, were taking some of Python’s share.
Source: TIOBE Index commentary, February 2026; TIOBE Index, September 2026
Python’s Average TIOBE Position, 1996 to 2026
TIOBE’s 12-month average puts Python 1st in 2026, up from 3rd in 2021, 5th in 2016 and 25th in 2001. TIOBE notes that positions before 2001 come from Usenet newsgroup hits rather than search engines.
Source: TIOBE Index, Very Long Term History table, September 2026 edition
Stack Overflow 2025: Python Popularity Statistics Among Developers
57.9% of all respondents to Stack Overflow’s 2025 survey did extensive development work in Python over the past year, against 51% in 2024. Stack Overflow describes this as a 7 percentage point increase.
The survey is opt-in. Its 2025 language question drew 31,771 responses, compared with 60,171 in 2024.
Learners show the highest rate. 71.8% of the 2,564 respondents learning to code used Python, more than any other language in that group.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 2024 and 2025
| Language | Share of all respondents, 2025 |
|---|---|
| JavaScript | 66% |
| HTML/CSS | 61.9% |
| SQL | 58.6% |
| Python | 57.9% |
| Bash/Shell | 48.7% |
| TypeScript | 43.6% |
| Java | 29.4% |
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025, 31,771 responses; respondents could select multiple languages
Python ranks fourth overall, behind JavaScript and two markup or query languages. JavaScript’s lead is broken down further in this JavaScript usage and demographics data.
Most Desired Language in 2025
Python topped the survey’s “desired” list at 39.3%, the share of respondents who want to work with it next year. Its “admired” score, the share of current users who want to keep using it, was 56.4%.
FastAPI usage rose 5 points to 14.8% of respondents. Stack Overflow linked that gain to the strength of the Python ecosystem for building APIs.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025
2.6 Million Monthly Contributors: Python on GitHub
GitHub counted about 2.6 million monthly Python contributors in August 2025, up 48.78% year over year. TypeScript passed it with 2,636,006, a margin of roughly 42,000.
| Language | Contributor gain | Growth, Aug 2024 to Aug 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| TypeScript | ~1,054,015 | 66.63% |
| Python | ~850,579 | 48.78% |
| JavaScript | ~427,148 | 24.79% |
| Java | ~174,705 | 20.73% |
| C# | ~136,735 | 22.22% |
Source: GitHub Octoverse 2025, monthly contributors, August 2025 vs August 2024
Python’s gain was the second largest, after TypeScript. The TypeScript adoption rate figures cover the language that moved ahead.
Across all repositories created from September 2024 to August 2025, Python appeared in 9,261,587, just behind JavaScript at 9,345,046. GitHub puts Python’s growth at 53.41%, comparing January to August 2025 with the same months of 2024.
Source: GitHub Octoverse 2025, new repositories, September 2024 to August 2025
Python in AI-Tagged Repositories
Python is the primary language in 582,196 AI-tagged repositories, up 50.7%. GitHub says that is nearly half of all new AI projects on the platform as of August 2025.
Jupyter Notebook, which GitHub classifies as an environment rather than a language, appears in 402,643 AI-tagged repositories, up 17.8%. Related AI-assisted coding data sits in these vibe coding adoption statistics.
Source: GitHub Octoverse 2025, AI-tagged repositories, 2025; Shell and C++ counts as rounded by GitHub
Python Popularity Statistics by Use Case and Experience
The eighth Python Developers Survey, run by the Python Software Foundation and JetBrains, collected more than 30,000 responses in October and November 2024. Respondents opted in, so results describe that group of Python users.
86% of respondents use Python as their main language. 51% use it for data exploration and processing, with pandas and NumPy the most common tools.
Source: PSF and JetBrains Python Developers Survey, 2024 edition
| Survey year | Respondents using Python for web development |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 45% |
| 2022 | 43% |
| 2023 | 42% |
| 2024 | 46% |
Source: PSF and JetBrains Python Developers Survey, 2021 to 2024 editions
FastAPI rose from 29% to 38% of respondents, ahead of Django at 35% and Flask at 34%. Wider front-end and back-end trends appear in these web coding developer insights.
How Experienced Are Python Developers?
Exactly half of respondents have under two years of professional coding experience: 31% under one year and 19% between one and two years.
AI code generation tools as a learning resource rose from 19% to 27% of respondents. uv, a Rust-based package manager, reached 11% in its first measured year.
Source: PSF and JetBrains Python Developers Survey, 2024 edition
Is Python in Demand for Jobs? 108K Postings in 2025
DevJobsScanner analyzed nearly 3 million developer job offers from January to December 2025. It counted only offers that named a language in the job title.
| Language in job title | Offers in 2025 | Share reported |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript / TypeScript | 162K | ~30% |
| Python | 108K | ~20% |
| Java | 89K | ~17% |
| C# | 52K | ~10% |
| PHP | 37K | ~7% |
| C/C++ | 24K | ~5% |
| Ruby | 14K | ~3% |
| Go | 13K | ~2% |
Source: DevJobsScanner, January to December 2025; one offer can count toward two or more languages
Python’s monthly share climbed from about 21% in January to over 26% in December 2025.
Java held third with 89K offers. Its hiring picture is covered in these Java developer trends.
FAQs
Is Python the most popular programming language in 2026?
Yes on TIOBE, where it ranks first at 17.76% in September 2026. Stack Overflow’s 2025 survey places it fourth at 57.9%, behind JavaScript, HTML/CSS and SQL. GitHub ranked it second by monthly contributors in August 2025.
Why is Python’s TIOBE rating falling?
The rating fell from 26.98% in July 2025 to 17.76% in September 2026. TIOBE counts search engine results, not code written, and CEO Paul Jansen linked the February 2026 dip to niche languages such as R and Perl gaining share.
How many developers use Python?
No single count exists. GitHub recorded about 2.6 million monthly Python contributors in August 2025, and 57.9% of 31,771 Stack Overflow respondents used Python during 2025.
Is Python dying, as some Reddit threads ask?
Usage data says no. Stack Overflow’s opt-in survey recorded a 7-point rise in Python use from 2024 to 2025, and GitHub’s Python contributors grew 48.78% year over year to August 2025.
Is Python in demand for jobs?
DevJobsScanner found 108K job offers with Python in the title during 2025, about 20% of language-titled roles. Only JavaScript and TypeScript combined ranked higher, at 162K offers.
Sources
https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/
https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology
https://blog.jetbrains.com/pycharm/2025/08/the-state-of-python-2025/
