This data will help you decide which programming language to learn next.
A data based approach using Stack Overflow’s developer survey data from the years 2019 and 2020.
Introduction
Although I studied mechanical engineering, the field of software engineering always amazed me. You can do so much with just a computer.
Imagine you want to make a small project in field of mechanical engineering like designing and building a small remote car. You have to buy all the electrical and mechanical components and tools.
Well, for software engineering you don’t need more than a laptop and an internet connection. For the rest there is almost always an open source solution.
The question which poses itself when you step into the game of software development is: What language to start with? Well, let’s ask the specialists.
Stack Overflow is a popular question and answer website for professional and hobbyist programmers. Every year, Stack Overflow conducts a massive survey among their users. Between 2019 and 2020, each year more than 60 thousand programmers responded.
- 2019 survey: 88,883 responses
- 2020 survey: 64,461 responses
In the following sections we will look into these surveys and will learn what the programmers on Stack Overflow think about what programming language to learn next.
Part I: What is the programming language people work with most?
In the survey of 2020 among the 64,461 responses to the question “What programming language did you work with this year?”, the most mentioned language is JavaScript.
About 67% percent of the contestants worked with JavaScript, 62% with HTML/CSS and 54% with SQL. The language Python lands in fourth place with 41% of contestants mentioning it.
Part II: Is there a correlation between programming languages people work with and their job satisfaction?
In the survey of 2020 Stack Overflow asked their users how satisfied they are with their current job. The possible answers are:
- Very satisfied
- Slightly satisfied
- Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
- Slightly dissatisfied
- Very dissatisfied
In the following graphics the percentage of responses regarding languages worked with are compared between people that feel satisfied in their job versus those that feel dissatisfied. Here satisfied groups the answers “Very satisfied” and “Slightly satisfied” and dissatisfied groups the answers “Very dissatisfied” and “Slightly dissatisfied”.
There seems to be no significant correlation between job satisfaction and the languages people work with. Only for the programming languages Python and Bash/Shell/Powershell there is a slight difference between satisfied and dissatisfied. Among the people who are satisfied with their job there is a slightly higher percentage who work with Python and Bash/Shell/Powershell than among the dissatisfied.
Part III: What language do the contestants want to work with in the future?
Ok, now we know what languages the survey participants work with currently, but what language do they want to work with in the future? In the 2020 survey Python (41% want to work with Python) surpassed JavaScript . This means Python is gaining popularity compared to other languages.
Let’s look only at the responses of the professional developers. What programming language might be the most important among them?
Conclusion
In this article, we took a look at which programming language to learn next.
- We saw what programming languages are currently most worked with, JavaScript and HTML/CSS as languages for web development are used more than any other.
- We then looked at the how different programming languages people work with are related to their job satisfaction . This showed that there is no significant correlation, although the percentage of people who work with Python is higher among those who are satisfied with their job.
- Finally, we looked at what programming language the Stack Overflow survey contestants desire to work with in the future. We found that Python took over the lead in 2020 as the most desired language to work with in future.
The findings here are observational, not the result of a formal study. So the real question remains: What programming language will you learn next?
If you are interested in my analysis, make sure to check out my repository on GitHub.
