Programming language statistics show a large, active ecosystem measured in different ways. Surveys describe self-reported use and preferences, while GitHub measures platform activity; the figures below keep those populations and definitions separate.
Key Programming Language Statistics
The most useful headline figures are:
- In 2024, GitHub hosted 518 million total projects globally, up 25% year over year.
- In 2024, GitHub recorded nearly 1 billion contributions to public and open-source projects globally.
- In 2024, GitHub recorded 5.6 billion contributions across all projects globally.
- In 2024, GitHub had 137,000 public generative-AI projects globally, up 98% year over year.
- In 2024, JavaScript was used by 62.3% of Stack Overflow Developer Survey respondents across 185 countries.
- In May 2024, Python was used by 51.0% of Stack Overflow survey respondents worldwide.
- In May 2024, SQL was used by 51.0% of Stack Overflow survey respondents worldwide.
- In May 2024, TypeScript was used by 38.5% of Stack Overflow survey respondents worldwide.
- In May 2024, Java was used by 30.3% of Stack Overflow survey respondents worldwide.
- In May 2024, C# was used by 27.1% of Stack Overflow survey respondents worldwide.
- In May 2024, Rust had an 83% admired score among its users in the worldwide Stack Overflow survey.
- In 2024, Python became the most-used language on GitHub globally after JavaScript’s 10-year run at the top.
- In 2024, JavaScript ranked first on GitHub globally when languages were measured by code pushes.
- In 2024, nearly 1 million GitHub repositories globally included a Dockerfile.
- In May 2024, 82% of Stack Overflow respondents worldwide said online resources were their top way to learn to code.
- In May 2024, 90% of Stack Overflow respondents worldwide preferred API and SDK documentation as a learning source.
- In 2024, 76% of Stack Overflow respondents worldwide were using or planning to use AI tools in development.
- In 2024, 70% of professional Stack Overflow respondents worldwide did not perceive AI as a threat to their job.
Contents
- Key Programming Language Statistics
- Global Developer and Open-Source Ecosystem Statistics
- 2024 Programming Language Usage Statistics
- 2023 Programming Language Usage Data
- GitHub Programming Language Adoption Trends
- Learning Preferences and Language Loyalty
- Programming Participation, Work, and AI Statistics
Global Developer and Open-Source Ecosystem Statistics
GitHub’s 2024 platform figures describe activity across its global project ecosystem, not a census of all programmers or repositories. In the same year, GitHub had 108 million new repositories, although repository creation is not equivalent to a unique project or developer.
- GitHub had 518 million total projects in 2024, up 25% year over year.
- GitHub recorded nearly 1 billion contributions to public and open-source projects in 2024.
- GitHub recorded 5.6 billion contributions to all projects in 2024, including private and public activity.
- Developers created more than 70,000 new public generative-AI projects on GitHub in 2024.
- Contributions to generative-AI projects rose 59% from 2023 to 2024.
- More than 1 million maintainers, teachers, and students used GitHub Copilot for free in 2024.
These figures use GitHub’s platform definitions, so they indicate scale and activity within GitHub rather than the whole software industry. GitHub Octoverse 2024 reports the 2024 ecosystem measures.
In the 2023 GitHub estimate, the United States had 20.2 million developers on GitHub, with 21% growth from the prior year. GitHub defines a developer in that report as anyone with a GitHub account, making this a platform estimate rather than a workforce census; GitHub’s 2023 open-source and AI report gives the definition and estimate.
Private projects increased 38% year over year in 2023 and represented more than 80% of all GitHub activity. That measure covers GitHub platform activity, not every software-development activity globally; the same 2023 GitHub report documents the comparison.
2024 Programming Language Usage Statistics
The May 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey is self-reported, allows multiple selections, and represents respondents from 185 countries. Percentages therefore show the share selecting each technology, not mutually exclusive market share.
| Language or category | Share of respondents | Population and period |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript | 62.3% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
| HTML/CSS | 52.9% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
| Python | 51.0% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
| SQL | 51.0% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
| TypeScript | 38.5% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
| Bash/Shell | 33.9% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
| Java | 30.3% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
| C# | 27.1% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
| C++ | 23.0% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
| C | 20.3% | Stack Overflow respondents, May 2024 |
HTML/CSS and SQL are included in the survey’s programming, scripting, and markup category. The 2024 Stack Overflow technology survey supplies the language shares and category definitions, while Stack Overflow’s 2024 survey release summarizes several of the same results.
PHP was used by 18.2% of respondents in May 2024. This is respondent usage, not a census of all programmers, and it comes from the same self-reported multi-select survey.
2023 Programming Language Usage Data
The May 2023 Stack Overflow survey provides a comparable earlier respondent snapshot, but its percentages should not be interpreted as a complete time series or a probability sample of programmers.
| Language or category | Share in May 2023 | Share in May 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript | 63.61% | 62.3% |
| HTML/CSS | 52.97% | 52.9% |
| Python | 49.28% | 51.0% |
| SQL | 48.66% | 51.0% |
| TypeScript | 38.87% | 38.5% |
| Bash/Shell | 32.37% | 33.9% |
| Java | 30.55% | 30.3% |
| C# | 27.62% | 27.1% |
| C++ | 22.42% | 23.0% |
| C | 19.34% | 20.3% |
The table places the two survey snapshots side by side without calculating unsupported changes. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023 is the source for the 2023 values; the 2024 values come from the 2024 technology survey.
The 2023 survey also described the experience profile of professional respondents: 71% had 14 or fewer years of professional coding experience, while 24% reported 15 to 29 years. These are self-reported respondent characteristics, not estimates of the global developer workforce.
GitHub Programming Language Adoption Trends
GitHub’s rankings measure platform activity. In 2024, the all-activity language ranking combined commits, issues, pull requests, comments, discussions, pushed code, and reviewed pull requests, so it differs from a code-push-only ranking.
- Python became the most-used language on GitHub in 2024, overtaking JavaScript after JavaScript’s 10-year run at the top.
- JavaScript ranked first when GitHub languages were measured by code pushes in 2024.
- TypeScript was the third-most-used language in GitHub’s 2024 activity ranking.
- Shell ranked eighth and C ranked ninth in GitHub’s 2024 language ranking.
- The five most common languages in repositories created during 2024 were JavaScript, Python, Java, TypeScript, and C#.
- Python ranked first among GitHub’s ten fastest-growing programming languages in 2024.
- HCL usage grew 25% year over year on GitHub in 2024, an activity signal especially associated with infrastructure-as-code work.
Nearly 1 million repositories included a Dockerfile in 2024. A Dockerfile indicates a repository file, not proof of production deployment; these rankings and repository measures are reported in GitHub Octoverse 2024.
Learning Preferences and Language Loyalty
Usage and future preference measure different things. The 2024 Stack Overflow survey reported an 83% admired score for Rust among its users, where admired means users wanted to continue using it; this is not Rust’s adoption share.
- Svelte had a 73% keep-working-with score among its users in May 2024; Svelte is a web technology, so this is adjacent evidence rather than programming-language adoption.
- People learning to code wanted to try an average of 12 other languages in the next year in the May 2024 survey.
- Professional developers wanted to try an average of 8 other languages in the next year in the May 2024 survey.
- Ruff users had an 84% continue-using score in May 2024; Ruff is a Python tool, not a programming language.
- More than 80% of Rust users wanted to use Rust again the following year in the May 2023 survey.
These are self-reported preferences conditional on the relevant respondent group or existing users. The language and adjacent technology measures appear in Stack Overflow’s 2024 technology survey and the earlier 2023 Developer Survey.
Programming Participation, Work, and AI Statistics
Programming participation includes learning, hobby work, open source, documentation, and paid development. In 2024, 82% of Stack Overflow respondents said online resources were their top way to learn to code, and 90% preferred API and SDK documentation as a documentation source; both are self-reported survey results.
- In 2023, 70.42% of professional developers reported coding outside work as a hobby.
- In 2023, 24.72% of professional developers reported contributing to open-source projects outside work.
- In 2023, 63% of respondents spent more than 30 minutes per day searching for answers or solutions to problems.
AI measures are adjacent workflow statistics rather than programming-language adoption measures. In 2024, 76% of respondents were using or planning to use AI tools in development, compared with 62% currently using them; the 2023 comparison for current use was 44%.
The 2024 survey recorded the following expectations and perceptions:
- Respondents expected AI tools to become more integrated into code documentation for 81% of cases in the following year.
- Respondents expected more integration into testing for 80% of cases in the following year.
- Respondents expected more integration into code writing for 76% of cases in the following year.
- 70% of professional developers did not perceive AI as a threat to their job.
- 79% of respondents identified misinformation or disinformation in AI results as an ethical concern, while 65% identified source attribution.
The workflow expectations are forecasts, not observed future adoption, and the job measure is a perception rather than an employment forecast. The learning, AI, and ethics figures are documented in the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey and its official 2024 survey release.