Ever wondered which is the most demanded programming language in 2024? Although there are more than 200+ programming languages, only few of them are used in the real world industry. Knowing this information is essential to succeed in the developer job industry.
In the last 21 months (from Jan-2023 to Sep-2024), DevJobsScanner has analyzed more than 12M developer jobs. From that 12M jobs, DevJobsScanner has only picked the job offers that explicitly required a programming language. See section How has this study been made to know more information about it.
Keep reading below to know which languages are the most demanded 👇
1 - JavaScript / TypeScript
Since its creation to make the firsts websites dynamic, JavaScript hasn't stopped gaining popularity over the years. With that being said, currently JavaScript is the most demanded programming language in the entire market. Also, the arrival of TypeScript (a JavaScript superset with type safety) may also help to achieve this milestone. TypeScript popularity has only increased in recent years. Many new JavaScript frameworks are entirely written with TypeScript, like Angular or NestJS.
Since January 2023 to September 2024 (21 months), we have found 651K job offers that represents ~31% of the jobs that explicitly required JavaScript or TypeScript as a programming language.
- Jobs Found: 651K (~31%)
- Keywords: JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Angular, Vue, Node.
2 - Python
Without making much noise, Python has made its journey to be the second most demanded programming language in 2024. Its versatility, from scripting, running servers or for data analysis, has been key to achieving this milestone. Also, Python has one of the greatest and bigger communities out there.
During these 21 months we have found 408K job offers that accounts for a total of ~20% of jobs that explicitly required Python as a programming language.
3 - Java
In the top three spot, as the third most demanded programming language, we found Java. Java language has been really popular since its creation in 1995. Even though this popularity has been decreasing over the last years with the appearance of more modern languages like Kotlin, it still holds a solid top three spot. Frameworks like Spring, used in many top tier companies, are helping to hold that position.
4 - C#
The top four spot goes to C#. C# is a general purpose, multi-paradigm, object-oriented programming language, created mainly to address some of the weaknesses of C++. As a general purpose language, C# has a wide range of use cases. The most common usage of C# is with the .NET framework. It is also heavily used in the Unity game framework for scripting. Both .NET framework and Unity are popular among top tier companies.
C# accounts for 12% of the overall job market demand and has remained relatively stable throughout 2023 and 2024. Over this 21-month period, we identified more than 246,000 job listings specifically requiring C# skills.
5 - PHP
The language that Twenty-seven years ago started as a simple “Personal Home Page Tool”, here the name PHP, has made an incredible journey since then. Is that so, that PHP is the fifth top most demanded programming language in 2024. As of September 2024, PHP accounts for 10% of the total demand for developer job offers, meaning that 1 out 10 dev jobs require PHP.
PHP is mainly used for web development, in conjunction with frameworks like Laravel or Wordpress.
6 - C/C++
Fifty years have passed since the first release of C, and 37 years from the later appearance of C++, which was firstly named “C with Classes”. In this long window of time, C/C++ has maintained its popularity with regular additions and improvements to the language. Modern C++ includes object-oriented, generics and also functional features. It also facilitates low level memory manipulation. Its usage in the industry is widely extended, C++ can be found on video games, servers, databases, space probes and many others.
The demand for C/C++ seems to have slowed down in 2024. In early 2023, C/C++ held a 10% share of the job market, maintaining this for several months. However, as 2024 began, demand dropped and stabilized at around 6-7%.
7 - Ruby
Ruby holds the top seven most demanded programming language with 76K jobs found (~4% from the total job demand). Its most popular usage comes in conjunction with the web framework Ruby on Rails. Even though top seven may not seem much, Ruby runs some of the top tech companies nowadays, like Twitter, Crunchbase or Github.
Ruby's job demand has held steady at around 4%, showing consistent stability over time. Despite being a more niche language compared to others, its presence in the job market remains reliable.
- Jobs Found: 76K (~4%)
- Keywords: Ruby, Ruby on Rails
8 - GO
Go is a young language created only 12 years ago by Google. Google designed Go to improve programming productivity in an era of multicore, networked machines and large codebases. Top tier companies like Uber or Twitch are using Go.
As shown in the chart below, demand for the Go programming language remained stable at 2% until August 2024, when it saw a surprising increase. This spike could be partly due to fewer jobs being posted in August, which can create some statistical noise. However, the rise in demand is still a valid result. During this period, we identified a total of 49k job opportunities requiring Go programming language.
- Jobs Found: 49K (~2%)
- Keywords: Go
Most Demanded Programming Languages (full list)
Below is the complete chart with the programming languages and its respective demand in this 2024:
...and the same view subdivided by months:
How has this study been made?
The main objective of this study is to categorize the "dev jobs" by its programming language, minimizing the errors and getting the most accurate information possible. To achieve that, only the title has been used to categorize those jobs into programming languages. This is because we want just the jobs that explicitly require a programming language.
For example, a job with the title "Backend developer", even it has stack defined and also description with job requirements, is discarded and does not count for any language. Otherwise, a job with the title "React Developer" would count as JavaScript / TypeScript, and likewise a job with the title "Laravel Developer" would count as PHP.
Is also important to note that one job offer can count for 2 or more languages. For example a job with the title "Full Stack Developer (Django/Angular)" will count for languages Python and JavaScript / TypesScript.
Summary
It's clear that Javascript and Typescript really dominate the developer job market. Javascript and Typescript accounts for a total of 31% of the job offers that explicitly required a programming language. This is huge, meaning that nearly 1 out of 3 job offers required Javascript or Typescript knowledge.
Python and Java are the second and third most demanded programming languages in 2024 with a great number of job offers also. However, it's important to note the growing gap between them. While they began 2023 with a similar number of job offers, by September 2024, Python has almost 6-7% more job listings than Java.
C#, PHP, Ruby, and Go have all demonstrated a consistent job demand, indicating that each of them could be a reliable choice as a programming language.
On the other hand, C/C++ jobs have declined during this 2024. Starting at 10% in early 2023, it has dropped to around 6% by September 2024—nearly half the percentage in just over a year. This significant decrease is worth considering when deciding which programming language to focus on for job opportunities
