I compiled some programming language popularity statistics in April and mentioned I’d update the results in 6 months, so here they are:
I made a number of Google searches of the forms below and averaged the results:
"implemented in <language>"
"written in <language>"
| Language |
# Results
Apr 09 |
# Results
Oct 09 |
Position
Delta |
| C |
1,905,500 |
16,975,000 |
0 |
| C++ |
699,000 |
6,270,000 |
+1 |
| Java |
850,000 |
5,118,000 |
-1 |
| PHP |
680,000 |
5,083,500 |
0 |
| Lisp Family1 |
176,507 |
3,489,650 |
+3 |
| Python |
396,000 |
3,407,000 |
-1 |
| Perl |
365,500 |
3,132,500 |
-1 |
| C# |
349,700 |
2,125,000 |
-1 |
| Scheme |
86,450 |
2,100,000 |
+2 |
| FORTRAN |
|
1,621,000 |
N/A |
| JavaScript |
102,700 |
1,163,000 |
-1 |
| ML Family2 |
29,062 |
1,003,800 |
+3 |
| (S)ML3 |
5,173 |
590,700 |
+12 |
| Common Lisp |
20,600 |
554,500 |
+5 |
| Lisp |
61,900 |
486,500 |
-2 |
| Prolog |
17,750 |
390,500 |
+4 |
| Tcl |
44,800 |
382,000 |
-3 |
| OCaml |
22,000 |
343,500 |
0 |
| Arc |
6,775 |
286,500 |
+4 |
| Haskell |
22,550 |
280,500 |
-4 |
| COBOL |
|
247,300 |
N/A |
| Ruby |
99,650 |
227,000 |
-10 |
| Io |
1,760 |
198,500 |
+6 |
| Smalltalk |
9,105 |
187,500 |
-1 |
| Erlang |
22,285 |
161,700 |
-7 |
| Forth |
6,465 |
146,450 |
-1 |
| Lua |
13,065 |
131,800 |
-5 |
| Caml |
1,889 |
69,600 |
0 |
| Scala |
3,570 |
66,250 |
-2 |
| Clojure |
782 |
62,200 |
0 |
1 combines Lisp, Scheme, Common Lisp, Arc & Clojure
2 combines OCaml, (S)ML, Caml
3 summed separate searches for sml and ml
Tags: arc, c, clojure, erlang, forth, haskell, io, java, javascript, lisp, lua, ocaml, perl, php, python, ruby, scala, scheme, smalltalk, sml, tcl
Despite the numerous ways in existence to quantify programming language popularity, I thought I’d throw yet another one into the mix. I made a number of Google searches of the forms below and averaged the results:
"implemented in <language>"
"written in <language>"
I’m very curious to see how these stats change over time, so I’ve added a calendar item to recompute them in six months. Leave a comment if you’d like to add a programming language to the list, and I’ll update this article and it will be included in the recomputation six months from now.
| Language |
# Results |
| C |
1,905,500 |
| Java |
850,000 |
| C++ |
699,000 |
| PHP |
680,000 |
| Python |
396,000 |
| Perl |
365,500 |
| C# |
349,700 |
| Lisp Family1 |
176,507 |
| JavaScript |
102,700 |
| Ruby |
99,650 |
| Scheme |
86,450 |
| Lisp |
61,900 |
| Tcl |
44,800 |
| ML Family2 |
29,062 |
| Haskell |
22,550 |
| Erlang |
22,285 |
| OCaml |
22,000 |
| Common Lisp |
20,600 |
| Prolog |
17,750 |
| Lua |
13,065 |
| Smalltalk |
9,105 |
| Arc |
6,775 |
| Forth |
6,465 |
| (S)ML3 |
5,173 |
| Scala |
3,570 |
| Caml |
1,889 |
| Io |
1,760 |
| Clojure |
782 |
1 combines Lisp, Scheme, Common Lisp, Arc & Clojure
2 combines OCaml, (S)ML, Caml
3 summed separate searches for sml and ml
Update 4/23/09 added C#, Tcl per comment requests.
Tags: arc, clojure, common_lisp, erlang, forth, haskell, io, java, javascript, lisp, lua, ocaml, perl, php, python, ruby, scala, scheme, smalltalk, sml, tcl
