The jаvascript community itself has grown steadily for several years. Python, which overtook Java in popularity two years ago, was the second most popular language after jаvascript, with 15,7 million users. In just the last six months, Python added 3,3 million new developers.
Meanwhile, Rust adoption has nearly quadrupled over the last 24 months: from 600 000 developers in the first quarter of 2020 to 2,2 million developers in the first quarter of 2022.
The Foundation’s executive director, Rebecca Rumbul, comments on the report: “The community of maintainers and contributors is inclusive and supportive. Rust is also a great choice for developers looking to improve their career prospects, as demand for Rust developers continues to grow.” The report says Rust was mainly used in IoT projects, as well as in augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) development.
Findings from the analysis report
- Java continues to experience strong and steady growth. Since the beginning of 2021, nearly 5 million developers have joined the Java community.
- PHP grew the least over the last six months: between the third quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the number of new developers increased by 600 000. But PHP is the second most commonly used language in web applications, after jаvascript.
- Go and Ruby are important languages for server-side development, but over the last year Go has grown more than twice as fast. The Go community now has 3,3 million developers.
- The Kotlin community grew from 2,4 million developers in the first quarter of 2021 to 5 million in the first quarter of 2022. This is largely because Google made Kotlin its preferred language for Android development.
46% of developers use low-code or no-code tools for some part of their work. Experienced developers, especially those with more than 10 years of experience, are the least likely to use these tools.
