What are the most popular programming languages from 1965 to 2022? In today’s article, we will look at the most popular programming languages throughout history. Starting with the most widely used early programming languages such as Algol, APL1, Fortren and others, we will look at the most popular programming languages in 2021 and 2022. These include Java, Python, C++, C and many others.
The most popular programming languages from 1965 to 2020
What are, in 2020 the most popular programming languages (below we will also see the data of 2021). The first most popular programming language, in 2020, is Python. In second place we find Javascript and in third place Java. In terms of popularity these first three languages have a value (calculated as explained at the bottom) of 26.78, 23.66 and 22.15. From fourth place onwards we find other programming languages such as C#, PHP, C++, R and with a value that varies from 8.35 points to 2 and a half of Kotln.
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The most popular programming languages in 2022 (TIOBE Index)
We have seen which are the most popular programming languages from 1965 to 2020. But what are the most popular programming languages in 2022? To answer this question, we will use the January update of the TIOBE index. To see how the index is calculated, I invite you to look at the TIOBE page.
As of 1 January 2022, the most popular programming language is Python. Python has a rating of 13.58%. This is an increase of +1.86 compared to January 2021. Thanks to this change, Python has moved from third position to first. In second place is C, which has a rating of 12.44%, a decrease of -4.94% compared to the previous year. Because of this change, C moved from first to second place. In third position is Java with 10.66% ratings and a change of -1.30%. Java moved from second place in 2021 to third place in January 2022. C++, C#, Visual Basic, JavaScript, Assembly Langyage, SQL and SQL in tenth position with 1.80% are also in the top 10.
Most popular programming 2022
- C, 15,33%
- Java, 10,45%
- Python, 10,31%
- C++. 6,52%
- C#, 4,97%
The most used programming languages in the 60s and 70s
But what were the most successful programming languages in the 1950s and 1960s? Among the first programming languages we find Fortran. Fortran was a programming language born in 1957. It was developed starting in the early 1950s and published later in 1957. The strength of this program lies in its numerous application programs, function libraries. Among other things Fortran is still one of the most widely used programming languages despite being on the market for over 63 years.

Another program that was very successful was Cobol. Designed in the late 50s, precisely in 1959, it was officially published in 1961. Again, the program is still in use today (the latest version is from 2014). Cobol was designed by Grace Hopper, computer scientist and programming pioneer, who with the support of the U.S. Department of Defense, created a portable programming language capable of processing data.


Programming languages – Through the Years
If in 1950 and 1960 programming languages could be counted on the fingers, now there are thousands. From the simplest to the most complicated. In this infographic made by the website “The Software Guild”, you can see the evolution of programming languages from the 1950s to the 2010s. In fact, this visual map shows how programming languages are almost a family tree. I think it’s a very useful infographic to see how over time some programming languages we use now are “children” of the 1950s and 1960s.
Data Source
The source of the starting data is the video and the calculation made by Data is Beautiful which has realized a popularity index on GitHub and other national surveys. To this data has been added the value of the 2020 data. The Y-axis is a value relativized specifically to create the data.
See the video here: https://youtu.be/UNSoPa-XQN0
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