Top 10 programming languages for 2025

Every year, Pluralsight conducts a meta-study of the most popular programming languages based on the last 12 months of data, so IT professionals can figure out what’s trending right now. We consult our learning platform of over 50,000 tech learners, as well as cross-checking our data with other popular industry surveys to get the best indication of what’s trending. Here are this year’s rankings.

#1 - Python

It was no surprise for us to see Python at the top of this list. Not only has it dominated Pluralsight’s rankings and everyone else’s for the last few years, the fact Python has all the data science and machine learning libraries makes it more relevant than ever in 2025 with so many companies madly rushing to adopt AI. Plus, it’s an incredibly easy language to learn for beginners.

#2 - Java

Like Python, Java has been a consistent entry on our list, remaining in #2 since 2022—always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Why is it so popular? Java can run on all types of devices, it’s open source, has a wide community of developers, and it’s also easy to learn and use. 

Java is also very popular among enterprise-sized companies because Java applications are stable, efficient, and scalable—all things you want when having an application dealing with potentially millions of transactions. That makes it a worthy addition to any developer’s resume.

#3 - JavaScript

Ah, JavaScript—one of the most loved and hated languages of all time. It’s a vital tool for web developers and it is easy to learn as a high-level interpreted language. On the flip side, many developers find it “weird” in the way it behaves compared to other languages, and have a bad taste in their mouth after seeing people use it incompetently. 

Contention aside, nobody argues how widely it’s used, given it underpins 98% of all websites on the internet. It’s no surprise that JavaScript was one of the most searched-for languages by tech learners on the Pluralsight platform in 2024 given its “popularity.”

#4 - C++ (Up +1)

Despite C++ making the list of “hardest languages to learn” alongside the likes of Cow and Whitespace—which are impractical “joke” languages—it remains popular due to its unrivaled performance as a low-level language. Not the most fun language to learn as a beginner, but a great skill to have if you’re doing anything with high performance needs such as real-time sims, financial trading systems, or similar workloads.

#5 - C# (Down -1)

C++ and C# switched places in our rankings this year like cars jostling for the lead. C# is a general purpose, high-level language that is easier to learn and is less error prone than C++, but it’s not as fast and has a larger memory footprint. Given this need might be being filled by other languages right now, this could explain why C# has slid slightly down the ranks.

#6 - Typescript (Up +2)

TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that adds features such as optional static typing, classes, and interfaces, and enables IDEs to spot errors as you type. All of this improves productivity, code quality, and maintainability. TypeScript’s tagline is “JavaScript that scales”, basically making it an enterprise-friendly language, so it’s easy to see why it rose in popularity in the last 12 months. 

#7 - SQL (Down -1)

SQL—a domain-specific language used to manage data—is on a bit of a ranking ride now, up from 2023 in popularity, but slightly down over the last 12 months. Still, we predict SQL is actually going to become more important in the future. 

Why? The vast majority of companies are implementing or planning to implement AI projects, but they haven’t taken the time to clean their underlying data. This will lead to a rise in demand for skilled data professionals, who in turn will be using SQL as their bread-and-butter for handling data. So, we count this as “temporarily down, but certainly not out.”

#8 - C (Down -1)

There’s a bit of funniness with C, in that some rankings bundle C++ and C together, while others break them apart. We’ve opted for the latter, treating C as a separate language. C has been dropping through the ranks, sitting at #6 in 2022 and now at #8 as other languages rise in popularity. While it’s an older language, it still remains widely used and influential, still ranking above other newer languages like Rust, Swift, and Ruby.

#9 - Go (Golang)

Go (Aka. Golang) is a statically typed, high-level, and open source programming language. Like many of the entries in our top 10, it’s easy to learn, and focuses on simplicity, reliability, and efficiency. Go jumped into our top 10 rankings last year, with its popularity remaining steady over the last 12 months.

#10 - PHP

PHP is a widely-used, open-sourced, server-side language used for web development. According to W3Techs, it’s used by 75.6% of all websites in 2024 for server-side programming. Like JavaScript, it’s one a lot of people argue about. On the one hand, it’s open source, is supported by an extensive community and body of resources, and is easy to learn. On the other hand, many developers claim it is messily designed, and as a result leads to developers who write bad PHP code. 

Other notable ranking shifts this year

We don’t always post the full ranking list—most people don’t want to read an exhaustive list of languages and ranking numbers—but there are always some interesting shifts that don’t make the top 10 worth mentioning:

• Rust is crawling up the rankings, sitting at #15 in 2022 and now at #11 for this year’s rankings. We expect to see it officially in the top 10 in the near future.
• Swift is also crawling up the rankings, not even making our 2022 figures, and now sitting at #15. Only time will tell it if pushes out another language to squeeze into the top listings.
• R (#12) and Ruby (#14) are popular, but slowly falling down the rankings behind the scenes as other languages sneak past. 
• Among tech learners on the Pluralsight platform, languages such as Kotlin are very popular, but this is not reflected in industry usage just yet.

Interested in learning more about current trends in tech? Check out our recent article: “The 8 most in-demand tech skills in 2025 (with skill tests).”

Learning the top 10 programming languages, and testing your existing skills

After reading this article, you might be wondering how you can upskill in these languages, or test your current proficiency. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Here’s a list of resources you can use for each language. Pluralsight offers expert-authored Skill IQ tests where you can answer a series of questions about each language and see where you rank against other professionals, as well as beginner-to-expert learning pathways.

You will need to sign up with a free 10-day Pluralsight trial account to access the skill tests and courses below, but you can certainly test your skills and watch some courses in that time (and even keep learning, if you find you like it.)

Python

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path

Java

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path

JavaScript

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path

C++

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path

C#

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path

TypeScript

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path

SQL

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path

C

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path

Go (Golang)

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path

PHP

• Skill IQ test
• Learning path