Which IT Position Earns More Than a Company Founder? Every Programmer Should Be Aware of These Trends.

We have summarised the results of prestigious rankings to help you determine which programming languages are most relevant on the market. We will briefly describe their advantages, and you will also learn how much a programmer earns on average.

Perl climbed into the top 10

It is versatile, simple, and has an ecosystem of libraries that cover almost all areas of use. That is why Python became the most popular programming language in the September edition of the TIOBE Developer Community Index. C++ and C ranked second and third.

Both are commonly used in system development, with C being favoured by application developers and C++ by game programmers. However, while C’s syntax is similar to other popular languages, which is good news for a newbie programmer, learning C++ can be more challenging.

The final five are rounded out by the perennials Java and C#. Java is referred to as a WORA (Write Once, Run Anywhere) language. Today, it is very common because it can be used to create customised applications that are easy and fast. C#, which is used in game, application and web development, is similar to Java and C.

JavaScript, Visual Basic, and Go also made it into the top ten in the index. JavaScript was named the most widely used programming language in the world last year. Visual Basic, developed by Microsoft, is designed for easy learning and fast code writing. It is often used to create an application prototype, which is later written in a more complex and efficient language. Go is perceived by many as well-structured, consistent, and powerful, which is why many programmers use it for cloud computing, website development, and even data science.

New this year are Delphi/Object Pascal and Perl in ninth and tenth place. Object Pascal is an object-oriented programming language derived from Pascal. It was created by Apple developers and is often used with the Delphi compiler. The main advantage of Perl, an open-source language that was ranked 27th exactly a year ago, is its text processing and high compatibility with Unix. CEO of the ranking, Paul Jansen, estimates that Perl has shot up so high because there are a huge number of books about it on Amazon.com. This is four times more than for PHP and seven times more than for Rust.

Similar results were also shown by September’s PyPL Index of programming language popularity. According to the index, Python is the most popular language worldwide, followed by Java and C/C++, which has seen the biggest increase in its score over the last five years. JavaScript and R, a flexible programming language used primarily for statistical analysis, data visualisation, and data science, also made it into the top five.

Gleam catches up with the most admired Rust

Full-stack developers, back-end developers, and students participated most in this year’s Stack Overflow developer survey. The results differed significantly from those of TIOBE and PyPL Index.

More than 49,000 developers from 177 countries named JavaScript as the most popular language – it is simple, versatile, and has strong community support. It has held the top spot in the ranking since its first release (with the exception of two years).

In second place (as last year) is HTML/CSS. While HTML provides the structure of a web page, CSS is mainly used to create its responsive design. SQL is the foundation of the database world, so it took third place.

Fourth place belongs to Python, whose use has increased significantly. Since last year, it has grown by 7 percentage points, confirming its ability to become the preferred language for AI, data science, and back-end development. Interestingly, Python developers would like to use Rust and Go for programming high-performance systems.

The top five is rounded off by Bash/Shell, or Bourne Again Shell, by its full name. It is the default shell for many Linux distributions, which was standard in macOS until Catalina, and even works in Windows through Windows Subsystem for Linux. This time, PowerShell, which is commonly used to automate system administration on Windows, Linux, and macOS, also made it into the final ten of the ranking.

As last year, Rust was voted the most admired language in the current Stack Overflow survey, scoring 72%. One reason may be that it has a lively and friendly community – there are several channels where a programmer can find support, and there are many conferences held around the world. Thanks to conscious design decisions in the area of backward compatibility and stability, it can also be said that it is designed to last for the next 40 years.

However, Rust is being closely followed by a surprise called Gleam. It is a language that combines the reliability of the Erlang VM platform with the user-friendliness of Elm and Rust. It is designed to create robust systems, server applications, and APIs that must be constantly running without any problems.

Elixir and Zig ranked third and fourth. Elixir is a very robust programming language that combines the efficiency of Ruby with the runtime properties of Erlang. This allows for the creation of low-latency programs and systems. Zig’s success can be explained, for example, by the fact that, thanks to its compatibility with C code bases, it can be easily integrated into existing projects, making it a great choice for system programming, game development, embedded systems, and scripting.

The last place in the top five most admired languages went to TypeScript. As a superset of JavaScript, it provides immediate code checking during compilation, allowing JavaScript to be used in a much safer way.

How much does a programmer earn?

On a global scale, senior company executives (C-level managers, vice-presidents, etc.) have the highest median annual salaries, amounting to $139,218. Engineering managers came in second, earning $130,000, and financial analysts or engineers came in third, earning $103,757. Other roles that ranked in the top five highest median annual salaries are Cloud Infrastructure Engineer, Solutions Architect, and Software Architect.

The Stack Overflow survey also shows a wide salary gap between the US and other countries, which is evident in higher-paying positions. While an Engineering Manager in the US has a median salary of $200,000, in Germany it is $118,000, and in India it is only $52,000.

The ranking also revealed some slightly surprising findings. Despite having similar levels of experience (20 years on average), senior company executives and engineering managers have higher median salaries ($130,000+) than company founders, architects, or product managers ($92,000 to $104,000).

Below is an overview of selected positions with their reported median salaries:

Product manager – $100,000

Cybersecurity or InfoSec professional – $96,146

AI/ML engineer – $89,427

DevOps engineer or professional – $87,011

Database administrator or engineer – $85,168.5

Data scientist – $82,910

Data engineer – $81,210

Back-end developer – $79,742

Full-stack developer – $72,509

Project manager – $68,924

Data analyst or business analyst – $62,625

Front-end developer – $62,015

QA developer or QA tester – $57,442.5

System administrator – $55,148

Are you interested in more detailed information about how much a programmer earns? Well, last year, Stack Overflow published a global survey of average salaries associated with individual languages. If you enjoy Ruby, the salary you can expect, according to the results, is $90,221. A C# developer earns $66,066, and a C++ developer gets $64,444. If you work with Java, your salary will climb to $61,714, but if you plan to work as a PHP programmer, the salary you could earn is $49,586.