You will probably spend months learning a computer language and years honing your abilities.

Consider if a language is utilized and whether it will help you acquire a job. Languages in high demand tend to have better work chances.

Also, consider if the language has a robust community where you may ask questions or seek advice. The more popular a programming language is, the more likely you will find the tools and help you need to master it.

Keeping these points in mind, we looked at today's most popular programming languages. Using our study, you may choose the best programming language for you.

The Most In-Demand Programming Languages Found

We researched popular programming languages on LinkedIn, GitHub, and Stack Overflow and found:

1. According to LinkedIn job postings, employers are particularly interested in C, SQL, Python, Java, and R.
2. These are the most popular programming languages on GitHub.
3. JavaScript, Java, Python, C#, and PHP are often referenced on Stack Overflow.
4. This research expands on the following claims using data from our results.

Top Languages by Job Openings

Will this programming language help me obtain a job? This is a typical question from new coders to seasoned developers looking to progress. This is a common topic since many individuals consider programming as a stepping stone to a stable profession.

We used LinkedIn to see which programming languages had the most job opportunities. We picked LinkedIn as our job opening data source because it is extensively utilized to publish technical job advertising, providing us with a vast dataset to work with. Also, rather than job titles, LinkedIn enables you to search for jobs by programming language.

Instead of job titles, we concentrated on programming languages (e.g., C#, Python) since job titles need a variety of abilities and hence are not predictive of language popularity. Only US job postings are included.

We used a LinkedIn filter that only displays jobs posted in the recent month to gather data. This filter reduces the probability that our data contains inactive job listings, allowing us to better represent the number of available positions at the time of the research---accessed on March 25, 2021.

Based on our research, these are the programming languages with the most job vacancies in the US:

| Language | Jobs on LinkedIn in Last Month | | C | 130,395 | | SQL | 119,865 | | Python | 93,491 | | Java | 83,117 | | R | 81,890 | | JavaScript | 65,943 | | HTML | 46,857 | | C++ | 38,840 | | C# | 37,237 | | CSS | 32,994 |

According to our research, C, SQL, and Python are the most in-demand programming languages right now.

These languages are often utilized in IT occupations. C is used by game designers, graphic artists, software engineers, and more. SQL is utilized by data scientists, software engineers, and web developers.

We feel their widespread use in current applications also adds to their appeal. JavaScript, for example, drives dynamic picture carousels and the front end of payment forms on many current websites. SQL is extensively used for data storage, from web development to software engineering to data analysis and visualization.

However, certain languages will not automatically lead to work chances. To become a web developer, one would need to understand HTML, CSS, and maybe JavaScript. Non-web employment may also demand multilingualism. Some R tasks, for example, need Python skills. These two languages are widely used in data science.

Language Popularity on GitHub

On GitHub, developers may access boilerplate projects, open-source libraries, and other projects that include code to assist them in solving problems. Also, GitHub enables developers to create problems with repositories, making it easier for users to discover solutions to difficulties.

Because GitHub is so extensively used by developers, we decided to count how many repositories each language has. A repository is a GitHub project. The more language repositories accessible, the more likely you are to discover an example project or open-source library that will help you learn a language.

We utilized the GitHub search bar's "language:" filter to see how many open-source repositories each language had. This data may help us understand the popularity of different programming languages.

The most popular programming languages on GitHub are:

| Language | GitHub Repositories | | Java | 4,153,799 | | JavaScript | 3,967,400 | | HTML | 2,660,870 | | Python | 1,849,355 | | PHP | 1,297,950 | | CSS | 1,221,340 | | Ruby | 1,211,608 | | C# | 1,073,695 | | C++ | 905,375 | | C | 803,461 |

Seven of the ten languages above were also in the job posting table. This indicates a high association between GitHub code and the most in-demand talents now on the job market. We anticipated this since languages with numerous practical applications pay highly. For example, C++ is utilized in both professional and personal settings for game creation, web development, and systems programming.

GitHub's most utilized programming languages are Java, JavaScript, and HTML. Our study languages are all quite popular. Even C, our lowest-ranking language, has 803,461 repositories, indicating considerable use.

Popular Programming Languages on Stack Overflow

We believe Stack Overflow is a good indicator of community involvement. Stack Overflow is a popular place for developers to exchange issues and solutions.

We looked at Stack Overflow and counted how many queries each language had. We created a graph ranking the most popular languages by total inquiries using this data.

Our data covers all questions posted on Stack Overflow since its inception. We feel that looking at all queries posted is more informative than looking at current threads since many old threads may still be relevant. Even when languages are changed, most revisions do not invalidate earlier inquiries. Also, many individuals utilize legacy codebases and hence depend on outdated tool documentation.

Here are the 10 most popular programming languages on Stack Overflow:

| Language | Number of Stack Overflow Questions | | JavaScript | 2,190,251 | | Java | 1,764,023 | | Python | 1,681,670 | | C# | 1,470,530 | | PHP | 1,397,271 | | HTML | 1,063,508 | | C++ | 718,118 | | CSS | 711,324 | | SQL | 583,952 | | R | 394,286 |

All of our top programming languages are heavily discussed on Stack Overflow. The most popular languages on Stack Overflow are also the most popular abilities in job postings.

Nine of the ten abilities included in our "most popular programming languages by job openings" table are shown above. The only language missing is C. As a result, the charts include both C++ and C#, both derived from C and widely used in current software development. The fact that C is less common than C++ and C on Stack Overflow doesn't mean it isn't popular.

The more questions on Stack Overflow, the more likely there is a question like yours. Among the almost two million queries about JavaScript, you may discover documentation on mistakes or solutions to your own inquiries. You may also discover code snippets to utilize in your work.

Stack Overflow's most popular programming languages are JavaScript, Java, and Python. But, as GitHub activity shows, even the language at the bottom of our list is quite popular. 394,286 threads include R.

Conclusion

We can't argue on one language being superior to another. Every programming language has its own use cases. For example, studying Python isn't as valuable as learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Regardless, the data we gathered will give you an indication of which languages will be popular in 2021.

Using what we learned about employment prospects and community engagement for different programming languages, you may choose which language to study.