The State of Developer Ecosystem 2021

This report presents the combined results of the fifth annual Developer Ecosystem Survey conducted by JetBrains. 31,743 developers from 183 countries or regions helped us map the landscape of the developer community.

Here you can find the latest trends in the tech industry, as well as interesting facts about tools, technologies, programming languages, and many other facets of the programming world.


Key Takeaways

JavaScript is the most popular language.

Python is more popular than Java in terms of overall usage, while Java is more popular than Python as a main language.

The top-5 languages developers are planning to adopt or migrate to are Go, Kotlin, TypeScript, Python, and Rust.

The top-5 languages developers were learning in 2021 were JavaScript, Python, TypeScript, Java, and Go.

Ruby, Objective-C, and Scala have all decreased in popularity over the last 5 years.

The 5 fastest growing languages are Python, TypeScript, Kotlin, SQL, and Go.

A majority of the respondents (71%) develop for web backend.

Programming languages

What programming languages have you used in the last 12 months?

Popularity of programming languages over the last 5 years.

Line chart: Popularity of programming languages over the last 5 years

Please note that some aspects of the survey methodology changed between editions. In 2021 we extended geographical coverage, which resulted in differences in the shares of some languages. For example the share of PHP is 3 percentage points higher, and Python and Java are a bit lower in new regions than in the initial countries.

What are your primary programming languages?

Choose no more than 3 languages

Do you plan to adopt / migrate to other languages in the next 12 months? If so, to which ones?

By primary languages

On which operating systems are your development environments?

Over the last 5 years, developers’ preferences with respect to operating systems have remained constant.

Do you use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for local development?

This question was shown to all respondents who use Windows as their operating system.

For which platforms do you develop?

What types of software do you develop (including apps in any programming language, for either professional or personal purposes)?

In which kinds of activities are you involved?

What types of software do you develop?

By primary language

For which platforms do you develop?

By primary language

Popularity of programming languages

By region

There are languages not listed in this table that are popular in some regions: Delphi is the primary language of 3% of the developer population in Brazil, for example, while Ruby (9%), Swift (6%), and Scala (4%) are popular in Japan.

Gender and development

In which kinds of activities are you involved?

By gender

The Other option includes non-binary, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming as well as other — write in and prefer not to say option. Although the sample is too small to make any reliable conclusions from it.

Women are more likely than men to be involved in data analysis, machine learning, and UX/UI design or research. Women are less likely than men to be involved in infrastructure development and DevOps, system administration, or Deployment.

Gender distribution

By region

Professional coding experience

By gender

The diversity in the tech industry is increasing among younger developers.

Which platforms do you target with your projects?

This question was only shown to respondents who develop for desktop platforms.

Languages

What language do you use at work?

Share of English as working language by regions

Do you speak at home or with friends in the same language as you use at work?

What languages do you use with family and friends?

Migration

Immigration rate

Immigration rate = the number of people working in a region who were born in a different region / the total number of people working work in that region

Emigration rate

Emigration rate = The number of people who were born in one country but work in a different one / the total number of people born in that country

Salary

Median value of annual net (after tax) salary in USD, excluding any bonuses

By regions

Salary by job role

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