Kotlin, the popular programming language endorsed by Google for Android development, has climbed to the 15th position in Tiobe’s Index of Programming Language Popularity. In the November 2023 rankings, Kotlin achieved a rating of 1.15%, up from 0.9% in September when it entered the top 20.
Tiobe attributes Kotlin’s rise in popularity to its interoperability with Java and its excellent support for Android development. The language aligns with the modern programming culture that favors expressive languages with strong type systems and a design that avoids null pointer exceptions.
Tiobe CEO Paul Jansen expressed his confidence in Kotlin’s potential to secure a spot in the top 10, although he remained uncertain if it could reach the top four. Tiobe’s rankings are determined by assessing the number of skilled engineers, courses, and third-party vendors for each language globally through data from search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
In another popularity index, the Pypl Popularity of Programming languages, Kotlin ranked 13th with a 1.76% share. Pypl determines language popularity based on the frequency of language tutorial searches on Google.
As of November 2023, the top 10 programming languages according to Tiobe are:
1. Python – 14.16%
2. C – 11.77%
3. C++ – 10.36%
4. Java – 8.35%
5. C# – 7.65%
6. JavaScript – 3.21%
7. PHP – 2.3%
8. Visual Basic – 2.1%
9. SQL – 1.88%
10. Assembly – 1.35%
On the other hand, the Pypl index for November 2023 features the following top 10 programming languages:
1. Python – 27.99%
2. Java – 15.91%
3. JavaScript – 9.18%
4. C/C++ – 6.76%
5. C# – 6.67%
6. PHP – 4.86%
7. R – 4.45%
8. TypeScript – 2.95%
9. Swift – 2.7%
10. Objective-C – 2.32%
Kotlin’s rising popularity reflects its success as an alternative to Java for Android development and its ability to cater to the demands of the modern programming landscape. With further growth expected, Kotlin has the potential to make significant strides in the coming years.
