Could C# Overtake Java in TIOBE's Programming Language Popularity Rankings? (techrepublic.com) 11
It's been trying to measure the popularity of programming languages since 2000 using metrics like the number of engineers, courses, and third-party vendors. And "The November 2025 TIOBE Index brings another twist below Python's familiar lead," writes TechRepublic. "C solidifies its position as runner-up, C++ and Java lose some ground, and C# moves sharply upward, narrowing the gap with Java to less than a percentage point..."
TIO CEO Paul Jansen said this month that "Instead of Python, programming language C# is now the fastest rising language," How did C# achieve this? Java and C# are battling for a long time in the same areas. Right now it seems like C# has removed every reason why not to use C# instead of Java: it is cross platform nowadays, it is open source and it contains all new language features a developer wants. While the financial world is still dominated by Java, all other terrains show equal shares between Java and C#. Besides this, Microsoft is going strong and C# is still their most backed programming language.
Interesting note: C# has never been higher than Java in the TIOBE index. Currently the difference between the two rivals is less than 1%. There are exciting times ahead of us. Is C# going to surpass Java for the first time in the TIOBE index history?
"The fact that C# has been in the news for the successive betas and pre-release candidates prior to the release of C# 14 may have bumped up its percentage share in the last few months," notes a post on the site i-Programmer. But they also point out that by TIOBE's reckoning, Java — having been overtaken by Python in 2021 — "has been in decline ever since."
TechRepublic summarizes the rest of the Top Ten: JavaScript stays in sixth place at 3.42%, and Visual Basic edges up to seventh with 3.31%. Delphi/Object Pascal nudges upward to eighth at 2.06%, while Perl returns to the top 10 in ninth at 1.84% after a sharp year-over-year climb. SQL rounds out the list at tenth with 1.80%, maintaining a foothold that shows the enduring centrality of relational databases. Go, which held eighth place in October, slips out of the top 10 entirely.
Here's how TIOBE's methodology ranks programming language popularity in November:
TIO CEO Paul Jansen said this month that "Instead of Python, programming language C# is now the fastest rising language," How did C# achieve this? Java and C# are battling for a long time in the same areas. Right now it seems like C# has removed every reason why not to use C# instead of Java: it is cross platform nowadays, it is open source and it contains all new language features a developer wants. While the financial world is still dominated by Java, all other terrains show equal shares between Java and C#. Besides this, Microsoft is going strong and C# is still their most backed programming language.
Interesting note: C# has never been higher than Java in the TIOBE index. Currently the difference between the two rivals is less than 1%. There are exciting times ahead of us. Is C# going to surpass Java for the first time in the TIOBE index history?
"The fact that C# has been in the news for the successive betas and pre-release candidates prior to the release of C# 14 may have bumped up its percentage share in the last few months," notes a post on the site i-Programmer. But they also point out that by TIOBE's reckoning, Java — having been overtaken by Python in 2021 — "has been in decline ever since."
TechRepublic summarizes the rest of the Top Ten: JavaScript stays in sixth place at 3.42%, and Visual Basic edges up to seventh with 3.31%. Delphi/Object Pascal nudges upward to eighth at 2.06%, while Perl returns to the top 10 in ninth at 1.84% after a sharp year-over-year climb. SQL rounds out the list at tenth with 1.80%, maintaining a foothold that shows the enduring centrality of relational databases. Go, which held eighth place in October, slips out of the top 10 entirely.
Here's how TIOBE's methodology ranks programming language popularity in November:
- Python
- C
- C++
- Java
- C#
- JavaScript
- Visual Basic
- Delphi/Object Pascal
- Perl
- SQL
Re: You are not an engineer. (Score:1)
programmers of some control systems have such concerns, such as power generation and distribution, medical, transport, military, manufacturing, and environmental hazard detection.
AI/LLMs and language translation (Score:3)
As time goes by, I hope programming editors and IDEs start doing language translation via AI.
Say, someone needs to edit a C program but is not very skilled in it. They could use their favourite language (say, C#), to quasi-edit the source program (which would be presented as C# to them). C# code changes would be auto-translated to C in a manner that fits the source codebase's conventions. Aspects of the C program that have no C# equivalent could summarised and edited by AI dialog.
I wonder how TIOBE would measure this sort of work. As activity in the source language (C)? Editing language (C#)? Or both?
Re: (Score:2)
You can do this today. You can also write natural language to the same effect. I get the sense you've never used AI for programming.
lol (Score:1)
C# deserves to be much higher (Score:3)
Java's Mono library is a poor substitute for C#'s async/await keywords. Code is much simpler with that functionality built into the language.
Java's Optional library is a poor substitute for C#'s nullable features.
Java's import statements bring in a single type. C#'s using statements bring in an entire library, so there's less time wasted managing them.
I use Java because my current employer requires it, but that has only made me appreciate C# even more. For personal projects I'm still using C# everywhere I can, and C++ where I can't.
English (Score:2, Funny)
Just ask Claude or Replit to write your application. Coding is dumb. Software companies should fire all their autistic snooty computer science nerds and hire English majors instead.