Python Hits New High While Rust Stalls
Written by Mike James   
Tuesday, 13 May 2025

This month's TIOBE Index shows another jump up in Python's popularity, resulting in the widest ever gap between it and all other languages. Perl, R and Ada are also notable in terms of moving up the rankings.

tiobesq

The TIOBE Top 20 table is very ephemeral - it is refreshed every month. For the record here's the one for May 2025:

TIOBE20 May25

And here is the Top 10 Chart which shows very little difference from last month - but notice the most recent uptick in Python's blue line which is due to it increasing its rating by 2.2% in a single month:

TIOBE10 May25

From the interactive chart, Python's current share of 25.35% is the highest proportion a programming language has ever had in the history of the TIOBE index, except for Java in June 2001, the very first month of the TIOBE index, when it had a rating of 26.49% and October 2001, when having to declined to 24.66% by August 2001, it bounced up to 25.68%.

This prompted Paul Jansen, CEO of TIOBE software and the person  who maintains and comments on the index on a monthly basis to use the headline:

Python rules the world

and to comment:

The only reason other languages still have a reason for existing is because of Python's low performance, and the fact that it is interpreted and thus prone to unexpected run-time errors. This means that safety-critical and/or real-time systems still have to rely on other languages, but in most other domains Python is slowly but surely finding its way to the top.

It has to be admitted that Python is the language to choose for most tasks apart from technical things like systems programming. For general computing tasks it is easy to use and fast enough. It also has enough sophisticated features for library writers to be attracted to it and for them to create easy-to-use and powerful modules. In Python there is usually a module for it - no matter what "it" is. Most programmers restrict what they do to using objects supplied by modules created by other programmers. This means that they may never have to stray beyond the simple parts of the language while benefiting from the sophisticated bits used by the library writers. Python's only problem is that sometimes it can be too slow.

When it comes to fast and safe languages the popular choices are C and C++ which are now nearly tied in popularity with ratings of 9.71% and declining and 9.94% and rising respectively.

Their competitor in terms of safety, Rust, is currently at #19, just managing to be included in the Top 20, but is a long way from breaking into the Top 10. This seems surprising as back in July 2024 it seem that Rust was on a fast track to the top of the Index. At that time I reported:

It is Rust that is this month's high flyer. Last month it was in 17th position which was, at the time, the highest it had reached. Now, with only a 0.29% increase in its rating, it has risen to 13th having leapfrogged Ruby, Scratch, Assembly Language and PHP. If it continues on its current trajectory it won't be long before it will be moving into the top 10.

I still expect to see Rust to gain a greater share in the ratings - but obviously at a slower rate. 

 

 

python3

  • Mike James is the author of the Programmer's Python: Something Completely Different series of books which set out to show how Python diverges from other programming languages and how its special features deserve attention. His more recent book,  Extending & Embedding Python Using C, tells Python programmers everything they need to know to create a C extension for Python - making it faster and improving its performance.

 

More Information

TIOBE Index

Related Articles

Python Is TIOBE Index Language Of The Year 2024

Python's Unstoppable Rise

What Makes Python Special?

Rust's Rapid Rise on TIOBE Index

 

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 13 May 2025 )