The international top 20 programming languages includes: Python, JavaScript, Java, COBOL, C++, C, Structured Query Language, PHP, R, Node.js, C#, Go, Unified Modeling Language, assembly language, Scratch, YAML, Rust, PowerShell, Brainfuck and Kotlin.
Briefly about the method
Wikipedia currently has over 53 million articles in over 300 languages. Despite the impressive number of articles, not all topics can be written in this free encyclopedia. At the same time, the community of each language version has the ability to decide which topic can be described in the encyclopedia, and which is not (for example, article must be notable). In addition, each language version can describe the same topic in its own way – it all depends on the number and experience of interested authors (Wikipedia users who edit articles).
Almost every Wikipedia article has an alignment to certain categories. Additionally, based on the content, you can specify the subject of the article – for example, using semantic relations on Wikidata or DBpedia. More details on the automatic classification process can be found in various scholarly papers (e.g. for articles or sources).
This article selected the most-developed language versions of Wikipedia with more than 1 million articles, including English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Polish and other. After the classification of articles, only those that are dedicated to individual programming languages. As a result for English Wikipedia 1167 articles about programming languages were found, for French – 498 programming languages, for German – 468 programming languages, for Russian – 443 programming languages, for Spanish – 405 programming languages, for Japanese – 375 programming languages, for Portuguese – 359 programming languages, for Italian – 338 programming languages, for Chinese – 319 programming languages, for Polish – 295 programming languages and for Arabic – 211 programming languages.
As mentioned earlier, every Wikipedia article can have different language versions, so we can find out different names of the same object (programming language). Using open data on Wikipedia article views we can find out how many times a given article has been viewed on specific days. After collecting data for viewing all Wikipedia articles on programming languages in the appropriate language versions April 2020 ranking of the most popular was made. First, the positions of programming languages in the ranking are shown, which were obtained by adding up the page views from different language versions for a given programming language. Later, the most popular programming languages are shown for only one language version of Wikipedia.
Recently we observed that visitors number for some articles was “overclocked” in some periods of time. Therefore, we decide to provide additional modification of the pageview statistics for such cases and change this number (usually by reduction). Fairness of statistics for each article in selected language version in selected months can be assessed using such indicators as: number of the edits and authors, page protection, the rate of citation increasing of the article, popularity statistics of related keywords (phrases) in Google Trends and others.
1st place – Python
Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace., in April 2020 the programming language was on the 1st place in German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, on the 2nd place in Polish and on the 3rd place in Arabic Wikipedia.
2nd place – JavaScript
JavaScript – programming language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 2nd place in Arabic, French, Portuguese, on the 3rd place in German, English, Italian, on the 4th place in Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Chinese and on the 6th place in Polish Wikipedia.
3rd place – Java
Java – object-oriented programming language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 1st place in Arabic, on the 2nd place in Japanese, on the 3rd place in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, on the 4th place in French, Portuguese, on the 5th place in English, Italian, Polish and on the 10th place in German Wikipedia.
4th place – COBOL
COBOL – object-oriented programming language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 2nd place in German, English, on the 7th place in Japanese, Polish, on the 9th place in Chinese, on the 12th place in French, on the 13th place in Italian, Portuguese, on the 14th place in Russian, on the 15th place in Spanish and on the 25th place in Arabic Wikipedia.
5th place – C++
C++ – general purpose high-level programming language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 2nd place in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, on the 3rd place in Polish, on the 4th place in Arabic, on the 6th place in German, English, on the 7th place in Italian, Portuguese, on the 8th place in French and Japanese Wikipedia.
6th place – C
C – general-purpose programming language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 3rd place in Japanese, Portuguese, on the 4th place in English, on the 5th place in French, on the 6th place in Arabic, Spanish, Italian, on the 8th place in Chinese, on the 9th place in Russian, on the 10th place in Polish and on the 11th place in German Wikipedia.
7th place – Structured Query Language
Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 4th place in German, Polish, on the 5th place in Spanish, Chinese, on the 6th place in Japanese, Russian, on the 8th place in Arabic, Portuguese, on the 9th place in English, Italian and on the 13th place in French Wikipedia.
8th place – PHP
PHP – web page scripting language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 3rd place in French, on the 5th place in German, on the 7th place in Arabic, English, Spanish, on the 8th place in Polish, Russian, on the 9th place in Portuguese, on the 10th place in Italian, Japanese and Chinese Wikipedia.
9th place – R
R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 6th place in Portuguese, on the 8th place in German, English, on the 9th place in French, on the 11th place in Spanish, on the 14th place in Chinese, on the 15th place in Italian, Japanese, Polish, on the 19th place in Russian and on the 23rd place in Arabic Wikipedia.
10th place – Node.js
Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 5th place in Portuguese, on the 6th place in Chinese, on the 7th place in German, French, on the 10th place in Russian, on the 11th place in Polish, on the 12th place in English, on the 13th place in Spanish, on the 14th place in Italian, on the 16th place in Japanese and on the 17th place in Arabic Wikipedia.
11th place – C#
C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 7th place in Russian, on the 8th place in Italian, on the 9th place in Arabic, Japanese, Polish, on the 12th place in German, Spanish, Portuguese, on the 13th place in Chinese, on the 14th place in English and French Wikipedia.
12th place – Go
Go – programming language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 7th place in Chinese, on the 10th place in English, on the 11th place in French, on the 12th place in Italian, on the 13th place in German, Russian, on the 14th place in Japanese, on the 15th place in Portuguese, on the 16th place in Spanish, on the 17th place in Polish and on the 30th place in Arabic Wikipedia.
13th place – Unified Modeling Language
Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh., in April 2020 the programming language was on the 6th place in French, on the 9th place in German, on the 10th place in Portuguese, on the 11th place in Arabic, Russian, on the 12th place in Polish, Chinese, on the 14th place in Spanish, on the 18th place in English, on the 19th place in Italian and on the 20th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
14th place – assembly language
assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 2nd place in Italian, on the 10th place in Spanish, on the 11th place in Portuguese, on the 12th place in Arabic, on the 15th place in English, on the 16th place in French, Russian, Chinese, on the 18th place in German and on the 19th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
15th place – Scratch
Scratch – programming language learning environment, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 1st place in Polish, on the 9th place in Spanish, on the 10th place in Arabic, on the 11th place in Italian, Chinese, on the 12th place in Russian, on the 14th place in Portuguese, on the 15th place in French, on the 18th place in Japanese, on the 21st place in German and on the 25th place in English Wikipedia.
16th place – YAML
YAML – human-readable data serialization format, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 11th place in English, on the 15th place in German, on the 17th place in Chinese, on the 20th place in French, on the 25th place in Russian, on the 26th place in Japanese, on the 29th place in Italian, on the 30th place in Polish, on the 36th place in Spanish and on the 41st place in Portuguese Wikipedia.
17th place – Rust
Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 13th place in Japanese, on the 16th place in English, on the 18th place in Russian, on the 21st place in French, Chinese, on the 23rd place in German, on the 27th place in Spanish, on the 31st place in Polish, on the 37th place in Italian, on the 46th place in Portuguese and on the 51st place in Arabic Wikipedia.
18th place – PowerShell
PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 5th place in Japanese, on the 10th place in French, on the 14th place in German, Polish, on the 17th place in Spanish, on the 21st place in Italian, on the 22nd place in Chinese, on the 27th place in English, on the 28th place in Portuguese, on the 30th place in Russian and on the 31st place in Arabic Wikipedia.
19th place – Brainfuck
Brainfuck – esoteric, minimalist programming language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 13th place in English, on the 27th place in Polish, on the 29th place in French, on the 31st place in German, on the 39th place in Japanese, on the 42nd place in Russian, on the 52nd place in Italian, on the 54th place in Portuguese, on the 64th place in Chinese and on the 85th place in Spanish Wikipedia.
20th place – Kotlin
Kotlin – programming language, in April 2020 the programming language was on the 15th place in Arabic, Russian, on the 16th place in German, on the 18th place in French, Chinese, on the 19th place in Spanish, Polish, on the 23rd place in English, on the 24th place in Japanese, on the 25th place in Portuguese and on the 26th place in Italian Wikipedia.
The most popular programming languages in Arabic Wikipedia
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- JavaScript – programming language
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Visual Basic – event-driven programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- Autodesk 3ds Max – 3D computer graphics program
- ASP.NET – server-side web application framework
- Kotlin – programming language
- Ruby – programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Perl – interpreted programming language
- Lua – lightweight programming language
- BASIC – programming language
The most popular programming languages in Chinese Wikipedia
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- JavaScript – programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Go – programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- YAML – human-readable data serialization format
- Kotlin – programming language
- Verilog – hardware description language
- Visual Basic – event-driven programming language
The most popular programming languages in English Wikipedia
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- JavaScript – programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- Go – programming language
- YAML – human-readable data serialization format
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Brainfuck – esoteric, minimalist programming language
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection
- ECMAScript – official specification on which JavaScript and other languages are based
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- Fortran – structured programming language
- CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model
The most popular programming languages in French Wikipedia
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- JavaScript – programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- Go – programming language
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- G-code – programming languages
- Kotlin – programming language
- Lua – lightweight programming language
- YAML – human-readable data serialization format
The most popular programming languages in German Wikipedia
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- JavaScript – programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- PHP – web page scripting language
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- Go – programming language
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- YAML – human-readable data serialization format
- Kotlin – programming language
- CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- GNU Bash – GNU replacement for the Bourne shell
- Lua – lightweight programming language
The most popular programming languages in Italian Wikipedia
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- JavaScript – programming language
- GNU Bash – GNU replacement for the Bourne shell
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Go – programming language
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- Lua – lightweight programming language
- Pascal – programming language
- Fortran – structured programming language
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- Visual Basic – event-driven programming language
The most popular programming languages in Japanese Wikipedia
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- JavaScript – programming language
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model
- Ruby – programming language
- Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection
- Go – programming language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Visual Basic – event-driven programming language
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
The most popular programming languages in Polish Wikipedia
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- JavaScript – programming language
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- G-code – programming languages
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- GNU Bash – GNU replacement for the Bourne shell
- Go – programming language
- Logo – computer programming language
- Kotlin – programming language
- batch file – script file that executes DOS or Windows command prompt commands
The most popular programming languages in Portuguese Wikipedia
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- JavaScript – programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Go – programming language
- Lua – lightweight programming language
- Portugol – programming language
- shell script – script written for the shell, or command line interpreter, of an operating system
- Ruby – programming language
- ML – functional programming language
The most popular programming languages in Russian Wikipedia
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- JavaScript – programming language
- Pascal – programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Go – programming language
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- Kotlin – programming language
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- Delphi – programming language (dialect of Object Pascal, used in Embarcadero Delphi)
- Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- Lua – lightweight programming language
The most popular programming languages in Spanish Wikipedia
- Python – An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace.
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- JavaScript – programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- C – general-purpose programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Visual Basic – event-driven programming language
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- assembly language – any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- Go – programming language
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- Pascal – programming language
- Kotlin – programming language
- Fortran – structured programming language
Die beliebtesten programming languages der anderen Monate sind auf der Website verfügbar: https://wikirank.net/top/programming