The international top 20 programming languages includes: Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, C, Structured Query Language, PHP, Node.js, C#, Go, R, Unified Modeling Language, assembly language, Scratch, Rust, YAML, Kotlin, CUDA, PowerShell and Visual Basic.
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 – 500 programming languages, for German – 468 programming languages, for Russian – 445 programming languages, for Spanish – 406 programming languages, for Japanese – 379 programming languages, for Portuguese – 358 programming languages, for Italian – 340 programming languages, for Chinese – 325 programming languages, for Polish – 296 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 May 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 May 2020 the programming language was on the 1st place in German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese and on the 4th place in Arabic Wikipedia.
2nd place – JavaScript
JavaScript – programming language, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 2nd place in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, on the 3rd place in German, Russian, on the 4th place in Spanish, on the 5th place in Arabic, Chinese, on the 6th place in Japanese and Polish Wikipedia.
3rd place – Java
Java – object-oriented programming language, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 2nd place in Japanese, Chinese, on the 3rd place in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, on the 4th place in English, French, Russian, on the 5th place in Italian, Polish and on the 6th place in German Wikipedia.
4th place – C++
C++ – general purpose high-level programming language, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 2nd place in Arabic, Spanish, Russian, on the 3rd place in Polish, on the 5th place in English, on the 6th place in Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, on the 7th place in German, on the 8th place in French and Japanese Wikipedia.
5th place – C
C – general-purpose programming language, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 3rd place in English, on the 4th place in Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, on the 5th place in French, on the 6th place in Arabic, on the 7th place in Spanish, on the 9th place in Polish, Chinese, on the 10th place in Russian and on the 11th place in German Wikipedia.
6th place – Structured Query Language
Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 2nd place in German, on the 3rd place in Italian, on the 4th place in Polish, on the 5th place in Spanish, on the 6th place in English, on the 7th place in Chinese, on the 8th place in Russian, on the 9th place in Arabic, Portuguese, on the 10th place in Japanese and on the 13th place in French Wikipedia.
7th place – PHP
PHP – web page scripting language, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 3rd place in French, on the 5th place in German, on the 6th place in Spanish, Russian, on the 7th place in Italian, Polish, Portuguese, on the 8th place in Arabic, Chinese, on the 9th place in English and on the 11th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
8th place – Node.js
Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 3rd place in Chinese, on the 6th place in French, on the 8th place in English, Portuguese, on the 9th place in German, on the 11th place in Italian, Polish, Russian, on the 14th place in Spanish, on the 17th place in Japanese and on the 25th place in Arabic Wikipedia.
9th place – C#
C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 5th place in Russian, on the 7th place in Arabic, on the 8th place in Polish, on the 10th place in German, on the 11th place in Spanish, on the 12th place in English, French, Portuguese, Chinese, on the 13th place in Italian and on the 15th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
10th place – Go
Go – programming language, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 4th place in Chinese, on the 7th place in English, on the 9th place in Japanese, on the 10th place in French, on the 12th place in Russian, on the 13th place in German, on the 14th place in Italian, Portuguese, on the 15th place in Spanish, on the 18th place in Polish and on the 32nd place in Arabic Wikipedia.
11th place – R
R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 5th place in Portuguese, on the 8th place in German, on the 10th place in English, Italian, on the 11th place in French, on the 12th place in Spanish, on the 13th place in Japanese, on the 14th place in Polish, Chinese, on the 18th place in Russian and on the 20th place in Arabic Wikipedia.
12th place – Unified Modeling Language
Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh., in May 2020 the programming language was on the 4th place in German, on the 7th place in French, Russian, on the 10th place in Polish, Portuguese, on the 11th place in Chinese, on the 12th place in Italian, on the 13th place in Spanish, on the 14th place in Arabic, on the 15th place in English and on the 18th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
13th 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 May 2020 the programming language was on the 9th place in Italian, on the 10th place in Arabic, Spanish, on the 11th place in Portuguese, on the 14th place in English, Japanese, on the 16th place in French, Russian, on the 17th place in German and on the 20th place in Chinese Wikipedia.
14th place – Scratch
Scratch – programming language learning environment, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 2nd place in Polish, on the 8th place in Italian, on the 9th place in Spanish, on the 10th place in Chinese, on the 13th place in Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, on the 14th place in French, on the 19th place in Japanese, on the 25th place in German and English Wikipedia.
15th place – Rust
Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 5th place in Japanese, on the 13th place in English, Chinese, on the 15th place in German, Russian, on the 17th place in French, on the 25th place in Spanish, on the 28th place in Polish, on the 31st place in Portuguese, on the 32nd place in Italian and on the 44th place in Arabic Wikipedia.
16th place – YAML
YAML – human-readable data serialization format, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 11th place in English, on the 14th place in German, on the 19th place in Chinese, on the 21st place in French, on the 24th place in Russian, on the 26th place in Italian, on the 29th place in Japanese, on the 35th place in Polish, on the 37th place in Spanish and on the 46th place in Portuguese Wikipedia.
17th place – Kotlin
Kotlin – programming language, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 14th place in Russian, on the 16th place in German, Italian, on the 17th place in Chinese, on the 18th place in English, on the 19th place in Arabic, French, on the 20th place in Japanese, Polish, on the 22nd place in Spanish and on the 23rd place in Portuguese Wikipedia.
18th place – CUDA
CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 12th place in Japanese, on the 15th place in Chinese, on the 16th place in English, on the 18th place in German, on the 19th place in Polish, on the 22nd place in Russian, on the 25th place in Italian, on the 34th place in French, on the 41st place in Spanish, on the 52nd place in Arabic and on the 57th place in Portuguese Wikipedia.
19th place – PowerShell
PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 7th place in Japanese, on the 9th place in French, on the 12th place in German, on the 13th place in Polish, on the 16th place in Spanish, on the 17th place in Italian, on the 21st place in Chinese, on the 27th place in English, on the 31st place in Russian, on the 34th place in Arabic and on the 40th place in Portuguese Wikipedia.
20th place – Visual Basic
Visual Basic – programming language by Microsoft, in May 2020 the programming language was on the 1st place in Arabic, on the 8th place in Spanish, on the 15th place in Italian, on the 16th place in Japanese, on the 21st place in Portuguese, on the 22nd place in Chinese, on the 23rd place in French, on the 27th place in Polish, on the 31st place in English, on the 34th place in Russian and on the 44th place in German Wikipedia.
The most popular programming languages in Arabic Wikipedia
- Visual Basic – programming language by Microsoft
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Java – object-oriented 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.
- JavaScript – programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- 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
- BASIC – programming language
- Autodesk 3ds Max – 3D computer graphics program
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- Pascal – programming language
- Fortran – structured programming language
- ASP.NET – server-side web application framework
- Ruby – programming language
- Kotlin – programming language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
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.
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Go – programming language
- JavaScript – programming language
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- PHP – web page scripting language
- C – general-purpose programming 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
- Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model
- Julia – high-performance dynamic programming language
- Kotlin – programming language
- Verilog – hardware description language
- YAML – human-readable data serialization format
- 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
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.
- JavaScript – programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- Go – programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- PHP – web page scripting language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- YAML – human-readable data serialization format
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection
- 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.
- CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model
- ECMAScript – official specification on which JavaScript and other languages are based
- Kotlin – programming language
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- Fortran – structured programming language
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
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- Go – programming language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- G-code – programming languages
- 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
- Lua – lightweight programming language
- Kotlin – programming language
- TypeScript – programming language, superset of JavaScript that compiles to JavaScript
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.
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- JavaScript – programming language
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- Go – programming language
- YAML – human-readable data serialization format
- Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection
- 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
- CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model
- GNU Bash – GNU replacement for the Bourne shell
- COBOL – object-oriented 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.
- JavaScript – programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- PHP – web page scripting 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
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- Go – programming language
- Visual Basic – programming language by Microsoft
- Kotlin – programming language
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- Fortran – structured programming language
- batch file – script file that executes DOS or Windows command prompt commands
- GNU Bash – GNU replacement for the Bourne shell
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
- Ruby – programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection
- JavaScript – programming language
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- Go – programming language
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- PHP – web page scripting language
- CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- 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
- Visual Basic – programming language by Microsoft
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Kotlin – programming language
The most popular programming languages in Polish 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.
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- 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
- PHP – web page scripting language
- C# – multi-paradigm (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
- 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
- batch file – script file that executes DOS or Windows command prompt commands
- GNU Bash – GNU replacement for the Bourne shell
- Logo – computer programming language
- Go – programming language
- CUDA – parallel computing platform and programming model
- Kotlin – programming language
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
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- C++ – general purpose high-level programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- 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
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Go – programming language
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- Portugol – programming language
- Ruby – programming language
- Lua – lightweight programming language
- Fortran – structured programming language
- ladder logic – programming language that represents a program by a graphical diagram based on the circuit diagrams of relay logic hardware; used to develop software for programmable logic controllers used in industrial control applications
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
- JavaScript – programming language
- Java – object-oriented programming language
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- PHP – web page scripting language
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- Structured Query Language – programming language for management and use of relational databases
- Pascal – programming language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Go – programming language
- Scratch – programming language learning environment
- Kotlin – programming language
- Rust – Memory-safe programming language without garbage collection
- 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)
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- Lua – lightweight programming language
- TypeScript – programming language, superset of JavaScript that compiles to JavaScript
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
- PHP – web page scripting language
- C – general-purpose programming language
- Visual Basic – programming language by Microsoft
- 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
- C# – multi-paradigm (object-oriented) programming language
- R – language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
- Unified Modeling Language – Developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh.
- Node.js – Server-side JavaScript framework
- Go – programming language
- PowerShell – cross-platform command-line interface and scripting language for system and network administration
- ladder logic – programming language that represents a program by a graphical diagram based on the circuit diagrams of relay logic hardware; used to develop software for programmable logic controllers used in industrial control applications
- COBOL – object-oriented programming language
- ASP.NET – server-side web application framework
- Fortran – structured programming language
The most popular programming languages in other months are available on https://wikirank.net/top/programming