StackOverflow's developer survey results for 2019 are published at last, and they're very interesting.
Last year, almost 90,000 developers participated in telling how they learned and leveled up. They also told what tools they're using, and what they usually want.
As known, StackOverflow's developer survey is the biggest and most comprehensive survey for devs in the world. Every year, they field a survey covering pretty much everything, from the favorite technologies to their job preferences. And last year marked the 9th annual StackOverflow's developer survey.
To address the characteristics of the data, they stated that they summarize the results by country or gender. They also highlight results for underrepresented ethnics groups. But they also use survey weighting to correct the demographic skew.
Looking to dive into the results yourself? The anonymized results of the survey are available for download under the Open Database License (ODbL). We look forward to seeing what you find!
Here are the key results for StackOverflow's developer survey results for 2019:
- Python is the fastest-growing major programming language
- Over half the developers had written the first line of code when they were 14-15
- China is the top country with the most developers that are the most optimistic
- By using StackOverflow, developers save 30-90 minutes of time per week
- Rust is the most loved, dreaded and wanted language
- Linux is the most used platform
- Node.js is the most used framework/library/tool
Python is the fastest-growing major programming language
For the seventh year in a row now, JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language. But Python beats it when it comes to ranking. This year, Python edged JS in the overall ranking, and C# as well.
This makes Python the fastest-growing major programming language in 2019.
Python has reached its highest-ever rating in the programming language popularity in Tiobe too. On its current trajectory, Python could leapfrog Java and C in the next 3 or 4 years. This means that Python will become the most popular language at that time.
Tiobe also rated 8.53% for Python tops the previous record of 8.376%.
Over half the developers had written the first line of code when they were 14-15
StackOverflow asked the developers how old they were when they first started coding. This included making a webpage that said “Hello World” too.
Overall, more than half of respondents had written their code when they were 14-15, but experience varies widely.
There's a two-years or more difference in the mean of first age from countries like Australia and the UK when compared to India or Brazil. If we control for developer age today, we see even deeper dramatic despair between India and the UK.
We also see differences in genders too. Women tend to write their first line of code later in life, compared to men. And non-binary respondents tend to write code earlier than men.
China is the top country with the most developers that are the most optimistic
This question kind of mirrors the one that Gallup asks every year. The 2018 results saw results that 61% of Americans believe that today's youth will live way better than the parents ever could. The percentage was, to be precise, higher in 2010. If we would filter the survey for American respondents, the percentage also mirrors one of the Gallups: 61%. Either way, it seems that developers don't overwhelmingly believe we're headed towards dystopia yet.
The survey also claimed that China is the most optimistic one, and those in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East are very hopeful compared to ones in Western Europe.
This is especially notable in powerful countries like Germany and France, which rank the 4th and 7th largest economies worldwide.
By using StackOverflow, developers save 30-90 minutes of time per week
The developers were asked to compare the last time they solved their problems on Stack Overflow. Then again, they were asked the last time they used another source for dealing with their problems.
The results showed that 40% of developers said that they saved 30 minutes or more by using Stack Overflow. And, 75% of developers agreed that they save more than 11 minutes. If we combine that with previous results, we can easily estimate that Stack Overflow saves 30 to 90 minutes of your time weekly.
Rust is the most loved, dreaded and wanted language
For the fourth year in a row now, Rust is the most loved programming language among developers. It's closely being followed by Python, which as claimed above is the fastest-growing major language today.
This means that proportionally speaking, more developers tend to continue working with these than any other language.
VBA and Objective-C rank as the most dreadful languages last year. Most dreaded means that a very high percentage of developers that are currently using these technologies express no interest in continuing whatsoever.
Python is the most wanted language for the third year in a row, meaning that developers who do not yet use it say they want to learn it.
Linux is the most used platform
Linux is, once again, the most loved platform for development. Lest we forget, Docker and Kubernetes are also highly loved in 2019. WordPress ranks as the most dreaded development platform, and a lot of developers say they'd rather start developing using Docker or AWS.
Node.js is the most used framework/library/tool
This was the first year that Stack Overflow asked developers about the technologies in this category.
The majority of them said that Node.js is the most commonly used among them. More developers say they use .NET rather than .Net Core.
And also, deep learning framework TensorFlow is many time more popular than the deep learning framework Torch/PyTorch
Do you want to add something to the “StackOverflow's developer survey results for the 2019” list? Contact us and let us know!
Alicia leads content strategy for LearnWorthy managing a team of content producers, strategists, and copywriters. She creatively oversees content programs, awareness campaigns, research reports, and other integrated marketing projects.
