Every month, the TIOBE Index publishes a ranking of the most popular programming languages in the world. It is not about the best language, but the most sought after — how many programmers work with it, how many courses exist, how many employers demand it.
September 2026 comes with a remarkably stable top 10, but with interesting movements further down the ranking — and a question that the TIOBE editors ask directly: is Julia preparing to return to the top 20?
🔝 Top 20 programming languages – September 2026
| Sep 2026 | Sep 2025 | Language | Share | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Python | 17.76% | 🔽 -8.22% |
| 2 | 3 | C | 10.28% | 🔼 +1.63% |
| 3 | 2 | C++ | 8.67% | 🔽 -0.13% |
| 4 | 4 | Java | 7.54% | 🔽 -0.81% |
| 5 | 5 | C# | 4.22% | 🔽 -2.16% |
| 6 | 6 | JavaScript | 2.76% | 🔽 -0.46% |
| 7 | 7 | Visual Basic | 2.55% | 🔽 -0.28% |
| 8 | 11 | SQL | 2.16% | 🔼 +0.29% |
| 9 | 13 | R | 1.69% | 🔼 +0.27% |
| 10 | 18 | Rust | 1.34% | 🔼 +0.33% |
| 11 | 12 | Fortran | 1.24% | 🔽 -0.25% |
| 12 | 8 | Go | 1.10% | 🔽 -1.22% |
| 13 | 9 | Delphi/Object Pascal | 1.08% | 🔽 -1.18% |
| 14 | 15 | PHP | 1.04% | 🔽 -0.21% |
| 15 | 16 | Scratch | 0.99% | 🔽 -0.19% |
| 16 | 17 | Assembly language | 0.89% | 🔽 -0.15% |
| 17 | 14 | Ada | 0.85% | 🔽 -0.42% |
| 18 | 25 | Swift | 0.83% | 🔼 +0.10% |
| 19 | 29 | Objective-C | 0.81% | 🔼 +0.32% |
| 20 | 22 | COBOL | 0.78% | 🔽 -0.13% |
🔮 Question of the month: is Julia returning to the top 20?
In the summer of 2023, Julia entered the TIOBE top 20 for the first time. Today it is close to returning to this select group. The coincidence is not accidental: last month we wrote about the decline of MATLAB, a language that has been present in the top 20 for decades. In September 2026, MATLAB drops two more positions.
What we did not mention then: part of the territory lost by MATLAB was taken exactly by Julia.
MATLAB, Julia, Python, and R all have strong roots in numerical computing, scientific computing, modeling, and data processing. Over the years, Python and R have taken most of MATLAB’s market, but Julia has also claimed a slice of this territory.
The question remains open: will Julia stay here forever, or is it just a passing moment? The TIOBE editors are skeptical. Julia continues to be focused in relatively niche areas and has not yet managed to establish itself as a general-purpose language. It is fast — but there are faster languages. It is relatively easy to learn — but so are many alternatives. It has an enthusiastic community — but, surprisingly, it did not appear last year in the famous Stack Overflow survey of the most admired programming languages by developers.
In short: Julia has real potential, but the path to the mainstream remains uncertain.
🏛️ Ada and Objective-C — two veterans return strongly
One of the most interesting moves of the month: Perl and Ruby exit the top 20, and their places are taken by two much older languages — Ada (at position 17) and Objective-C (at position 19).
Ada was created in the 1980s, initially developed for the U.S. Department of Defense, and is still used today in critical systems — avionics, defense, rail transport — where safety is essential and errors cost lives.
Objective-C, on the other hand, was the main language for developing Apple applications before the appearance of Swift. Although Swift has largely replaced it, millions of lines of Objective-C code continue to run in older iOS and macOS applications, and maintaining them requires programmers who still master the language.
The moral is the same as we have seen in previous months: in software, "old" does not mean "dead". Code written decades ago still runs, and someone needs to know how to maintain it.
🐍 Python — the largest annual drop in the history of the index
Python remains the undisputed leader with 17.76%, but the decline of -8.22% compared to September 2025 is the largest annual drop ever recorded by Python in the TIOBE Index. This is the third consecutive month this record has been broken.
This is not a cause for concern for the Python ecosystem — it is simply a sign of a market that has normalized after the explosion of interest generated by the AI boom of 2023-2024. Python remains heavily used, but the percentage of total global searches is now distributed across multiple languages.
⚡ Rust — third consecutive top 10
Rust remains at 10th place, with an increase of +0.33%. After the spectacular comeback in summer, the language seems to have consolidated its place in the industry's top 10. This is the third consecutive month in this select group — a solid signal that real adoption, not just enthusiasm, underlies this growth.
📉 C# and Go — continued pressure
C# drops by -2.16% compared to last year — the largest annual decline for the language in recent times, although it remains solid in 5th place. Go continues its fourth year of decline, dropping to 12th place from 8th in September 2025.
🔭 What does all this mean for you?
If you are a programmer: Rust confirms that it deserves long-term attention — the third consecutive month in the top 10 is no coincidence. If you work in numerical or scientific fields, it is worth following Julia as well, even if its future remains uncertain.
If you are a manager or entrepreneur: if your organization maintains old code in Ada, Objective-C, or COBOL, the demand for such skills is growing, not declining. It is worth keeping this in mind for your recruitment strategy.
If you are curious about the world of technology: a language created for the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1980s has just returned to the global top 20. Sometimes, technology moves less in circles than in spirals — we return to the same themes, but with new context.
