JavaScript’s subtle dip in popularity
Over the last three years, the three top languages have stayed the same, but the JavaScript share has been decreasing consistently. It’s plausible to assume that it will continue to decline slightly, as JavaScript programmers report a higher likelihood of learning another language than other programmers.
Trust in Rust: A story of growth
Rust is the only commonly used language to set a new popularity record this year. Aspiring to replace C++ with its strict safety and memory ownership mechanisms, Rust might initially edge out Go, as every sixth Go user is thinking about adopting Rust. Along with Scala, Rust stands out as the language that the fewest programmers want to migrate from.
Objective-C is objectively retired
Having lost two-thirds of its users in recent years, Objective-C appears to be reaching its end of life. The language had a good run from its introduction in 1984 until Apple released its successor, Swift, in 2014. With other cross-platform languages, such as Kotlin, Dart, and more, iOS developers are spoiled for choice and have few reasons to hang on to Objective-C.
For more detailed insights, please see the Languages section.
Software developer salary trends
Share of top-paid employees by primary language
Top-paid employees are those whose salaries are in the top quartile in their country or region.
In 2023, Scala, Go, and Kotlin developers rank as the top three highest-paid categories. Employers are recognizing the value of specialists who can navigate the complexities of these languages, resulting in a competitive landscape where developers in Scala, Go, and Kotlin stand out as the top earners.
Since 2021, our survey data has consistently shown no improvement in the share of female developers. That only 5% of developers are women indicates an enormous gender gap in the industry. To ensure equal opportunities and representation for all, we as a community should come up with new approaches to address gender diversity issues.
Notably, in 2023, South Korea is showing a promising trend with 14% of female programmers under the age of 30. It is likely a result of strategic, long-term government policies in place since the mid-1990s aimed at promoting gender equality and encouraging women to pursue careers in IT.
Read more about gender balance, salaries, geography, and other developer trends in the Demographics section.
The complex landscape of generative AI services
Do you agree with the following statements?
77%
of developers use ChatGPT.
46%
of developers use GitHub Copilot.
The most common way developers use an AI assistant is to ask general questions about software development using natural language.
How likely is it that you would delegate the following activities to an AI assistant (in an ideal world where the performance of an AI assistant is humanlike)?
JetBrains AI Assistant
AI Assistant provides AI-powered features for software development. The JetBrains AI service transparently connects IDE users to different large language models (LLMs). AI Assistant is context-aware and helps developers complete their tasks faster, boosting productivity.
NEW
For more about artificial intelligence usage in software development in 2023, see our brand new AI section.
Mental health in the developer community
In 2023, developers who are no strangers to burnout show a stronger interest in their mental health, with a 7 percentage points higher engagement compared to those who haven't experienced burnout. They are also 6 percentage points more likely to use self-monitoring apps or devices to track their physical activity and sleep quality.
Interestingly, burnout-affected developers find that factors related to mental health, such as self-organization and time management, significantly impact their coding productivity. Conversely, developers who haven't faced burnout link their productivity boosts to factors less connected to mental health, such as learning new IDEs and upgrading IDE functionality.
73%
of developers have experienced burnout in their career.
For more in-depth information on mental health in the developer community, go to the Developers’ Lifestyles section.
Data science and machine learning
As you can see from the two charts above, in 2023, most developers reported that they primarily learned programming in universities and other formal educational institutions. On the other hand, in the fields of data science, machine learning, or data engineering, more than half of respondents reported being self-taught.
Check out the Data Science section for more insights into data science, data analytics, and machine learning.
DevOps and cloud development trends
What cloud services do you use?
This question was shown only to those respondents who reported hosting in cloud services.
63%
of developers use Docker.
Explore infrastructure development, hosting, containers, configuration management tools, and infrastructure provisioning insights in our DevOps section.
Software testing
58%
of respondents involved in testing activities report that they develop automated tests.
46%
of respondents use test case design as part of their testing process.
You can learn more about the testing practices used by developers and QA engineers in the Testing section.
Open-source projects
41%
of respondents have contributed to open-source projects; 20% do it more or less regularly.
See the Development section for additional facts on open-source, cross-platform, static analysis, and other topics.
Remote and collaborative development
49%
of respondents engage in remote development.
61%
report to have practiced collaborative development, with 45% having done so online and 30% face to face.
Mobile app usage for communication tools has clearly been taking a dive after peaking in 2020 and 2021. The probable reason is that more employees are returning to the office, which many companies seem to be encouraging.
Visit the Team Tools section for more on issue-tracking tools, version control systems, CI/CD tools, and communication tools.
Find the right tool
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