I was looking at the latest TIOBE Index after not checking it for a while and noticed that Python had fallen by roughly eight percentage points compared with the previous year. That seems like a surprisingly large decline after years of steady growth. I also don't see another language gaining a similar share. Is Python genuinely losing popularity, or is this mostly an artifact of how the TIOBE Index measures programming-language interest?
4 Answers
Other surveys paint a very different picture. Developer surveys have reported Python usage increasing from about 51% of respondents in one year to nearly 58% the next, while another major survey showed usage staying roughly flat. Those sources have their own biases, but they suggest Python remains widely used and that the TIOBE result shouldn’t be treated as a precise usage statistic.
The main caveat is that TIOBE is based largely on counts of internet search results for phrases such as "language programming." That makes it a rough measure of online content and search behavior, not a direct measurement of production usage. Search-engine changes, shifts in educational content, and changes in how developers find information can all move the ranking significantly.
So a large drop in the index doesn’t necessarily mean that companies or developers stopped using Python; it may just mean there’s less new search activity around it.
There are also speculative explanations involving public code repositories and educational projects. If the index or related measurements are influenced by the kinds of projects being published, changes in student work, coding tools, or AI-generated projects could distort the trend. The safest conclusion is that Python may have cooled from its peak in online attention, but the index alone doesn’t demonstrate a major decline in real-world use.
AI-assisted programming could be affecting the numbers, but it’s difficult to know in which direction. Python’s concise syntax and huge package ecosystem make it a common choice for generated scripts, while stronger type systems in languages such as Rust or Go may help developers catch mistakes in AI-generated code. That could shift some new projects away from Python without meaning existing Python systems are being abandoned.
It’s also worth remembering that TIOBE has historically produced rankings that don’t line up well with actual usage—for example, it has placed Python far above JavaScript even though other data sources show JavaScript is extremely widespread.