Python claims to be 2018's programming language of choice, securing itself well above Java.
According to SlashData, there are about 8.2 million developers in the world who code in Python. And that number is significantly larger than programmers using Java, which accounts to 7.6 million.
This is a big gain since back in September 2018, there were seven million Python developers and 7.1 million Java developers.
Python's rise among developers around the world has been documented by several well-known programming-language indexes, and here its adoption has gained more than two million developers in 2018, the report said.
And its rapid adoption increase is for a reason, as explained by SlashData:
SlashData also reveals other popular programming languages, which include JavaScript as the language with the largest developers in population.
According to SlashData, as of the fourth quarter of 2018, there were about 11.7 million active JavaScript developers.
TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript which is designed to help developers use JavaScript with large-scale projects, is ranked the 12th most popular language.
Other languages with many millions of active developers include C# (6.7 million users), C and C++ (both having 6.3 million users). The languages made their ways to the top thanks to the likes of GCC, Clang and Microsoft Visual Studio.
But still, they are "growing at a slower rate than the general developer population", said the SlashData report, adding that "they are no longer the first languages that (new) developers look to".
Other programming languages include Apple-developed Swift with 2.1 million developers, Ruby with 1.8 million developers, the Java-alternative Kotlin with 1.7 million developers, Objective C with 1.6 million developers, and Lua with 900,000 developers.
SlashData report concluded that the fastest growing language community in percentage terms is Kotlin, which grew by 58 percent in 2018. SlashData attributed the rise to Google in making Kotlin the programming language of choice for Android development.
Another top programming language is PHP. Also known as PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, it's a general-purpose programming language originally designed for web development.
It was very popular and was actually the programming language of choice back in its glorious days. But since the late 2000s, PHP started losing traction due to developers' frustrations with the inconsistencies and unpredictability of the language.
However, the language has experienced numerous changes and upgrades. In the 7.x releases for example, the PHP has improved usability and speed.
And here, the effort is paying off as according to SlashData, it names PHP as the second most popular language for web development and the fifth most popular language overall, with 5.9 million active developers.
"Like Python, it's growing significantly faster than the overall developer population, having added 32% more developers to its ranks in 2018," the report states.
"Despite having (arguably) a somewhat bad reputation, the fact that PHP is easy to learn and widely deployed still propels it forward as a major language for the modern internet."
Having long been the cornerstone of the web, PHP still powers the majority of websites in the world, especially since the programming language is used on many popular Content Management Systems (CMS), such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla!.
SlashData compiles the figures using the company's "independent estimate of the global number of software developers".
And using its "large-scale, low-bias surveys which reach more than 20,000 developers every six months," the company claims that it can uniquely estimate the number of developers who use the most popular languages, compared with Tiobe, RedMonk, and Stack Overflow, which can only provide the relative popularity of each language.
While the numbers of developers around the world is increasing, the exact number is relatively unknown.
Microsoft-owned code-hosting platform GitHub has been one of the sources for this information. The platform popular for coders, developers and programmers alike, reported that there are about about 36 million developers.
In 2017, it reported about 20 million developers.
Another source, the International Data Corporation (IDC), which is the provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, estimated that there were 18.5 million in 2014.