For the second year in a row and the fifth time ever Python has the status of being TIOBE's Language of the Year by TIOBE. 2021 was a good year for Python vis-a-vis TIOBE as it achieved the status of the top ranking language on the TIOBE Index back in October 2021. In my opinion both accolades are well deserved.

The TIOBE Index is a ranking of programming language popularity. So rather than being anything to do with being the best in terms of efficiency or the most widely used in terms of lines of codes it is a gauge of relative interest that is influenced by how much it is talked about. This means that the flurry of attention Python received for coming top of the TIOBE index would have contributed to its becoming Language of the Year - which is determined by having the largest positive jump in ratings year-on-year. 

TIOBE-Index watchers had been counting down the months until Python gained the coveted top place. It took until 2018 for it to enter the top three, which it did by overtaking C++. However, there was still a wide gap between Python the two languages that have traditionally dominated the TIOBE Index, Java and C, and, as we've noted frequently, there are a lot of reasons why it is difficult to "unseat" a language once it is well established at the top. Python succeeded in this feat by first overtaking Java to gain second place in November 2020 and then, despite having reverted to third place in between, surpassing both Java and C in October 2021, less than a year later. 

Commenting that:

"There are no signs that Python's triumphal march will stop soon"

the TIOBE blog continues:

Are there any serious contenders for Python? Any new and shiny languages that might compete in the future? If we look at the promising languages of the last few years, we see the following changes in 2021: Swift from #13 to #10, Go from #14 to #13, Rust from #26 to #26, Julia from #23 to #28, Kotlin from #40 to #29, Dart from #25 to #37, and TypeScript from #42 to #49. So, except may be for Swift and Go, we don't expect any new languages entering the top 5 or even the top 3 any time soon.

The other question I think interesting is "Does Python deserve its current popularity" and again its easy to give the definitive answer, "Yes". Python is usable across almost every domain and is a straightforward language to learn.

You can start using Python as if it was a non-object-oriented scripting language and later you can be amazed that all along there were objects, classes and even meta-classes. It's a powerful, sophisticated and modern language that pretends to be as simple as Basic when you first meet it. When you dig a little deeper what you find is a well-designed language with few surprises that don't meet with admiration. There are many purists that regard Python with disdain - it isn't strongly typed, it isn't class-based in the traditional sense, it doesn't enforce encapsulation and it certainly isn't a functional language. This and more may all be true, but what counts is that you can get a lot done with Python very quickly and very elegantly.

Pythonic code is easy to write, easy to debug and easy to maintain. It's not a perfect language, but it is a very practical language and deserves to be the most popular on the planet.

• Mike James is the author of Programmer's Python: Everything is an Object published by I/O Press as part of the  I Programmer Library. With the subtitle "Something Completely Different" this is for those who want to understand the deeper logic in the approach that Python 3 takes to classes and objects. He has also co-authored three books with Harry Fairhead using Python in place of C. They are Raspberry Pi IOT in Python with GPIO Zero,  Raspberry Pi IoT In Python Using Linux Drivers and Programming the Raspberry Pi Pico in MicroPython.

More Information

TIOBE Index

Related Articles

Python Is TIOBE Language of the Year Again

Made It - Python Is Top Language On TIOBE Index

Python Trending To Top Spot In TIOBE Index

Python Overtakes Java In TIOBE Index

Python Set To Be Top Language

Python Language Of The Year

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.