Conducted annually by the Python Software Foundation in conjunction with JetBrains, this survey is the major source of knowledge about the current state of the Python community. The eighth iteration of the survey has just started and all Pythonistas are encouraged to participate. Meanwhile here are some key findings from the 2023 edition.

There is a wealth of detail in the report of the Python Developers Survey 2023. Responses were collected in November 2023 – February 2024, with more than 25,000 Python developers and enthusiasts from almost 200 countries and regions taking part.

The United States (20%) was the top country, followed by India (9%), and Germany (6%). The United Kingdom, France and Mainland China each had 4%,  the Russian Federation, Brazil and Canada each had 3%,  and Italy Poland and Spain each had 2%, leaving 38% in Other.

There was a marked gender imbalance with 87% of respondents selecting "Male", 8% "Female", 1% "Non-binary, genderqueer or gender non conforming" and 3% "Prefer not to say". Two thirds of respondents were  aged between 20 and 40.

In terms of employment, only 4% said they were unemployed while 62% were "fully employed by a company" and another 4% "partially employed by a company", 6% were freelancers" and another 6% self employed. Student status was claimed by 12% and another 5% classed themselves as working students. 

Respondents’ Python experience exceeded their professional coding experience:

While a third claimed less than 1 year of professional coding experience, only 25% had been programming in Python for less than a year. This fits with the fact that over half of respondents used Python for both work and personal purposes and using Python only for work was only the case for a minority:

Asked "What do you use Python for the most?" the majority response was Web Development (21%) followed by Machine Learning and Data Analysis (10% each), then Academic Research and Educational purposes (9% each) and  DevOps/ Systems admin/ writing automation scripts (7%).

Many respondents used Python for multiple purposes and this chart shows that overall Data Analysis has narrowly overtaken Web development as the most prevalent activity:

The brighter bars are for those who consider Python their main programming language (85% of respondents) while the lower bars are for the 15% for whom it is a secondary language.

This chart has a long tail and towards the bottom come Game Development at 10%/10%, Embedded Development at 7%,8% and Mobile development at 6%/6%.

In terms of the other languages they use here's the top picks: 

JavaScript comes top and if you add in TypeScript  its share comes to around a half. Unsurprisingly, HTML/CSS usage is almost equal to JavaScript's and SQL is a close third, followed by Bash/Shell. Again there is a long tail with Scala, Perl, Julia,Clojure, Groovy, Objective-C, Mojo and CoffeeScript all having 1%. 

The version of Python in use continues to be of interest. Even though Python 2 reached "end-of-life" status in April of 2020, it hasn't completely disappeared although its share has dwindled to 6%. Shockingly this seems to be because of its use in an educational context. A comment in the report states:

"Almost half of Python 2 holdouts are under 21 years old and a third are students. Perhaps courses are still using Python 2?"

At the time of the survey Python 3.7 and below were at the end of their lifecycle, but were still being used by 6% of respondents.

On a more positive note, 73% were using one of the latest three versions of Python, 3.10, 3.11, or 3.12 and 2% are already using Python 3.13, which was in alpha at the time of the survey, although it has now been released, in time for the Python Developers Survey 2024 which is now available. 
According to the Python Software Foundation the survey should take 10–15 minutes to fill it out and to encourage people to complete it in full there's a prize draw:

After the survey is over, we will publish the aggregated results and perform a random draw of 20 winners (from those who complete the survey in its entirety), who will each receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card or a local equivalent.

More Information

Python Developers Survey 2023 Results

Python Developers Survey 2024

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