The top three points toward a winner for the year's best, while the bottom three switch spots.

Python is headed toward a likely win of programming language of the year 2024, TIOBE CEO Paul Jansen predicted in the TIOBE Programming Community Index in December. According to the updated rankings:

The TIOBE Programming Community Index shows trends in programming languages based on search engine volume.

Every year, TIOBE Software calculates its programming language of the year -- the language with the highest rise in ratings over the year. Python gained 10%, putting it well ahead of runners-up Java and JavaScript, which saw gains of +1.73% and +1.72%, respectively.

"Python is unstoppable thanks to its support for AI and data mining, its large set of libraries and its ease of learning," Jansen wrote.

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However, the index is always changing. How long will Python hold on to this popularity?

"Now that some say that the AI bubble is about to burst, plus the fact that demand for fast languages is rapidly increasing, Python might start to plateau," Jansen said. "Let's see whether this happens."

Some interesting movements happened near the bottom of the top 10 list.

SQL and Visual Basic overtook Fortran in eighth, ninth, and tenth, respectively. Last month, we pointed out that Fortran can be used for numerical analysis and computational mathematics, which are key to generative AI. Fortran's loss in popularity might also be a sign of a plateau. However, the patterns in the TIOBE index are often best looked at over longer periods, not just month-over-month.

In other news, Kotlin dropped out of the top 20 in December. "It looks like it is not yet the next big language everybody is going to talk about," said Jansen in an email to TechRepublic.

Zig, a competitor to Rust, may be approaching the top 50. However, Jansen said, Zig is ascending more slowly than he expected.