Top 20 Programming Languages of June 2026: See What’s Dominating Tech!

The Potential of Rust

Is Rust poised for a bright future or even to become a serious contender against C and C++? The latest TIOBE index, which assesses the popularity of programming languages monthly, seems to suggest so.

After a year of stagnant rankings, Rust, known for its performance and memory safety, has achieved its highest historical ranking by climbing to the twelfth position in June 2026. “Two months ago, I wrote that Rust seemed to have hit a plateau. Recent developments have led me to revise that analysis,” confesses Paul Jansen, CEO of TIOBE Software, who believes that due to its qualities, “it could pose serious competition to C and C++.” However, one challenge remains: Rust is complex to master.

A challenge persists: the concepts and design philosophy of Rust require a relatively high level of programming expertise. This could limit its appeal to a broader audience and complicate its rise to the top 5 languages. However, predicting the future remains challenging.

Paul Jansen

CEO, TIOBE Software

Top 20 Programming Languages in June 2026

Beyond Rust’s rise, there are notable movements in the rankings still topped by Python, despite a significant drop in its score over the year (-6.91% compared to June 2025). SQL and R, climbing four and five places respectively, have entered the top 10, displacing Fortran, which fell seven places, and Go, dropping six places. Meanwhile, Swift has made the most dramatic leap, jumping ten places, boosted by a 0.27% increase in its score over the year. C has also solidified its second position with a 1.3% growth over the year.

Here are the top 20 most popular programming languages among developers in June 2026:

1. Python (same position as June 2025)
2. C (+1)
3. C++ (-1)
4. Java (same)
5. C# (same)
6. JavaScript (same)
7. Visual Basic (+1)
8. SQL (+4)
9. R (+5)
10. Delphi/Object Pascal (-1)
11. Scratch (+5)
12. Rust (+6)
13. Go (-6)
14. PHP (+1)
15. Swift (+10)
16. Ada (-5)
17. Fortran (-7)
18. Perl (-5)
19. Assembly language (same)
20. MATLAB (-3)

Explore the complete rankings

Criteria for the TIOBE Index Ranking

Since 2002, TIOBE Software has been evaluating the popularity of programming languages by tracking the volume of search queries related to these languages across about twenty search engines, including Google, Wikipedia, Bing, and Amazon. Updated monthly, the TIOBE index does not aim to identify the best language or the one generating the most lines of code but rather the most popular. It serves primarily as a market monitoring tool. “The index can be used to check if your programming skills are up to date or to guide a strategic decision on which language to choose for a new software project,” explains the Dutch company.