Python dethrones JavaScript as the most-used language on GitHub

There's been an upset in the Octoverse, as Python has unseated JavaScript as the most-used programming language on GitHub.

Python's ascendancy from the number-two slot, which it's held since knocking Java from the position in 2019, is largely down to an explosion of generative AI activity on GitHub, the Microsoft-owned coding platform said in this year's the State of the Octoverse report issued last week.

Along with Python jumping to first place, GitHub noted that the use of Jupyter Notebooks (the open source, web-based development notebooks designed for data science applications) rose by 92 percent on the platform in the past year. Those two factors, along with a surge of new users, "could indicate people in data science, AI, machine learning, and academia increasingly use GitHub."

2024, GitHub seems to have concluded, is the year that generative AI has come into its own as a part of developers' "core building blocks," with a 98 percent increase in the total number of GenAI projects on GitHub, and a 59 percent increase in the number of contributions to those projects. Many of those contributors are new users, according to GitHub, with a notable number coming from India and Brazil.

"We've also seen 100% year-over-year growth among students, teachers, and open source maintainers adopting GitHub Copilot as part of our complimentary access program," GitHub said. "This suggests AI isn't just helping more people learn to write code or build software faster - it's also attracting and helping more people become developers."

In short, GitHub concluded that AI is changing what it means to be a developer: It's not just about being a coder with expertise in computer science or mastery of a particular programming language anymore.

"The notion of a developer extends beyond software developers to roles like operations or IT developers, machine learning researchers, data scientists, students, teachers, and mathematicians," GitHub noted.

Given Python's role as a darling of the data science community, its rise to be the most popular language on GitHub (with the exception of code pushes alone, where JavaScript still holds the top spot) makes perfect sense.

"We couldn't be more pleased to learn about Python's continued rise in popularity on GitHub, especially coupled with the increased use of Jupyter Notebooks, data analysis, AI, and open source technology," Python Software Foundation executive director Deb Nicholson told GitHub when asked about Python's newfound supremacy.

Along with the rise of Python, and a swap for the eighth-most-used language between Shell and C, GitHub said 2024 was a banner year for open source as well, with "a continued increase in first-time contributors to open source projects."

Given the rest of the theme of the report, it likely won't surprise you where most of those open source contributors are spending their time: Working on AI projects, with a healthy dose of commercially-backed open source contributions, too. ®