If you asked a group of 100 developers which is the best programming language, chances are good that most of them would give you a variation on the same answer: It depends.

There is no one perfect programming language that is best for every situation. If you want to develop a web application, you’ll probably use a different language than if you were developing a mobile application. Teams creating video games for consoles write in different languages than teams writing database driven, B2B software. Data scientists use different tools than application developers who use different tools that DevOps experts writing automation scripts.

So, if you’re wondering which programming language you should learn in order to get a new job, you probably first need to ask yourself what kind of job you want to have.

That said, lists that rank the top programming languages aren’t completely worthless. They offer an overview of where technology markets -- and technology jobs -- are heading. A whole host of organizations publish lists of the top programming languages based on different criteria.

While it has been a couple years since InformationWeek has published a language ranking, the 2023 list draws from many of the same sources as in previous years:

• The Tiobe Index -- One of the most well-known lists of languages, this monthly ranking orders languages based on how often people search from them on 25 different search engines.
• The PYPL Popularity of Programming Languages Index -- Also a monthly list, PYPL uses similar criteria but relies only on Google searches for coding tutorials.
• RedMonk Programming Language Rankings -- Updated twice a year, this rating relies on an analysis of GitHub repositories and Stack Overflow discussions.
• Github Octoverse -- Developers of all kinds rely on Github to manage their codebase, and this annual report examines which languages appear most often in Github repositories.
• Stack Overflow -- Very popular with developers, this website surveys users to find out which languages they love, hate, and use.
• Indeed.com -- This job search site bases its list on which languages appear most often in its job postings.
• Coding Dojo -- Similarly, this bootcamp also bases its ratings on employment opportunities.

Combining and comparing all these different sources results in a more comprehensive view than any one source provides on its own. The slides that follow highlight the 10 languages that scored the best across the most recent rankings from all these sources.