Statistical language R is making a comeback against Python
The latest iteration of the TIOBE Index of programming languages indicates that more specialized languages are creeping up on Python’s dominance.
Although Python remains the most popular programming language, the index suggests that several more specialized languages are gradually gaining ground at Python’s expense, most notably R and Perl.
Python has maintained a lead of more than 10 percentage points over its closest competitors. In absolute terms, Python reached its peak popularity in July 2025 with a market share of 26.98%. Although it continues to dominate, its share has declined to 21.81% this month.
The growth of R
R is a statistical programming language that has long been a direct competitor to Python in data science.
“While Python clearly overtook R in recent years, R appears to be regaining momentum and has re-entered the TIOBE Index top 10 for several consecutive months,” the TIOBE post reads. The R language ranked 8th in the index; it was ranked 15th at the same time last year.
Perl makes a comeback
On the scripting side, Perl has also returned to prominence. Once the undisputed leader in scripting, Perl declined after years of internal fragmentation and competition from newer languages, writes Paul Jansen, CEO of TIOBE in the post. “Recently, however, it has staged a comeback, reclaiming a position in the TIOBE top 10 since January 2018,” he writes.
Perl is actually number 11 on the index right now. It was ranked 30th at the same time last year.
“It’s hard to judge a programming language’s popularity based on some of the indexes,” Andrew Cornwall, an analyst at Forrester Research, tells The New Stack.
The TIOBE index, which is based on search popularity, puts Python at the top, followed by C, C++, and Java, he said. PYPL, which uses a similar methodology, has Python, followed by C/C++, Objective-C, and Java, Cornwall observes. The Stack Overflow survey, which is self-reported and tends to favor older developers, ranks Python at the top, squeezes in SQL and HTML/CSS, then lists JavaScript and TypeScript. GitHub’s State of the Octoverse, which reflects what’s in GitHub repositories, lists TypeScript at the top, followed by Python, JavaScript, and Java, Cornwall notes.
A puzzler
However, “R is a bit more of a puzzler; if you look at Google Trends, ‘r programming language’ web searches have been steady and not high over the past year,” Cornwall says. “PYPL’s Objective-C might reflect difficulties using iOS 26 with its new interface; PYPL uses ‘ios tutorial’ instead of ‘Objective-C tutorial’ for its Objective-C index.”
Brad Shimmin, an analyst at the Futurum Group, tells The New Stack that R is niche.
However, “I’m not sure I would put R as an up-and-coming language,” Shimmin says. “It has been largely displaced by Python over the last few years, owing to the sheer magnitude of Python’s ecosystem of libraries. For select use cases within the sciences, R is absolutely tops; that only serves to reinforce its stature as a ‘niche’ language, comparatively.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Brust, CEO of Blue Badge Insights and a data science expert, says TIOBE is measuring search engine volume, I believe, rather than adoption, per se.
“And I think the result of that is a lot of noise in here. If VB, Delphi, and Ada are all in the Top 20, that tells you this is more driven by searches related to maintaining code than implementation momentum,” Brust tells The New Stack. “And, maybe more important, Python’s so‑called decline is exactly what you’d expect when people aren’t hand‑coding it as much anymore — the more the tooling writes Python for you, the fewer Python searches you see. It looks to me like R’s ‘bump’ is still a rounding error in that context.”
Retiring developers?
Meanwhile, Perl is described as a highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 37 years of development. The language runs on more than 100 platforms, from portable to mainframe, and is suitable for both rapid prototyping and large-scale development projects.
Yet, Cornwall says he does not think Perl is making a comeback.
“I’ve run into zero developers who are choosing it over alternatives like Python for new development,” he tells The New Stack.
In fact, everyone, including TIOBE CEO Paul Jansen, seems puzzled at its rank, Corwall argues. Jansen attributes its TIOBE ranking to the number of Perl books. Wired seems to have coincided with a boost in its TIOBE rank in 2025; perhaps it was the 5.4.2.0 maintenance release that kept Perl users searching, he says.
“It’s possible — not likely, but possible — that we’re seeing increasing interest from those who are hired to replace retiring Perl developers who adopted it in the early 1990s,” Cornwall says. “More likely, it’s a statistical artifact of the TIOBE index.”
