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These coding languages will land you the best-paying jobs

Stack Overflow has published an in-depth study that details the latest trends in programming, including the most popular and highest-paying coding platforms.

In its May 2022 survey, over 70,000 developers gave an insight into the world of programming languages, which reveals some interesting tidbits.

Coding on a MacBook
Image credit: Clément Hélardot/Unsplash Image used with permission by copyright holder

As reported by TechRadar, Stack Overflow reported that JavaScript dominates the charts with a massive 65% of all developers that participated in the survey utilizing the language. HTML/CSS was a close second with 55.08%, while database-based language SQL came in third with a 49.43% share.

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Thanks to its popularity among developers, JavaScript is the top programming language in the world for the 10th year in a row.

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As far as individuals looking for a career in coding, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and Python were practically neck and neck in terms of the most popular languages for those studying the various coding platforms.

Elsewhere, the study revealed the most attractive coding languages to learn when it comes to salary amounts. Clojure, an offset of the Java-based Lisp programming language, is the most lucrative language to have experience in, with the average salary exceeding the $106,000 mark.

Comparatively, Dart ranks as the least desirable language among companies due to an average salary of $43,724 a year.

Among programming, scripting, and markup languages, Python pays an average salary of $71,105, while JavaScript ranks behind at $65,580. Average yearly income figures for some of the other platforms are as follows:

  • Erlang: $103,000
  • Perl: $90,000
  • C#: $69,516
  • C++: $68,000
  • PHP: $50,496
  • HTML/CSS: $63,984
  • C: $67,186
code on computer screen and phone screen
Photo by Sora Shimazaki/Pexels

Between 2021 and 2022, median salaries on average increased around 23%. That’s a significant increase for a period spanning just 12 months. Why the sharp jump? Stack Overflow details how Flow, COBOL, Couchbase, and IBM Cloud/Watson all saw the largest salary bumps on a year-over-year basis.

Chief developers are leading the pack in terms of the highest-compensated individuals in this industry, while cloud infrastructure engineers and data engineers are also handsomely rewarded, according to TechRadar. Unsurprisingly, blockchain engineers are also on the receiving end of a substantial payout as well.

Breaking down the types of users who participated in the survey reveals full-stack (46%), and back-end (43%) developers as those who engaged in the study the most, while front-end (26%) and desktop developers (15%) were also involved.

Finally, considering coding continues to be an industry that provides the backbone of technology, it’s no surprise that a massive amount of individuals have turned to learning coding languages via online courses. Udemy is currently being used by 66% of the respondents, followed by Coursera (35%), and Codeacademy (26%).

Zak Islam
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Zak Islam was a freelance writer at Digital Trends covering the latest news in the technology world, particularly the…
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