The top three programming languages in the TIOBE Programming Community Index saw a major shift in September, as C fell to fourth place on the list. This is the lowest score C has had since its first appearance in the index's inception in 2001.
The C went from 9.17% in August to 8.89% in September. This continues the downward trend of the C, which peaked at 16.56% in December 2022 and has fallen sharply since then.
The TIOBE Programming Community Index shows trends in programming languages based on search engine volume.
Why did C's popularity fall?
“Large C programs are difficult to maintain due to the lack of object-oriented features,” TIOBE Software CEO Paul Jansen wrote in the monthly TIOBE Index. “Now that embedded systems tend to grow in functionality and thus code size, and since more and more embedded compilers have good C++ support, there is a trend to switch from C to C++.”
Additionally, the US government has identified C as a memory-unsafe language. Companies may choose Rust instead of C to meet memory-safe standards.
However, “the C may lose its power, but it will remain in the top 10 of the TIOBE index for a long time,” Jansen wrote. “Its installed base is incredible and it is part of one million safety-critical systems worldwide.”
Jansen noted that C still produces high-performance code and has been a cornerstone of embedded systems. However, its lack of object-oriented features makes it difficult to scale. C++ solves that problem.
Other changes in the TIOBE index in September
C's drop out of the top three on the list caused Java to take third place, from 9.16% in August to 9.45% in September. Fortran remained in tenth place.
