The most popular version of Java, remote control and video games: what the 2021 JetBrains study reveals

JetBrains, a developer of tools for Java and other languages, conducted an annual study. More than 47,000 people from 183 countries participated in the 2021 Developer Ecosystem Survey. Including, during the study, IT specialists from 17 countries were interviewed, which account for approximately 70% of all developers in the world: Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Spain , Turkey, Ukraine, UK and USA. We have collected the key findings of the study - about the Java language, the work and lifestyle of programmers.

Java in 2021: popular in South Korea, China and Germany

One of the main conclusions of the study is that the Java programming language, although losing ground a little, is still more popular than Python as the main language (32% vs. 29% of respondents). JavaScript was the most popular language in 2021, with 69% of respondents having used it in the past 12 months, and 39% citing it as their primary programming language. As of 2020, Java is most commonly used in South Korea, China, and Germany. The share of Java in South Korea is 55%, in China - 47%, and in Germany - 33%. In Belarus, 26% of developers prefer Java, in Ukraine - 20%, in Russia - 18%. This is slightly less than in 2020.

Which version of Java is the most popular?

As of 2020, Java 8 is still the leading version of this programming language. Interestingly, since 2019, Java 11 has shown a steady growth of about 10 percentage points annually. In numbers, it looks like this: 72% of developers who use Java prefer Java 8, and 42% prefer Java 11. The shares of Java 12 and Java 13 have decreased by about three times since 2020, while the newer Java 14 and Java 15 has already received an audience despite being relatively new.

What frameworks to choose

The share of developers using Spring Boot has grown slightly in 2021, by about 4 percentage points (it is chosen by 65% ​​of programmers). In second place is the Spring MVC framework - 42% of developers. At the same time, a small fraction of developers are using many more new web frameworks than in 2020.

Application Servers: Apache Tomcat and Jetty

The application server landscape in 2021 is about the same as it was in 2020, Apache Tomcat is still the most popular among developers with 61% of programmers using it.

What is Java most commonly used for?

Most often, Java is used to develop websites (39%), less often - to create utilities (26%) and system software (19%). The use of Java for websites and IT infrastructure grew slightly between 2020 and 2021, while Java became less used for business intelligence, data science, and machine learning.

Developer portrait: more women are entering the industry

63% of developers work full-time, 15% study at universities, 7% also study but work, 5% freelance. 81% of respondents work as a programmer, 15% as a team leader, 13% as a DevOps engineer, and 12% as an architect. Most programmers work in companies where there are fewer developers than specialists in other areas. Another noteworthy finding is that developers most often work in companies with no more than 50 people (80% of respondents answered this way). If we talk about IT companies, then most often programmers work with IT services (40%), mobile development (24%), cloud platforms and data (17% each). Among companies from other areas, IT specialists most often work in banking and finance (18%), sales and education (12% each). The main share among developers is occupied by men (93%) from 21 to 29 years old (48%). However, more women are entering the tech industry. They often work with data analysis and machine learning, UX / UI design. Far fewer women work in programming and systems administration. The largest percentage of programmers is in South Korea (13%), Belarus (12%) and Canada (8%). In Russia, in the general field of developers, there are only 7% of programmers, and in Ukraine - 6%.

Developer lifestyle: Wake-up time and telecommuting

The time at which developers usually start their working day has not changed since last year: programmers stuck to their work schedule even during the pandemic. 83% of developers start their work day before 10 am. If before the pandemic, about 70% of developers worked from the office, now 80% work from home. Interestingly, while the share of developers working in cafes has halved during the pandemic, the number of people working in co-working spaces has not changed much. This year, a variety of events have become much more accessible due to the widespread use of online formats. In 2020, about 75% of developers attended online conferences, and more than 40% of respondents attended online seminars and meetings. While the vast majority of developers have a GitHub account, just under half have a Stack Overflow profile. The three most used social networks are Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Developer Hobbies: Video games are ahead of coding

In 2020, most developers have named programming as their biggest hobby. Video games top the list this year, rising from 49% to 59% in popularity. The personal computer is the most popular gaming platform, with consoles coming in second. Among them, the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch are the most widely used. The second most popular hobby is programming (57%), the third is listening to music (40%). More than half of the respondents are engaged in charity work. The most popular reason for charitable donations is to make the world and community more livable. Most developers want to help children, care for the environment, fight social inequality, or help the underprivileged. These are the results of the development ecosystem study in 2021. Which of these findings apply to you? What do you disagree with? We invite you to discuss this in the comments below the text.