Have you ever wondered which programming language you should learn or start with, in 2022? Well, this is not the right answer to approach a programming language, but this might definitely help. Someone on Reddit actually compiled down 4 million jobs online and figured out what was the average salary for each job based on the programming language they had. And the results are very interesting. So let’s just go ahead and take a look at what’s happening in the world of development with programming languages today.
Now one important thing to remember is that these salaries are actually average salaries. That means there are a ton of data points, there might be a ton of data points that are a lot below the average and a ton of data points that are above the average as well. So it’s not like you would get a job in that programming language only on that salary, but that’s like a very probable or very expected range around which you can get a job.
Table of Contents
10. Python
Let’s start with the number 10 job in the list and the number 10 programming language is Python. Python again is a very versatile, very popular, very used programming language. Because this is something which I believe almost every programmer knows about. We also have an intro article on Python, you can check that out if you want to.
Python is a very general-purpose programming language. You can build Automated scripts, backend servers, you can build ML and AI. You can do a lot of Data Science with Python. It’s priced at somewhere around $99K/year as an average salary and also goes up to $500K/ year. As I said, this is like a sort of an average and will only talk about the average in this article. But average does not mean that this is something you will get, it’s just a data point over here.
Now one more thing to remember is that this scraping and the survey which was done was done for a lot of United States shops, which means that the data obviously skewed a lot towards that particular thing but you have to remember that a lot of jobs even in US are remote. So if you are someone who is trying to break into the industry, a lot of these jobs which made this much amount over here are actually for you. So it’s not like these are only for US people. A bunch of these jobs are also remote. So this data is relevant to pretty much for anyone who is anywhere in the world.
9. JavaScript
Number 9 is JavaScript. A programming language we all, every single person in the world loves and cares about. So this goes somewhere around $102K/year. If nothing I think JavaScript is one of the most important things you can teach yourself these days because of the places this language is present. It’s present on the mobile infrastructure, it’s present in Web, Backend. It’s even present on IoT in some cases where Lightweight JS engines can be embedded. So it’s a no-brainer if you want to get a high-paying job today and you want to work in these web development or mobile development fields, I think JavaScript is something you should really consider.
8. Swift
Number 8 we have is Swift. It is developed by Apple and is used for a lot of Apple products. So it makes sense that this is more suited for a high-paying job as well because you know you’ll be developing applications that should be used by Apple users and Apple users have a little bit more purchasing power compared to Android. So Swift is another high-paying job that is available but this is primarily based on Apple infrastructure Apple ecosystem itself. So if you want to get into iPhone Development, then Swift makes a lot of sense.
7. Ruby
Then number 7 programming language we have is Ruby. I have heard many good things about Ruby. It starts at around $114K/year, average salary, and this is like combined with Rail for example one of the things which I have heard a lot from the founders of Remix, the new React framework is that a lot of their concepts and lot of good practices are based on Ruby and Rail. I’m assuming that Ruby is a great language even for a framework like Rails. And given the fact that it is like can be used as a general-purpose programming language for building and scripting stuff just like Python, I believe this could also be a good choice if you are trying to get into backend programming because Ruby would definitely help you be a good developer.
6. TypeScript
Alright, number 6 is TypeScript. The JavaScript actually bags another place in the list. These are kind of the same things in a lot of ways. TypeScript is obviously a superset of Javascript. So it’sa little bit more in terms of syntax, understandings, generics, and stuff you need to understand. But at the end of the day, you are writing Javascript. Any valid Javascript is a valid TypeScript also if you just modify and tweak the configuration. So TypeScript is super important not only as a programming language that will help you earn more but also as a programming language that will keep you sane in bigger codebases.
5. Golang
At No.5 we have Golang. Now Go is again a very popular choice these days among a lot of the systems which requires speed as well as of development. Again, I don’t have a lot of personal experience with Golang, but I do feel like this is also becoming one of those programming languages which are very common and you will see these used in a lot of places where performance is the need of the hour. So it tries to bring a lot of benefits of performance like C and C++ at the same time bringing benefits of memory management and garbage collection which makes it a really interesting choice. If you’re going into the backend then it’s a good language to learn because tools like ESBUILD is also built-in Golang.
4. Haskell
Next, we have Haskell. Now Haskell is a programming language that I know very little about, but it’s a fully functional programming language used in a lot of systems. It’s been said that it’s a highly paid programming language that goes up to around $118K/year. But I would not suggest Haskell if you’re learning a new language from the start because there are a lot of other good options above.
3. Scala
Next on the list we have, Scala. Now, this is a programming language that goes up to $120K and all the way offers are going up to $400K/year as well. Scala combines the object-oriented part and the functional programming part. It can also work on JVM (Java Virtual Machine). And it can also run in JavaScript that is, you know inside your browser using something known as Scala.JS. So you know it comes with a strong build system, strong type support, and writing code just like you would write in TypeScript in a way, but at least the landing page of Scala seems more impressive in terms of the features it offers. And that’s where Scala actually shines for high-performance systems. You get paid a lot for this.
2. Rust
On number 2 we have Rust. And Rust again goes up to $120K to $123K/year. For rust again, I feel like this is something which is got a lot of hype, a lot of attention. And Rust deserves all the attention, all the hype because it has been running SWC. For example, it has been running a bunch of great 2 links on the web which are fast, which are memory safe, which are awesome and Rust is in a lot of basis of you can say it’s a good fit as a programming language because it has been building a vibrant community. It has been fixing a lot of things that were wrong with C, C++ in terms of general practices you would take as a developer, memory management and unsafe memory, and so on. So Rust again, even considering vassam for example, a lot of code for web assembly would be written in Rust.
It is a good choice as a backend programming language if you want to start programming in today’s time.
1. Solidity
And then finally the language of the hour is number one which is Solidity. Solidity is a programming language for Web-3. Web3 is a very interesting thing which I have my eyes on.
So it’s a programming language built to run smart contracts on these decentralized nodes and you get up to $160K/year. That’s the average and you can clearly see the jump in the average between number 2 and number 1. That means Solidity is much much much more in demand in terms of the salary they are being offered. Some of the salaries also go even up to $1M/year which is like a crazy amount of salary for a developer. So this is something that is super popular and in-demand right now if you want to get into Web3, if you want to become a developer, this is the thing you have to learn.
So, this is the list. This is what’s happening in the world in today’s time in 2022. And if you are looking to get into a programming language this is the ultimate list for you.