When deciding what programming language to learn, an often overlooked aspect that developers tend to forget about is market demand. How much will you get paid for learning that language? If you invest months, or, years, learning something will you be able to find a job? Software developers can earn a substantial amount over their careers. Picking the right language and the projects that you work on is key in maximising your income! In this tutorial, you will learn which programming languages pay the most.

I researched trending languages based on the StackOverflow developer survey, which can be found here. The list of languages that I researched include Swift, Kotlin, Go, Python, Java, Bash, Shell, PowerShell, TypeScript, Ruby, C++, JavaScript, Dart, C , R, SQL, C#, React, VBA, PHP, Assembly, HTML/CSS, Rust, Objective-C, Angular. In this tutorial, you will learn which of these languages makes it into the top ten paying programming languages based on the average median salary. The data that formed the basis of this list was obtained from ItJobsWatch. The data is taken in June 2021 and it based on the UK job market.

Number 10: JavaScript
Popularity: 5
Contact Rate: £500
Salary: £55,000
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 4252
Trending: ☝️

Number 9: C++
Popularity: 97
Contact Rate: £575
Salary: £57,500
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 1069
Trending: ☝️

Number 8: Ruby
Popularity: 193
Contact Rate: £513
Salary: £60,000
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 373
Trending: 👇

Number 7: TypeScript
Popularity: 41
Contact Rate: £500
Salary: £62,500
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 1311
Trending: ☝️

Number 6: Bash/Shell.PowerShell
Popularity: 481
Contact Rate: £500
Salary: £62,500
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 476
Trending: ☝️

Number 5: Java
Popularity: 11

Contact Rate: £563
Salary: £65,000
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 2514
Trending: ---

Number 4: Python
Popularity: 12
Contact Rate: £525
Salary: £65,000
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 2686
Trending: ☝️

Number 3: Go
Popularity: 140
Contact Rate: £525
Salary: £70,000
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 455
Trending: ☝️

Number 2: Kotlin
Popularity: 252
Contact Rate: £525
Salary: £72,500
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 266
Trending: ☝️

Number 1: Swift
Popularity: 829
Contact Rate: £575
Salary: £75,500
Number Of Current Roles Advertised: 132
Trending: ☝️

Did you correctly guess that Swift would be the winner? this goes to prove that just because a language is popular does not mean it will be the best paying. This is the trade-off you need to make in life. Learning a niche skill will help you to maximise your earning potential, however, on the flip side, at some stage, you will need to re-train. The chances of a niche language or framework going out of fashion is high. I know this from first-hand experience. I specialise in CMS development, CMS systems can come and go. Every few years I have always needed to re-skill. If you are a contractor who specialises in a niche, you should be able to charge a higher day rate, however, there is also a higher chance that you will spend more time looking for work. if you asked me what I suggest you learn in 2021, I recommend JavaScript/TypeScript as it's the most popular and pay well. I hope this helped someone out there, Happy Coding 🤘