JavaScript is King Again: GitHub Named It the Language of 2022, Surpassing Python and TypeScript

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GitHub named JavaScript the fastest growing language of the year

The GitHub platform published its annual Octoverse 2022 report, which traditionally summarizes the results of the open-source ecosystem development. The main surprise was that JavaScript (especially in conjunction with Node.js) topped the ranking not only in absolute number of projects, but also in commit growth rates, outpacing Python and TypeScript.

According to GitHub data, the number of push notifications in JavaScript repositories in 2022 increased by 23% compared to 2021. This is the highest rate among all top-10 languages. For comparison: Python growth was 18.5%, TypeScript — 21%, and Go — 15%. At the same time, JavaScript remains the most popular language on the platform: more than 4.5 million new repositories created in 2022 are written in it.

Experts attribute this surge to the boom in Node.js development. "Node.js has become the de facto standard for building backend for startups and microservices. JavaScript is now not just a language for interfaces — it is a full-fledged tool for server logic, APIs, and even desktop applications via Electron," comments Maria Ivanova, lead developer at "CodeBoost" and speaker at the HolyJS conference.

The report also confirms the trend towards stack unification: more and more teams are choosing JavaScript/TypeScript for full-stack development, abandoning the division into frontend and backend. The share of projects using Node.js in production increased by 12% over the year.

At the same time, GitHub analysts note that TypeScript continues to closely follow "pure" JavaScript: its share among new projects reached 28% compared to 32% for JavaScript. However, if all repositories (including legacy code) are taken into account, JavaScript still holds the bar at 37%.

For Python and Ruby developers, this is a signal: the job market for JavaScript/Node.js remains the hottest. The average salary of a JavaScript developer in the US, according to Stack Overflow, increased by 8% and reached $118,000 per year.

The full Octoverse 2022 report is available on the official GitHub website.