Swift Overtakes Python and Java: Unexpected Leader in Stack Overflow 2025 Ranking

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Stack Overflow: Swift enters the top 5 most loved programming languages among developers

The annual Stack Overflow developer survey for 2025 brought a surprise: Swift, the language created by Apple for iOS and macOS, broke into the top five most loved among professional programmers. According to the study, Swift took 4th place with a 72.3% positive feedback rate, surpassing mainstream languages such as Python (68.1%) and Java (61.5%).

"Swift has ceased to be a niche language only for mobile developers. Thanks to its open source code and active community, it is becoming a universal tool for server-side development and even machine learning," comments Chris Lattner, creator of the Swift language. Over 90,000 developers from 180 countries participated in the survey.

Rust remains the leader of the ranking for the second year in a row (87.4%), followed by TypeScript (78.9%) and Elixir (74.1%). Swift showed a record increase in popularity — 14% compared to 2024. Experts attribute this to the release of Swift 6.0, which brought support for full parallel data processing without the risk of data races, as well as improved compatibility with C++.

"We are seeing explosive interest in Swift in the field of financial technology and IoT development. Memory safety and C-level performance make it ideal for high-load systems," notes Anna Ivanova, lead engineer at Tinkoff. According to GitHub, the number of Swift repositories has grown by 40% over the past 12 months.

However, there were also skeptics. James Gosling, creator of Java, noted on his Twitter: "Swift is a great language, but its ecosystem is too tied to Apple platforms. Without full support on Windows and Linux, it is unlikely to become mainstream." Indeed, according to the survey, 78% of Swift developers use it exclusively for creating iOS/macOS applications.

Nevertheless, the trend is obvious: Swift is solidifying its place in the top 5 most loved languages, and its community is actively growing. This is especially relevant for Russian developers — demand for iOS developers on hh.ru grew by 25% in 2025, and the average salary for a Swift specialist reached 350,000 rubles.

The full Stack Overflow report will be published on March 15, 2025.