As expected, Python has climbed into the Top 3 of the Tiobe index of language popularity, achieving that milestone for the first time ever in the September 2018 edition of the index.

With a rating of 7.653 percent, Python placed third behind first-place Java, which had a rating of 17.436 percent, and second-place C, rated at 15.447. Python displaced C++, which finished third last month and took fourth place this month, with a rating of 7.394 percent.

Python is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, having conquered universities and the industrial world, Tiobe said, because it is easy to learn, learn, and deploy.

The monthly Tiobe index is based on a formula involving searches on languages in popular search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Wikipedia. Tiobe provides software quality services.

Python also has been scoring high in two other language rankings:

The PyPL Popularity of Programming Language index, where it ranked No. 1 this month, as it has done before, and has had the most growth in the past five years.

The RedMonk Programming Language Rankings, where Python again placed third.

PyPL’s ratings are based on an assessment of searches on language tutorials in Google. Analyst firm RedMonk bases its ratings on an assessment of code in GitHub and discussions in Stack Overflow.

The Tiobe Top 10

The top 10 languages in Tiobe’s September index were:

Java, with a rating of 17.436 percent C, at 15.447 percent Python, at 7.653 percent C++, at 7.394 percent Visual Basic .Net, at 5.308 percent C#, at 3.295 percent PHP, at 2.775 percent JavaScript, at 2.131 percent SQL, at 2.062 percent Objective-C, at 1.509 percent

The PyPL Top 10

PyPL’s top 10 for September were:

Python, with a share of 24.58 percent Java, at 22.14 percent JavaScript, at 8.41 percent PHP, at 7.77 percent C#, at 7.74 percent C/C++, at 6.22 percent R, at 4.04 percent Objective-C, at 3.33 percent Swift, at 2.65 percent Matlab, at 2.1 percent

The RedMonk Top 10

The most-recent RedMonk rankings, labeled as the June 2018 rankings but actually released in August, were:

JavaScript Java Python PHP C# C++ CSS Ruby (tie) C, Objective-C