Only 30% of Rust developers use the programming language at work, according to a survey from the Rust Programming Blog.

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Rust is steadily growing in popularity among developers, according to a Tuesday survey published by the Rust Programming Language Blog. Some 75% of programmers surveyed globally reported that they now use the language, up from 67% last year; however, it should be noted that since the survey was conducted by the Rust Programming Language Blog, it likely includes answers from a disproportionately high number of Rust users.

Named developers' most loved programming language by Stack Overflow, Rust is becoming an increasingly popular language to learn, the survey found: 23% of Rust users said they have been using it for three months or less. About 24% said they started using the language one to two years ago, while another 23% said they have been using it for more than two years.

The survey also examined how long it took Rust users to become productive coding in the language. More than 40% said they felt productive in the language in less than a month of use, and 70% said they felt productive in their first year. However, 22% said they do not yet feel productive at all, which could be a challenge to adoption, the survey noted.

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Rust projects are continuing to grow larger, with greater overall investments, the survey found. Medium to large investments in Rust--projects with over 10,000 and 100,000 lines of code--grew from 9% in 2016, to 16% in 2017, to 23% this year.

Regular Rust usage also increased in the past year. Daily usage of the language rose from 18% in 2017 to 24% in 2018, while weekly usage increased from 61% to 66%, according to the survey.

Rust usage in the workplace continues to grow steadily as well: While only 9% of developers surveyed said they work with Rust full time, this is an increase from 4% last year. Another 21% said they work with the language part-time, up from 17% last year.

In terms of the programming languages developers are most comfortable with, Rust actually ranked in the no. 2 spot, falling behind Python. The other top languages the developers surveyed said they were most comfortable with were C, JavaScript, Java, and C++.

For more information on how to become a developer and which programming languages to learn, check out this TechRepublic cheat sheet.

The big takeaways for tech leaders:

23% of Rust users said they have been using it for three months or less. -- Rust Programming Language Blog, 2018

Daily developer usage of the language rose from 18% in 2017 to 24% in 2018. -- Rust Programming Language Blog, 2018

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