How Many Programming Languages Are There? A Complete Guide for Beginners
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Omar Haddad
- . January 10, 2026
- . Update: January 10, 2026 11:12 pm
The inquiry of the number of programming languages is a well-known one to beginners, students, as well as those in the tech world who have recently joined the field. As technologies are coming up annually, the varieties of the coding languages are so many and they are increasing at a very high rate. Programming languages are used in web development, mobile applications, artificial intelligence, data science, and others since the simplest scripting languages to complex systems level. Knowledge of the number of programming languages available will assist the learners to select the appropriate language and get a clear picture of the enormous software development environment. This paper describes the overall number, category and reason the figure continues to grow in a simple and easily understood way.
How Many Programming Languages Are There?
The number of programming languages does not have a definite response. As per numerous online repositories and programming languages databases, today there are 700 to 900 programming languages that exist. Even certain sources provide the figure to exceed 1,000 languages when experimental and nonexistent languages are added. Nevertheless, there are only about 50100 programming languages that find a practical application in practice.
Why Is It Hard to Count Programming Languages?
It is hard to enumerate the exact number as new programming languages are being developed and the old are being forgotten. It is complicated by the fact that many of the languages are variants or extensions of a language. Whenever an individual poses the question of the number of programming languages available, they often refer to common or well-known programming languages such as Python, Java, C++ and JavaScript rather than niche or school languages.
Types of Programming Languages
To have a clearer idea about the number of programming languages, it would be useful to categorize them. Python, Java, and Ruby are high level languages that are easy to write and read. Less abstract languages such as Assembly and Machine Language are more in contact with hardware. Scripting languages, object-oriented languages, functional languages and domain-specific languages are also available and are created to perform special tasks.
Most Popular Programming Languages Today
Although there are hundreds of languages, only some of them are dominant in the industry. Common languages such as Python, JavaScript, Java, C, C++ and C# are common in software development. When speaking of the number of available programming languages, the following popular choices tend to be the main route of learning the language used by the novice as well as by experts.
Why Do New Programming Languages Keep Emerging?
New languages are developed to address the contemporary issues more effectively. There are those that are performance-based and others that are simplistic or secure. The other reason why the question of the number of programming languages is not answered permanently is this.
