Fortran is one of the oldest programming languages still in use, is experiencing a resurgence that is sees it break TIOBE Index’s top 10.

Fortran was developed at IBM and first released in 1957. While many other languages have come and gone, Fortran has shown remarkable staying power and has been growing in popularity in recent years. In fact, the language is now enjoying the most popularity it has seen since 2002, breaking into the top 10 programming languages.

The language has been a staple in scientific computing and engineering, something that has helped contribute to its recent rise, according Paul Jansen, CEO TIOBE Software.

“The main reason for Fortran’s resurrection is the growing importance of numerical/mathematical computing. Despite lots of competitors in this field, Fortran has its reason for existence,” said Jansen. “Let’s briefly check the competition out. Python: choice number one, but slow, MATLAB: very easy to use for mathematical computation but it comes with expensive licenses, C/C++: mainstream and fast, but they have no native mathematical computation support, R: very similar to Python, but less popular and slow, Julia: the rising new kid on the block, but not mature yet. And in this jungle of languages, Fortran appears to be fast, having native mathematical computation support, mature, and free of charge. Silently, slowly but surely, Fortran gains ground. It is surprising but undeniable.”

Interestingly, Fortran is outpacing much new, trendier languages.

There are for instance more than 1,000 hits for “Fortran programming” on Amazon, which is the leading company in books. New cool languages such as Kotlin and Rust, barely hit 300 books for the same search query. So, what is going on? First of all, the Fortran language is still evolving since its inception in 1957. Less than half a year ago, the new ISO Fortran 2023 definition was published.

Fortran’s staying power is a good example of how programmers can make a good living by understanding the market and focusing on a particular field or niche.