Python 3 surpasses Python 2 on Stack Overflow – April, 2016

Python 3 came out in 2008. That’s eight whole years ago. This past month, April 2016, is the first month that there have been more Python 3-related questions on Stack Overflow than Python 2-related questions. It has taken a long time, but Python 3 finally seems to be getting as much usage as Python 2. It’ll be interesting to see if this is a tipping point and usage of Python 2 begins to plummet. Here’s the latest chart:

Python Stack Exchange Posts: PY2 v. PY3

  • In April, 2016, there were a tiny percentage (<1%) more Python-3-tagged posts than Python-2-tagged posts.
  • A month earlier, in March, 2016, there were 4.4% more Python-2-tagged posts than Python-3-tagged posts. Somehow that data changed a little since I ran the same query on April 1.
  • A year earlier, in April, 2015, there were 27% more Python-2-tagged posts than Python-3-tagged posts.
  • Also interesting is the rapid increase in the number of monthly questions. In January, there were 1,510 Python 3-tagged posts. In April, there were 2,078, a 38% increase!
  • More info on where the data comes from.

What Does Google Think?

No change here. Google still thinks that people are more interested in Python 2 as it still usually recommends the Python 2.7 documentation over the Python 3.5 documentation when you do a search for something like Python Unicode.

We will take another look in early June.

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