If you want to learn a second computer programming language, how do you choose which one to learn? One factor in making your choice might be the popularity of the language. If you want to get paid for knowing a language, you avoid languages that provide few opportunities. I think your first language should be based on a combination of popularity and its ease for learning. It is hard to beat Python as a good 1st language. You can peruse the popularity lists and see how Python stacks up in popularity.
PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language Index
From their website: "The PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language Index is created by analyzing how often language tutorials are searched on Google : the more a specific language tutorial is searched, the more popular the language is assumed to be."
https://sites.google.com/site/pydatalog/pypl/PyPL-PopularitY-of-Programming-Language
This is relying on the wisdom of the crowd.
The RedMonk Programming Language Rankings
The "RedMonk Programming Language Rankings" are derived from a correlation of programming activity on GitHub (usage) and Stack Overflow (discussion). This is a measure of language usage.
Go to this website and look for the latest ranking:
http://redmonk.com/sogrady/category/programming-languages/
Besides rankings, there are articles. An article at the time of writing this post is "Will Python Kill R?" (R being a statistical analysis language)
http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2013/11/26/python-r/
The TIOBE Index
The monthly TIOBE Programming Community Index shows the top 10 languages' popularity graphically and the top 20 languages with a rating. The numbers are based on searching the Web with certain phrases that include language names and counting the numbers of hits returned. This is a measure of interest in a language.
http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html
The Transparent Language Popularity Index
This ranking is also based on internet searches. This website makes the open source software used for the ranking available for you to download, study, and use it yourself if you wish.
http://lang-index.sourceforge.net/
Trendy Skills
This website measures Skills that employers seek in the IT industry. This is the only list based on employment
http://trendyskills.com/
This webpage is interactive. You can click on the bottom to view by absolute popularity, popularity by percentage, and salary. The salary numbers might be misleading. If a preponderance of jobs for a language are in California, then that salary will be available only in California.
Trendy listed a language I needed to look up: "S". S is a statistical programming language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_%28programming_language%29
I am familiar with a major variant of S, called "R," but S was news to me.
No matter how many languages you know, you are always wondering what you should learn next. These popularity lists might be helpful to you.
Robert
