There are a wide variety of programming languages with different applications, and deciding which one to start studying can be hard. But if your objective is to be professional and earn a lot of money, you should learn the highest paying programming language. 

Programmers who want to earn more should pay attention to rare languages. At least, such a conclusion can be drawn from the results of a survey conducted by Stack Overflow among 83+ thousand developers from around the world.

There are a lot of these languages out there, and we are here for you to reduce your confusion and make you come to a conclusion. The following ranking of the highest paying programming languages ​​will help you figure out which is the best choice. 

Highest Paying Programming Languages

1. Clojure: $106K

Clojure is a general-purpose Lisp-like language designed for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It is mainly used for data processing and concurrent programming.

From Lisp, Clojure “inherited” macros, multi methods and interactive development style, and JVM gives portability and access to a large set of libraries created for this platform.

Unlike Java, the syntax of the Clojure programming language is considered fairly simple, consistent, and concise. In addition, you will be able to interact with the running program and see the result of executing individual functions immediately instead of recompiling and running it after each change.

Despite the fact that Clojure is a young programming language, quite a lot of people use it in their projects and ranked number one among the highest paying programming languages.

The average monthly salary for a Clojure programmer is approximately $8,887 US dollars. 

2. Erlang: $103K

Erlang is a functional programming language that allows you to write programs for various kinds of distributed systems. It is the most important and basic tool for the telecommunications industry. 

The language is dynamic. The syntax is inherited from Prolog. It is compact — contains a minimum of structures, and is easy to learn but not primitive.

Erlang developers earn about $8,583 US dollars per month.

3. F#: $95K

F#, developed by Microsoft, is the programming language ​​from the .NET family. It is a multi-paradigm language aimed primarily at functional programming but with the ability to create object-oriented and imperative code.

Like other functional languages, F# is aimed at simplifying work with Big Data and multithreading — that is, it is in demand in science, in creating artificial intelligence, where dynamic databases are used, and also for improved use of multi-core processor resources. In other words, F# can be used just about anywhere you want.

The average monthly salary for an F# programmer is approximately $7,960 US dollars.

4. Lisp: $95K

Lisp is a family of programming languages ​​in which programs and data are presented as lists.

It is a very unusual highest paying programming language with unique features. So, for example, some people call it a programmable programming language since the necessary library can be taken from any other language.

Lisp is one of the oldest programming languages with highest salary. In addition, it is the first functional programming language to gain great popularity. Previously, Lisp was used as a native, mainstream AI language. Now it is also used in other areas.

The average monthly salary for a Lisp programmer is approximately $7,916 US dollars.

5. Ruby: $93K

It is an open-source programming language used mainly for the development of web applications, although it is also often used for the development of other software and automating processes. Ruby is based on the Object Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm and is characterized as a very dynamic language. 

One of the features of this program is its flexibility, as it allows programmers to remove or modify existing parts. Ruby not only has one of the highest salaries, but also it is one of the most popular programming languages.

Ruby developers earn about $7,750 US dollars per month.

6. Elixir: $92K

Elixir is a programming language that runs on top of Erlang. Like Erlang, it is a functional language with strict evaluation, single assignment, and dynamic typing, designed to support distributed, fault-tolerant, non-stop hot code replacement applications.

Elixir programming is ideal for applications that are used by a large number of people, as well as for those projects where the number of users is actively growing. An application written in this language will easily cope with a large amount of traffic without the need for additional servers.

Since the language is relatively young, it has not yet acquired a large community, and the number of libraries and tools is unlikely to be able to compete with other popular programming languages.

The average monthly salary for an Elixir programmer is approximately $7,746 US dollars.

7. Scala: $92K

The Scala programming language is a “symbiosis” of Java and C#. It’s not the first language to combine OOP with a functional programming approach, but it came at the right time when everyone was already frankly fed up with Java. 

Scala is now quite ready to gradually replace Java, running on the same virtual machine and providing access to the same Java libraries. Scala needs fewer lines of code than Java. It is more type-safe, supports functional programming (FP), and surpasses Java in terms of OOP.

Scala is considered an academic language that few people can write. There is an opinion that “smart people” write Scala, and those who love it simpler choose Python, Haskell or Erlang. 

Scala is a fairly complex language, but this complexity allows you to implement high-performance and non-standard solutions at the intersection of functional and object-oriented programming. And thus making it one of the highest paying programming languages.

The average monthly salary for a Scala programmer is approximately $7,731 US dollars.

8. Perl: $90K

Perl is a general purpose, high-level interpreted dynamic programming language with highest payout.

Perl is also called “the duct tape of the internet” because it can connect any project written in any language — web servers and databases,

online stores and mailing services, thermal sensors and lock control systems in hydroelectric power plants, paid subscriptions on the site and SMS alerts, video surveillance systems and city emergency response service.

Perl is good at running system commands on an operating system. This allows Perl to take the output of one program, transform it as needed, and feed it to another.

The average monthly salary for a Perl programmer is approximately $7,506 US dollars.

9. Go: $89K

Go is an open-source programming language developed by Google to meet the demands of today’s world of multi-core processors, network and cloud systems, compute clusters, and web applications.

Packed with essential features like concurrency and a built-in garbage collector, Go was built for rapid development. Go’s architecture has also been designed to be easier to manage dependencies and allow applications to scale more easily.

It is used by large companies such as Netflix, Uber and Paypal. According to experts, what makes it so attractive is its incredible speed since it is faster than Python and Java. In addition, Go can be used with Windows, Linux, Mac, and even small devices like Raspberry Pi.

The average monthly salary for a Go programmer is approximately $7,433 US dollars.

10. Rust: $87K

Rust is a multi-paradigm programming language designed for performance and safety, especially safe concurrency. 

Rust was developed by Mozilla as an alternative to C++. While Rust is syntactically similar to C++, one thing it can guarantee is memory safety by using a borrow check to check references.

Both novice and experienced programmers can start with Rust. In the way it is used, the language is close to established alternatives and making it one of the highest paying programming languages.

The average monthly salary for a Rust programmer is approximately $7,253 US dollars.

Where are other popular programming languages?

I know you didn’t find Python, C, C++, JavaScript or Java in the list of programming languages with highest salary. 

We didn’t forget in-demand programming languages; here we only listed the top 10 languages with highest payout. So below table will clear your doubts about other popular programming languages.

Knowledge of any of the above mentioned highest paying programming languages and sufficient work experience can bring really great opportunities for the skilled programmers.