Top 10 JavaScript Usage Statistics to Watch Out for in 2022

Our lives essentially depend on the interactivity of JavaScript. If you really want to know how much influence it has on our lives, just disable JavaScript in your browser for a day or two. While you will have no ads and pop-ups with a faster page loading speed, parts of the webpage will simply not work. Nor will Facebook, YouTube, Netflix, Google products, and so on.

Today, almost every device (Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, smart TVs, etc.) actively uses the most popular JavaScript frameworks. Among 1.8 billion websites in the world, 98% use this programming language, which speaks volumes about its increasing popularity among developers and enterprises.

So, how did JavaScript get to this position? Where does it stand today? And how is the current JavaScript landscape for web and mobile app development?

This article sought to provide a bunch of statistics and detailed information on JavaScript usage to help you with your decision-making formula.

Here’s what we have jotted down:

#1 JavaScript Usage: How It Keeps Dominating the Web Development World

Between a new batch of back-end frameworks and an abundance of faster build tools, the world of JavaScript kept transforming. So, will JavaScript be the face of web development in the years to come?

As of now, the majority of websites use JS as the client-side programming language. With the HTML and graphical elements integration, advanced plugins like Silverlight or Flash, and DOM, JavaScript has maintained its supremacy in dynamic website and progressive web app development.

According to the 2021 State of JS survey, 43.4% of developers have agreed, and 17.3% have strongly agreed that JavaScript is moving in the right direction:

And in terms of how happy survey respondents are with the general state of JavaScript, the results are as follows:

#2 JavaScript Usage: The Overpowering Popularity of TypeScript

Microsoft released TypeScript in 2012 as a superset of JavaScript that supports optional types. It took JS syntax and semantics and incorporated some additional features that developers needed. The difference between JavaScript vs Typescript is that the latter offers boosted productivity and easy maintenance of growing codebases.

That’s why TypeScript is not simply a JavaScript trend; it has now become a de-facto language. According to the State of JS Survey, it’s the most used programming language, with a 78% usage rate among developers.

Additionally, as per the Stack Overflow Developer Survey, TypeScript was the third most loved language in 2021. All these JavaScript statistics indicate the rapid growth of TypeScript as an influential trend in the software industry.

#3 JavaScript Usage: React is Leading the Pack

React has been successful in keeping a solid position in the JavaScript ecosystem as it outshined jQuery in the race for the most commonly used framework.

This won’t change this year as well because developers and business leaders love to use React.js for future-proof front-end development. Features like component-based servers, concurrent mode, and hooks make this tool very convenient to use, and hence, we will see extensive ReactJS usage and optimization in 2022.

Furthermore, React had the most npm package downloads in 2021, 4 times more than its biggest competitor Vue.js.

#4 JavaScript Usage: Node.js Saw a Surging Demand

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that helps developers create flexible and lightweight codebases. Its versatility and modular structure allow vertical/horizontal scaling, improved performance, and a faster development process.

For its extensive capabilities, Node.js had been enjoying steady growth in download and installation rates, with a spike in October 2021.

Moreover, historical trends of JavaScript usage in websites show that 2% of global web servers use Node.

Node.js is the best choice for high-functioning and complicated projects like streaming apps, real-time apps, and microservices-based apps, etc. The community constantly tries to improve this tool with open contributions. All these aspects make Node.js development one of the top JS trends that’s likely to continue in 2022 and beyond.

#5 JavaScript Usage: No Surprises in Vue Evolution

Vue.js is a progressive JavaScript framework known for its outstanding resources, easy learning curve, collaborative community, and much more. The latest version, Vue 3.2, offers a broad range of improvements like:

• Increased performance with 50% faster write and 260% faster read in ref implementation
• Typescript implementation
• 17% less JavaScript memory usage and 40% faster dependency tracking
• Layered modules and large-scale project support

Currently, there are 3,491,140 websites using Vue around the world. Here are its usage statistics:

#6 JavaScript Usage: Svelte is Barging in

Since 2016, the podium of most used JavaScript frameworks has been circling around the top three monarchs. However, the popularity of Svelte is growing by leaps and bounds, especially after it started supporting TypeScript.

15% of JavaScript developers actively use this framework, and in terms of satisfaction, it has won the proud first place, surpassing React.

The accelerating advancement of Svelte only means that it will draw more and more attention to it, and it’s only a matter of time before it joins the clan of the top front-end development frameworks. Who knows how much the JavaScript stats for frameworks will change after a couple of years.

#7 JavaScript Usage: GraphQL is Excelling at Data Management

GraphQL is a query language created by Facebook to enhance the data cell performance of their app. It allows developers to query data from both the back-end and front-end with a flexible syntax. Other exciting features include fast data retrieval, request customization, efficient query, and so on.

In 2020, developers wanted to learn more about this framework with the highest interest ratio of 86%. And in terms of satisfaction, GraphQL is now at the top, leaving Redux behind:

All this data suggests that GraphQL is soon going to replace the RESTful approach and definitely emerge as one of the top JavaScript usage examples.

#8 JavaScript Usage: Rise of the Latest JavaScript Features

We don’t know exactly how, but the usage of many new JavaScript features is steadily increasing, as reported in the State of JS 2021/2022. More and more developers started exploring the JS ecosystem and contributing their own expertise to it. For example:

• 48.9% of respondents have been using Dynamic Imports to load a module on-demand or condition:

• 26.1% of developers have been using Proxies to create a proxy for another object and redefine/intercept critical operations for it.

• 20.4% of respondents have been using Private Fields to implement JS language features.

• 67.2% of them have been using Nullish Coalescing as a logical operator to manage right and left-hand side operands.

• 21.6% of developers have been using WebGL to execute 2D and 3D rendering in a browser HTML canvas.

• 22.5% of them have been using Web Audio API to control audio on the web.

• 45.7% of respondents have been using Service Workers to create the offline user experience.

#9 JavaScript Usage: Jamstack is Serving Millions

Jamstack is a modern web development architecture that allows developers to create secure and fast websites and web apps with many efficient libraries and tools. According to the 2021 Jamstack Community Survey, 32% developers were working on websites that would serve millions of users:

The reasons behind Jamstack’s capability to attract millions of audiences are the groundbreaking benefits it offers, such as a content delivery network, microservices architecture, fast and lightweight pages, pre-built markup, etc. All these JavaScript usage statistics about Jamstack help it stay trendy in 2022 and beyond.

#10 JavaScript Usage: The Testing Game Belongs to Jest

The testing libraries and tools with most respondents’ interest are Jest, Mocha, Storybook, and Jasmine. Jest is at the front of the pack as expected since it’s a part of the bootstrapping tool of React – the most popular cross-platform framework.

At the second position reigns Mocha, which can be a viable alternative to Jest. Jasmine continues to decline as it’s the default testing tool for Angular.

Another more user-oriented testing tool is Testing Library which developers are now preferring to test React components.

#11 JavaScript Usage: React Native Takes Two in One

In terms of mobile app development, React Native completely dominates the market. In every category, it won with native apps and went down to the enduring popularity of the React framework, that’s here to say.

The similarities between React vs React Native enable developers to seamlessly build mobile apps. It’s also cheaper and easier for organizations to create both web and mobile apps at the same time.

In this context, Expo gained immense popularity in 2020 and entered the JavaScript statistics radar. As it’s built on React Native, it’s becoming a great choice for developing mobile apps.

For all these reasons, we can predict that React Native is going to have a bigger market takeover. And with its support for macOS and Windows, we can assume that it can 100% outperform Electron.

Conclusion

JavaScript is not going anywhere; the landscape is continuously expanding and getting backed up by cutting-edge technologies. While it’s not the only programming language for the client-side, it’s one of the first and most preferred by developers. Although some consider it finicky and inefficient, several improvements over the years have made it more concise and less complex. And after going through the JavaScript usage statistics and data in recent years, we can safely conclude that we are quite proud of the work we have done at Trident Technolabs. We almost hit the jackpot by establishing our tech stacks and predicting the tech directions. Our expert developers have access to top-tier JavaScript tools, frameworks, and libraries so that we can turn your ideas into reality.