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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Yes—but only in Stack Overflow’s 2023 Developer Survey. Zig ranked first for median yearly salary among the programming languages shown, at $103,611 USD. That is a historical, self-reported survey result, not a current salary guarantee or evidence that learning Zig causes higher pay. Stack Overflow’s 2024 survey put Erlang first instead.
What Stack Overflow’s 2023 survey found
The 2023 survey’s top-paying-technologies chart ranked Zig first, with a median yearly salary of $103,611 USD. Erlang followed at $99,492 and F# at $99,311. The figures describe survey respondents’ reported compensation; they are not published job-offer averages or salary promises. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023
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The chart is notable partly because relatively few respondents reported using Zig extensively. In the survey, 0.83% of all respondents said they had done extensive development work with Zig in the past year; the figure was 0.70% among professional developers. A high median for a language reported by a small share of respondents should not be read as a broad estimate of what programmers can expect to earn.
Does learning Zig lead to a higher salary?
The survey cannot establish that. Salary varies with factors such as experience, role, location, employer, and project type, and the published comparison does not isolate the effect of a programming language on pay.
#1 Best Overall
Stack Overflow’s 2023 salary-and-experience discussion said Zig developers averaged 11 years of experience and reported the highest pay per years of experience compared with developers using other languages at the same or greater experience. That is useful context, but it is not a controlled estimate showing that Zig itself raises compensation. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023
Why the result needs a survey-year label
The ranking changed in the next edition. Stack Overflow’s 2024 survey named Erlang as the language with the highest reported median salary. Its salary page also said Erlang and Clojure developers averaged more than $95,000 annually. Those are 2024 survey findings, not a direct comparison proving that any particular developer’s pay rose or fell between years. 2024 Technology results · 2024 Work results
The 2025 result often mentioned alongside Zig concerns a different measure: 64% admiration. In Stack Overflow’s survey, admiration reflects respondents’ desire to continue using a technology after working with it; it is not a salary ranking or a measure of growth in usage or employment. Rust (72%), Gleam (70%), and Elixir (66%) scored higher on that measure. 2025 Technology results
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesWhat “fast-growing” does—and does not—mean here
Stack Overflow described Zig as a new addition to its 2023 top-paying chart, and reported that 0.83% of all respondents had used it extensively in the previous year. Those facts do not establish a growth rate: a single survey-year usage share cannot show how quickly a language’s use or job market is expanding. The salary ranking supports saying Zig topped that particular 2023 chart, not that it was the fastest-growing language.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How representative is the $103,611 figure?
Stack Overflow analyzed 89,184 qualified responses from 185 countries for its 2023 survey. It fielded the survey from May 8–19, 2023, recruited respondents primarily through its own channels, and made salary questions optional. The organization also noted that highly engaged Stack Overflow users were more likely to notice survey prompts. Salaries were converted to USD using the June 2, 2023 exchange rate. The results describe participating respondents, not a probability sample of every programmer or a census of job offers. 2023 survey results and methodology
The later editions provide context, but their figures should not be blended into a single ranking. Stack Overflow’s 2024 survey received 48,019 salary-information responses; its 2025 survey had 49,009 responses from 177 countries and was fielded May 29–June 23, 2025. Response counts and measures differ by edition, and the 2025 Zig admiration figure is not compensation data. 2024 methodology · 2025 methodology
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What a job seeker should take from the ranking
- Treat $103,611 as the median yearly salary reported in Stack Overflow’s 2023 language chart—not a current market rate or expected personal salary.
- Consider experience, role, geography, and the specific jobs available to you when comparing compensation across languages.
- Do not infer that Zig use was widespread or rapidly increasing from its first-place salary rank; only 0.83% of all 2023 respondents reported extensive use in the previous year.
- Use newer, role- and location-specific job data when making a career or compensation decision; the survey ranking alone cannot predict an offer.
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