Despite its age (27 years and counting), Python remains one of the world’s fastest-growing programming languages, and with good reason: it’s vital for data science and machine learning, which more and more companies are embracing in order to gain a competitive edge. It’s also a solid general-purpose language, and many developers find it very easy to read and understand (the latter is due in large part to the PEP 8 Style Guide, which has kept Python devs on the coding straight-and-narrow since 2001). As David Bolton wrote in his introductory breakdown of the language for Dice: “You probably wouldn’t use Python to write an operating system or AAA game, but otherwise it’s a very flexible language, capable of creating anything from desktop software to Web applications and frameworks.” Given its ubiquity, you’d expect Python developers to earn a solid salary—and you’d be right. According to an analysis of Dice data, the average Python developer salary comes to roughly $109,202, placing it just behind Java (which earns $114,780 on average), full-stack developers ($116,951), and backend developers ($118,251). Check out the numbers: For those concerned that Python may eventually find itself eclipsed by another language, there’s little reason for fear, given the number of platforms and apps that utilize it. Developers and companies are more inclined to maintain an existing codebase than rewrite it entirely, meaning that Python developers with the right skills will likely always have a job dealing with legacy code, even if other programming languages eventually become more popular. The latest release of Python, version 3.7.0, offers a number of new features, as well as some extensive documentation. Those features include time functions with nanosecond resolution, context variables, and streamlined Data Classes. There’s also core support for typing module and generic types. If you’re jumping into Python for the first time, you’ll have a lot to learn—and a lot to earn, based on the average Python developer salary, at least after you gain experience.