Earlier this year we sent out an on-line survey to our ActivePerl downloaders. A little over 350 users responded and shared insights into how long they've been using Perl as well as how they are using it. While some results were expected (such as over half of those respondents being in a developer role), one of the more unexpected results that caught our eye was how long people had been using Perl. http://bit.ly/1t4cMki

1. Perl Survey 2016
Once described as the “duct tape of the internet”, Perl is a pervasive language
used by many enterprises and is still going strong almost 30 years later—and
ActiveState has been providing a commercial distribution of Perl for nearly 20
of those! Below are some highlights of our recent survey of ActivePerl users.
ActivePerl Business and Enterprise Editions feature our precompiled, supported, quality-
assured Perl distribution used by millions of developers around the world for easy Perl
installation and quality-assured code.
© Copyright 2016
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN USING PERL?
WHICH VERSION OF PERL ARE YOU USING?
53%
63%
WHY ACTIVEPERL?
PERL IS THEIR PRIMARY
SCRIPTING LANGUAGE
48%
WHERE IN THE WORLD?
While 5.22
was the most
popular
version
mentioned by
respondents,
there is a still
a large
contingent
who are using
version 5.18
or older.
There are a lot of newcomers to
Perl. Almost half of the
respondents have been using
Perl for less than 5 years.
Of course, given the longevity of
the language, it was natural to
find that 36% of respondents
had been using Perl for 10 years
or more.
LEARN MORE
www.activestate.com/activeperl
18%
22%
3%
2%
2%
Perl is used all around the world. Here is where respondents of the survey called home.
Ease of
Use
Quality
Commercial
Support
ActiveState
Brand
Reliability
Respondents to the survey chose ActivePerl because it was a reliable, quality language distribution with
commercial support that was easy to use.
Using Perl for 4 years or less