GitHub Staff explores the 2025 Octoverse, analyzing explosive global developer growth, AI integration through Copilot, the ascent of TypeScript, and transformative effects on productivity, open source, and security across the software development landscape.

Octoverse 2025: AI Integration, Typed Languages, and Global Developer Growth

By GitHub Staff

Executive Summary

The 2025 Octoverse report documents a historic surge in developer activity on GitHub, fueled by the mainstream adoption of AI-powered tooling, wide-scale use of typed languages (with TypeScript now at #1), and the evolving dynamics of global open source collaboration. The release of GitHub Copilot Free has drastically accelerated developer sign-ups and productivity, with AI agents like Copilot and Copilot Autofix now ingrained in everyday engineering workflows. Security posture and automation have also improved, supported by smart tooling such as Dependabot and CodeQL.

Key Statistics

  • Over 180 million developers are active on GitHub (36M new in one year)
  • TypeScript surpasses Python and JavaScript as the most-used language
  • Copilot usage is mainstream: 80% of new developers try Copilot in their first week
  • 4.3 million AI-related repositories, nearly double in two years
  • Generative AI SDKs imported by over 1.1M public repositories
  • Public and open source contributions: 1.12 billion (+13% YoY)
  • AI projects dominate growth: 6 of the top 10 fastest-growing OSS projects are AI infra
  • Security and automation: 846k projects use Dependabot, 151k flagged for access control issues by CodeQL

AI Reshapes Development

AI as Standard Practice

  • Generative AI and LLM SDKs are now commonplace in software projects
  • 80% of new GitHub developers use Copilot almost immediately
  • Copilot Autofix is automatically resolving thousands of vulnerabilities (especially Broken Access Control)

Language Ecosystem Shifts

  • TypeScript overtook both Python and JavaScript, driven by its synergy with AI-powered development and default use in major frameworks
  • Python continues as the dominant force in AI and data science projects; Jupyter Notebook use remains strong in experimentation
  • Language preferences are more directly influenced by the availability and reliability of AI/agentic tools

Developer and Open Source Activity

  • Repository creation and developer sign-ups have reached all-time highs, especially after Copilot Free’s launch
  • 230 new repositories are created every minute; nearly 1B commits in 2025
  • Public projects supply critical libraries, models, and workflows for both public and private development
  • First-time contributors are drawn to AI, dev tool, and infrastructure projects such as vllm, ollama, Microsoft VS Code

Security in an Automated, AI-Augmented World

  • Dependabot and CodeQL alert usage have accelerated, reducing time to vulnerability remediation by 30%
  • Copilot Autofix and automation surface and resolve common issues (OWASP Top 10) at scale
  • Security is shifting towards “secure by default” through automated dependency, code review, and vulnerability management
  • India surpasses the US for new developer signups and open source contributors
  • Substantial growth in Brazil, Indonesia, Africa, and the Middle East
  • Data forecasts predict India hosting 57M+ developers by 2030

Methodology and Data Integrity

  • All trends use trailing 12-month timeframes and GitHub’s internal data, validated by the Innovation Graph
  • Metrics cover both private and public repository activity, contributor counts, commit rates, language usage, and security incidents

Implications for Practitioners

  • AI and typed languages are now core to productivity and reliability in software development
  • Open source remains the backbone of global developer ecosystems, especially for AI and infrastructure
  • Automation in security and DevOps accelerates workflows but requires vigilance around configuration and policy
  • Teams are encouraged to adopt agentic workflows, use interoperability standards, and invest in documentation to benefit from these shifts

Further Reading and Visual Resources

This year’s report strongly encourages all developers, organizations, and open source maintainers to embrace the new reality: AI and agents are not merely add-ons, but foundational to both individual and collective progress in the next software era.

This post appeared first on “The GitHub Blog”. Read the entire article here