2021 Rust survey summary: Location, experience and more

2021 Rust community annual survey
This document contains a summary of results from the 2021 annual community survey. There have
been a few questions elided (see section at the end of the document). Data has been minimally
processed. We expect to publish shorter reports with select data processed for a specific audience in
the near future. If there’s anything you’re particularly interested in please get in touch with the
survey working group.
Where there are small differences in the numbers between this report and previously reported
numbers (e.g., in the blog post), that is likely due to how partially complete surveys were counted, or
very small discrepancies in the data depending on how it is exported from the survey software.
The survey was open for responses from 8th December to 22nd December 2021. It was available in
ten languages.
We’d like to thank everyone who helped with translation of the survey, and everyone who
participated.
Contents
Questions we asked everyone ................................................................................................................ 1
Location and language ........................................................................................................................ 2
Programming experience .................................................................................................................... 4
Work and study ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Questions for respondents who write or design software ................................................................. 9
Questions for Rust users ....................................................................................................................... 11
Questions for Rust users who use Rust at work ................................................................................... 56
Questions for Rust users who are taking a course or training which uses/teaches Rust ..................... 60
Question for former Rust users ............................................................................................................ 62
Question for non-Rust users ................................................................................................................. 63
Metadata............................................................................................................................................... 64
Elided questions .................................................................................................................................... 65
Questions we asked everyone

Do you use Rust?
Frequency Percent
No, I don't currently use Rust, but I have in the past 469 5%
No, I have never used Rust 444 5%
Yes, I use Rust (for any purpose, even if you're just learning) 8395 90%
5%
5% No, I don't currently use Rust,
but I have in the past
No, I have never used Rust
Yes, I use Rust (for any

purpose, even if you're just
90% learning)
Location and language

Where do you live?
United States of America 2236 24.4%

Germany 1101 12.0%
China 612 6.7%
United Kingdom 529 5.8%
France 510 5.6%
Russian Federation 328 3.6%
Canada 327 3.6%
Japan 229 2.5%
Netherlands 223 2.4%
Sweden 210 2.3%
Other Locale 2871 31.3%
United States of
America
24% Germany
31%
China
United Kingdom
12%
2% France
2%
4% 7%
2% 4%
6% 6% Russian Federation
What is/are your preferred language(s) for technical communication?
English 8519 9000

Chinese 667 8000
7000
German 511
6000
French 408
5000
Russian 369 4000
Japanese 216 3000
Spanish 176 2000
1000
Portuguese 112
0
Other 203
In what ways are you comfortable communicating about technical topics in English?
I feel comfortable and capable of having a spoken technical

conversation in English 7395 79.45%
I feel comfortable and capable of having a written technical
conversation in English 7978 85.71%
I feel comfortable and capable of reading technical documentation
in English 8616 92.57%
I feel comfortable and capable of consuming a technical talk (e.g., at
a conference or meetup) in English 7618 81.84%
I feel comfortable and capable of consuming a written technical
educational material (e.g., technical books, blog posts, etc.) in
English 8415 90.41%
I feel comfortable and capable of

consuming a written technical educational 8415
material (e.g., technical books, blog posts,…
I feel comfortable and capable of
consuming a technical talk (e.g., at a 7618
conference or meetup) in English
I feel comfortable and capable of reading
8616
technical documentation in English
I feel comfortable and capable of having a

7978
written technical conversation in English
I feel comfortable and capable of having a

7395
spoken technical conversation in English
Programming experience
Excluding Rust, what is your experience with other kinds of programming languages?
All respondents were asked this question, but these results are for Rust users only.
Assembly language (of any variety)
3% I am an expert in at least one

13% language in this category
30%
I am comfortable using at least
one language in this category
I have a basic familiarity with at
least one language in this
category
I've never used nor am I familiar
54%
with any language in this category
Languages with manual memory management

(e.g., C, C++, Objective-C without ARC)
I am an expert in at least one
8%
language in this category
20%
34% I have a basic familiarity with at
38% category
with any language in this
category
Statically typed object oriented languages with
garbage collection (e.g., Java, C#, Go)
6% language in this category
27%
21% I am comfortable using at least

category
46% I've never used nor am I familiar
category
Statically typed functional programming

languages (e.g., Haskell, ML)
3%
15%
48%
34% category
category
Dynamically typed functional programming

languages (e.g., Lisp, Clojure, Elixir)
3%
10%
29% I have a basic familiarity with at

58%
category
category
Statically typed languages with newer expressive
type systems (e.g., Swift, Kotlin, Scala)
7%
17%
47%
29% category
Dynamically typed languages (e.g., Javascript,

Ruby, Python, PHP, Perl)
2% I am an expert in at least one
14%
41% one language in this category

43% category
How long have you been programming?
Frequency Percent
< 1 year 114 1.2%
< 3 years 771 8.3%
< 5 years 1511 16.3%
< 10 year 2321 25.1%
> 10 years 4528 49.0%
1%
8%
< 1 year
17%
< 3 years
49%
< 5 years
< 10 year
> 10 years
25%
Work and study

All respondents were asked the next two questions
Are you a full- or part-time student?
Frequency Percent
No 6561 71.4%
Yes, in secondary/high school 558 6.1%
Yes, in a bachelor's/undergraduate program 1299 14.1%
Yes, in a master's program 494 5.4%
Yes, in a doctorate program 198 2.2%
Yes, other* 83 0.9%
* other includes ‘yes, in a vocational progam’.
2% 1%
No
6%
Yes, in secondary/high school
14%
Yes, in a bachelor's/undergraduate
program
6%
Yes, in a master's program
71% Yes, in a doctorate program
Yes, other
Are you employed full- or part-time (including paid internships)?
Frequency Percent
No 2197 23.8%
Yes 7028 76.2%
24%
No
Yes
76%
Do you write or design software in your work?
Only asked if the respondent answered ‘yes’ to the previous question.
Frequency Percent
Yes, primarily as an individual contributor 6156 87.1%
I primarily manage others who do 512 7.2%
No 401 5.7%
6%
7%
Yes, primarily as an
individual contributor
I primarily manage others
who do
No
87%
Questions for respondents who write or design software
How long have you worked in software professionally?
Frequency Percent
<= 1 year 525 7.9%
1 - 3 years 1057 15.9%
3 - 5 years 1091 16.4%
5 - 10 years 1684 25.3%
10 - 20 years 745 11.2%
> 20 years 1560 23.4%
8%
24%
<= 1 year
16%
1 - 3 years
3 - 5 years
5 - 10 years
11%
16% 10 - 20 years
> 20 years
25%
What category best describes your current employer’s industry?
Business software 1817

Research & Development 1306
Consumer software 1250
Finance 728
Telecommunications 533
Consulting 517
Computer hardware 468
Education/Academia 445
Entertainment or Media 414
Gaming 398
Healthcare 326
Advertising 297
Retail 280
Manufacturing 269
Government 247
Automotive 238
Defense 198
Transportation 196
Energy 181
Aerospace 167
Music 72
Railway 45
I'm not employed 37
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
Which categories best describe the tech domain(s) you currently write or design
software in?
Server-side or "backend" application 3365

Web application frontend 1540
Cloud computing applications 1345
Distributed systems 1321
Cloud computing infrastructure or utilities 1080
Data science 820
Computer networking 765
Embedded devices (with operating systems) 724
Desktop computer application frontend 675
Computer security 657
WebAssembly 610
Scientific and/or numeric computing 555
Machine learning 553
Embedded devices (bare metal) 549
Computer graphics 486
Desktop computer or mobile phone libraries or services 473
IoT (Internet of Things) 473
Programming languages and related tools (including
compilers, IDEs, standard libraries, etc.) 465
Blockchain 386
Simulation 386
Mobile phone application frontend 318
HPC (High-performance [Super]Computing) 244
Audio programming 197
Robotics 188
4000
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500
Questions for Rust users

The following questions were asked of respondents who answered ‘yes’ to the first question.
On average, how often do you use Rust?
Frequency Percent
Daily or nearly so 3871 46.1%
Weekly or nearly so 2910 34.7%
Monthly or nearly so 1200 14.3%
Rarely 409 4.9%
0.1%
4.9%
14.3%
Daily or nearly so
Weekly or nearly so
46.1%
Monthly or nearly so
Rarely
34.7% No response
How would you rate your Rust expertise?
Frequency Percent
I am an expert 634 7.6%
I am productive writing Rust 3356 40.0%
I can write simple programs in Rust 2041 24.3%
I can write useful, production-ready code but it is a struggle 2293 27.3%
I can't read or write Rust 65 0.8%
0.8%
I am an expert
7.6%
27.3% I am productive writing

Rust
40.0% I can write simple

programs in Rust
24.3%
I can write useful,
production-ready code
but it is a struggle
When did you learn to program in Rust?
During 2014 or before 208 2.5%

During 2015 or 2016 733 8.7%
During 2017 or 2018 1455 17.4%
During 2019 or 2020 2646 31.6%
During 2021/Still Learning 3344 39.9%
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
During 2014 or During 2015 or During 2017 or During 2019 or During 2021/Still
before 2016 2018 2020 Learning
Which operating systems do you use regularly for Rust development?
Linux 5962 64%

Mac OS 2582 28%
Windows 2655 29%
Windows Subsystem for Linux 1316 14%
BSD (all flavours)* 59 1%
* BSD was not a supplied answer but was the most common ‘other’ answer
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Linux Mac OS Windows Windows Subsystem
for Linux
On the primary machine you compile Rust code on, how many CPUs are there?
This was a free-form question. There was an obvious bias towards ‘round numbers’ (4, 8, 16, …). The
largest number of cores reported was 256 and the smallest was 1
Frequency Percent
NA 278 3.30%
<= 4 1763 21.00%
5-8 3006 35.80%
9-16 2607 31.00%
>16 751 8.60%
9% 3%
21%
NA
<= 4
31% 5-8
9-16
>16
36%
Which operating systems or runtimes do you develop Rust software for?
Linux (desktop or server) 6833 73%

Windows 3290 35%
Mac OS 2156 23%
Explicitly platform-independent 2154 23%
WebAssembly 2089 22%
Embedded platforms (bare metal) 1117 12%
Embedded platforms (with an operating system) 886 10%
Android 389 4%
iOS 252 3%
FreeBSD* 42 0%
All Platforms** 1039 11%
* FreeBSD was not a supplied answer but was the most common ‘other’ answer
** All platforms is the count of respondents who selected all answers.

8000
7000
6000
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1000
Which version(s) of Rust do you use for local development?
Current stable version [i.e., 1.57] 7449

Latest nightly 2852
A specific version of nightly 481
A specific version of stable Rust equal to or newer than 1.47 313
Previous stable version [i.e., 1.56 or earlier] 305
Beta release 106
Custom fork 77
A specific version of stable Rust older than 1.47 73
Other 50
I don't know 46
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Current Latest A specific A specific Previous Beta Custom A specific Other I don't
stable nightly version of version of stable release fork version of know
version nightly stable Rust version stable Rust
equal to or older than
newer 1.47
than 1.47
Which version(s) of Rust do you use in automated testing (e.g., CI)?
Current stable version [i.e., 1.57] 5970

Latest nightly 1615
I don't know 875
A specific version of stable Rust equal to or newer than 1.47 431
Beta release 360
A specific version of nightly 345
Previous stable version [i.e., 1.56 or earlier] 244
Other 199
A specific version of stable Rust older than 1.47 139
Custom fork 36
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Current Latest I don't A specific Beta A specific Previous Other A specific Custom
stable nightly know version of release version of stable version of fork
version stable Rust nightly version stable Rust
equal to or older than
newer 1.47
than 1.47
If you use nightly, why?
I don't use nightly 3828

For a particular language feature or set of language features I need 2420
I like to have access to all the latest features 1293
A crate dependency I use requires it 1028
A tool I use requires it 876
For testing in CI 513
Out of habit 511
To help test the nightly version for bugs 439
Other 231
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
For a I like to have A crate A tool I use For testing in Out of habit To help test Other
particular access to all dependency I requires it CI the nightly
language the latest use requires version for
feature or set features it bugs
of language
features I
need
Note that graph excludes non-nightly users.
If you use beta, why?
I don't use beta 6957

For testing in CI 270
To adopt stabilized language features as early as possible 221
To help test the beta version for bugs 171
Out of habit 41
Other 22
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
For testing in CI To adopt stabilized To help test the Out of habit Other
language features beta version for
as early as possible bugs
Note that graph excludes non-beta users.

In which ways do you install Rust?
Rustup (where Rustup is installed from rust-lang.org or you built it from source) 6600
Rustup (where Rustup is installed using any package manager) 2288
Linux distribution package 807
Homebrew 300
Official rust-lang.org tarballs 105
Official Windows .msi installers 354
Official macOS .pkg installers 48
From source 137
Other 229
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Rustup Rustup Linux Homebrew Official rust- Official Official From source Other
(where (where distribution lang.org Windows macOS .pkg
Rustup is Rustup is package tarballs .msi installers
installed installed installers
from rust- using any
lang.org or package
you built it manager)
from source)
Which editor or IDE setup do you use with Rust code on a regular basis?
VS Code 4997 53.69%

vi/vim/neovim 2620 28.15%
IntelliJ/CLion/other JetBrains IDE 1977 21.24%
Emacs 648 6.96%
Sublime Text 288 3.09%
Visual Studio 251 2.70%
Atom 101 1.09%
Xcode 24 0.26%
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Grouped answers:
Any IDE (VS code, IntelliJ, Visual Studio, XCode) 4791 58%
Any Editor (VI, Emacs, Sublime Text, Atom) 1862 23%
Both 1595 19%
19%
IDE
Editor
23% 58% Both
Which debuggers do you use for debugging Rust programs on a regular basis?
'println' debugging (or using any logging or tracing crate, etc.) 5713 61.4%
VS Code (using any debugger extension) 2599 27.9%
LLDB 1568 16.8%
GDB 1490 16.0%
IntelliJ/CLion/other JetBrains IDE 1379 14.8%
No Debugger Used / No Answer: 1152 12.4%
Other* 283 3.0%
*Other is a grouping of Visual Studio, RR/Pernosco, WinDBG, and free-form other answers.
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Summary of ‘println’ debugging vs using a debugger:
30% 32%
Println Only
Other Debugger Only
Both
38%
Please indicate how vital to your workflow each of the following tools are when
programming with Rust
Clippy
1.7%
18.3%
33.9%
7.9%
38.2%
Essential Somewhat important

Not important I have no experience with this tool
No Response
Cargo
3.5% 0.4%
00.4%
.4%
95.4%

No Response
Rustdoc/cargo doc
1.7%
11.4%
10.6% 41.1%
35.1%

No Response
Rustup
2.0% 1.0%
7.5%
36.1% 53.4%

No Response
play.rust-lang.org
2.5%
9.8%
19.4%
32.9%
35.4%

No Response
miri
3.0% 1.6%
8.1%
13.8%
73.6%

No Response
Rustfmt/cargo fmt
1.0%
6.1% 10.0%
25.3% 57.6%

No Response
Bindgen
2.3%
10.1%
20.7%
53.7%
13.2%

No Response
In which of the following ways have you participated in the Rust community in the last
6 months
On several occasions I have consumed informational content about Rust

(e.g., blogs, live streams, YouTube videos, etc.) 6724
On several occasions I have read comments about Rust content on "news"
sites (e.g., Hacker News, reddit.com/r/rust, lobste.rs/t/rust, etc.) 6611
On several occasions I have read official Rust communication channels (e.g.,
This Week in Rust, the official Rust blog, the Rust Twitter account, etc.) 6268
I have participated in Rust community forums or chats (e.g., users.rust-
lang.org, Rust Discord, a local Rust chat community, etc.) 3077
On several occasions I have commented on Rust content on "news" sites
(e.g., Hacker News, reddit.com/r/rust, lobste.rs/t/rust, etc.) 1979
On several occasions I have participated in conversations about Rust on
social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) 1748
I have produced informational content about Rust (e.g., blogged, live
streamed, made a YouTube video, presented at a conference/meetup, etc.) 1042
I have attended a Rust meetup or conference (virtual or in-person) 1025
8000
7000
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5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Roughly how often do you contribute to the Rust project?
Comment on, contribute to discussion of, or provide

edits to an open RFC
2% 1% 1% 2%
More frequently than weekly
9% Weekly
5%
Monthly
Less frequently than monthly
Never but have tried to

80% Never and have never tried to
No Response
Create a new thread or comment on internals.rust-

lang.org
2%
0% 0%
1% More frequently than weekly
3%
6%
Weekly
Monthly
No Response
Discuss the Rust project in an official chat (either

Zulip or Discord)
2% 1% 2% 4%
Weekly
15%
Monthly
4% Less frequently than monthly

72%
Never and have never tried to
No Response
Open an issue on any repo in the rust-lang GitHub
organization
2% 0% 1% 2%
Weekly
18%
Monthly
3%

74%
Never and have never tried to
No Response
Contribute code changes (including tests) to the Rust

2% compiler (rust-lang/rust)
0% 0%
1%
5% More frequently than weekly
6%
Weekly
Monthly

No Response
Contribute code changes (including tests) to any

other project in the rust-lang GitHub organization
2% 0% 0% 1%
9% 4%
Weekly
Monthly
No Response
Contribute non-code changes (documentation,
comments, etc.) to any project in the rust-lang
3%
GitHub organization
0% 0%
1%
3%
9%
Weekly
Monthly
No Response
How often have you felt explicitly welcome in the Rust community?
Official Rust community forums or chats

(users.rust-lang.org, internals.rust-lang.org, the
official Rust Discord, or the Rust Zulip)
2% I've often felt welcome
I sometimes feel welcome
36%
I never feel welcome
51%
I've never participated in this
activity
No Response
9%
2%
Unofficial Rust community forums or chats (e.g.,
reddit.com/r/rust, Hacker News, the Rust
Community Discord, etc.)
2%
I've often felt welcome

37% 44%

activity
15% No Response
2%
Attending a Rust conference

3%
11%
1%

activity
82% No Response
Attending a Rust meetup or local community event

3%
15%
3%
0%

activity
79%
No Response
Discussion (issues, pull requests, etc.) on a
repository inside the rust-lang GitHub organization
17%
7%
2%

71% activity
No Response

repository outside of the rust-lang GitHub
organization
3%
27% I sometimes feel welcome
57% 12% I've never participated in this

activity
No Response
1%
How often have you felt explicitly unwelcome in the Rust community?
Official Rust community forums or chats

(users.rust-lang.org, internals.rust-lang.org, the
official Rust Discord, or the Rust Zulip)
3% 1% 4%
I've often felt unwelcome
I sometimes feel unwelcome
I never feel unwelcome

39%
53% I've never participated in this
activity
No Response
Unofficial Rust community forums or chats (e.g.,

reddit.com/r/rust, Hacker News, the Rust
Community Discord, etc.)
3% 2%
8%
39% I never feel unwelcome
48%
activity
No Response
Attending a Rust conference

3% 0% 1%
16%

80%
activity
No Response
Attending a Rust meetup or local community
event
3% 1% 1%
18% I sometimes feel unwelcome

77% activity
No Response

repository inside the rust-lang GitHub
organization
3% 1% 4% I've often felt unwelcome

23%

69%
activity
No Response

repository outside of the rust-lang GitHub
organization
3% 1%
7%
32% I never feel unwelcome
57% I've never participated in this

activity
No Response
Which of the following activities do you find helpful or effective for learning Rust or
improving your Rust skills?
Reading books or other written material geared

towards learning Rust
1.3% 3.2%
Very helpful
24.8% Somewhat helpful
Not helpful
70.8%
I have no experience
with this activity
Watching videos, streams, etc. geared towards

learning Rust
Very helpful
15.0%

14.0%
Not helpful
39.2%
with this activity
Attending an organized training session or course

(in person or virtual)
Very helpful
8.9%

6.6%
Not helpful
72.6%
with this activity
Doing Rust coding exercises or challenges created
to help learn Rust
Very helpful
20.6%
Somewhat helpful
3.4% 48.0%
Not helpful
28.1%
with this activity
Building a non-trivial project in Rust or

contributing to an open source project
0.5%
6.4% Very helpful
8.6%
Somewhat helpful
Not helpful
84.5% I have no experience

with this activity
To what extent is Rust currently being used by your company?
My company uses Rust for a large portion of production projects 1243 14.9%
My company uses Rust for a small portion of production projects 1542 18.5%
My company uses Rust only for non-production projects (e.g., tooling) 459 5.5%
My company has actively experimented with Rust 380 4.5%
My company has seriously considered, but not experimented with, using Rust 306 3.7%
My company has not seriously considered Rust for any use 1652 19.8%
I am unsure whether my company has considered using or currently uses Rust 626 7.5%
I don't work for a company or my company does not develop software of any kind 2146 25.7%
My company uses Rust for a large portion of
production projects
15%
My company uses Rust for a small portion of
production projects
26%
My company uses Rust only for non-
production projects (e.g., tooling)
My company has actively experimented with
Rust
18%
My company has seriously considered, but not
experimented with, using Rust
7%
My company has not seriously considered Rust
for any use
5%
I am unsure whether my company has
5% considered using or currently uses Rust
20%
4% I don't work for a company or my company
does not develop software of any kind
Approximately how many total developers does your company employ?
Frequency Percent
Under 10 1744 28.2%
11-49 1340 21.6%
50-99 560 9.0%
100-500 965 15.6%
500-1,000 384 6.2%
1,000-10,000 570 9.2%
Over 10,000 628 10.1%
10%
9% 28% Under 10
11-49
6% 50-99
100-500
500-1,000
1,000-10,000
16%
Over 10,000
22%
9%
Is your company planning on hiring Rust developers in the next year?
Frequency Percent
Yes 1563 25.2%
No 2581 41.6%
I don't know 2058 33.2%
25%
33%
Yes
No
I don't know
42%
In what technology domain(s) is Rust used at your company?
Server-side or "backend" application 2269

Cloud computing applications 1085
Distributed systems 1059
Cloud computing infrastructure or utilities 973
WebAssembly 775
Computer networking 715
Embedded devices (with operating systems) 657
Computer security 629
Data science 603
Web application frontend 574
Embedded devices (bare metal) 474
Programming languages and related tools (including compilers, IDEs, standard libraries, etc.) 471
Blockchain 459
Desktop computer or mobile phone libraries or services 455
IoT (Internet of Things) 452
Desktop computer application frontend 431
Machine learning 410
Scientific and/or numeric computing 397
Computer graphics 364
Other 307
Simulation 258
HPC (High-performance [Super]Computing) 243
Audio programming 214
Robotics 164
Mobile phone application frontend 156
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
Are you using Rust at work?
Frequency Percent
Yes, for the majority of my coding 1401 22.5%
Yes, it's one of a number of languages I use and I use it regularly 1074 17.3%
Yes, but I only use it occasionally 1169 18.8%
No 2576 41.4%
23% Yes, for the majority of my coding
41% Yes, it's one of a number of

languages I use and I use it regularly
Yes, but I only use it occasionally

17%
No
19%
Are you currently, or have you in the last year, taken a course or training which uses
or teaches Rust?
Frequency Percent
No 7553 90.2%
Yes 819 9.8%
10%
No
Yes
90%
What are your biggest worries for the future of Rust?
Not enough usage in industry 3133

Becomes too complex 2763
Developers/maintainers of the language are not properly supported 2479
I'm not worried 2138
Project governance does not scale to match the size/requirements of the community 1938
Too much interest from big companies 1409
Not enough open source contributions to the ecosystem 1284
Other 982
Rust doesn't evolve quickly enough 837
Instability of the language 760
Doesn't add a specific feature I want 751
Superseded by an alternative 721
Tools and documentation are not accessible enough (e.g., due to language or
incompatibility with screen readers) 351
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Please rate your agreement with the following statements about Rust
Rust provides a real benefit over other

programming languages
0%
4%
Agree
Neither agree nor

disagree
Disagree
96%
Rust is significantly more complicated to

program in than other programming languages
19% Agree
38%
Neither agree nor
disagree
Disagree
43%
Rust requires significantly more effort to learn

than other programming languages
11%
Agree
Neither agree nor

27%
disagree
62% Disagree
Rust code tends to contain significantly fewer
bugs than equivalent code written in another
programming language would have
1%
Agree
14%
Neither agree nor

disagree
85% Disagree
Rust is risky to use in production

3%
21% Agree
Neither agree nor

disagree
Disagree
76%
Rust makes me more productive
6%
Agree
35% Neither agree nor

disagree
59%
Disagree
Rust is fun to use
1%
9%
Agree
Neither agree nor

disagree
Disagree
90%
In your opinion, how do you find the following aspects of Rust?
Compile times
3% 6%
17%
Great
30% Good enough

Could be better
Seriously lacking
Unsure
44%
Binary size
16% 12%
Great
5% Good enough
Could be better
Seriously lacking
26% 41%
Unsure
Memory usage (i.e., how much RAM rustc uses
when compiling)
25%
22% Great
Good enough
Could be better
2%
12% Seriously lacking
39% Unsure
Disk space usage (e.g., the size of target folder)
9%
17%
Great
Good enough
13% 29%
Could be better
Seriously lacking
Unsure
32%
Bugs in the compiler (i.e., ICEs a.k.a. internal

compiler errors, miscompilations, etc.)
20% Great
1% Good enough
45%
6% Could be better
Seriously lacking
28% Unsure
Compiler error messages
1% 1%
8%
Great
20% Good enough
Could be better
Seriously lacking
70% Unsure
IDE experience
6%
4%
31%
Great
Good enough
24%
Could be better
Seriously lacking
Unsure
35%
Debugging experience
12%
21%
Great
Good enough
9% 29% Could be better

Seriously lacking
Unsure
29%
Available tools and support
2%
5%
Great
20% 33%
Good enough
Could be better
Seriously lacking
Unsure
40%
Async programming
13%
28% Great
Good enough
26% Could be better

Unsure
27%
GUI development
1%
4%
Great
39% 24% Good enough
Could be better
Seriously lacking
Unsure
32%
Rust language and standard library
documentation
1% 1%
8%
Great
Good enough
25%
Could be better

Unsure
In your opinion, have the following aspects of Rust gotten better or worse over the
past year?
Compile times
7%
Much better
Better
39%
Remained the same
36%
Worse
Much worse
Unsure
17%
0%
1%
Binary size
2%
10% Much better

Better
23%
Remained the same
Worse
64% Much worse
1%
0% Unsure
Memory usage (i.e., how much RAM rustc uses
when compiling)
2%
9%
Much better
Better
18%
Remained the same
Worse
1%
0% Much worse
70%
Unsure
Disk space usage (e.g., the size of target folder)

1%
6%
Much better
23% Better
Remained the same
Worse
67% 3% Much worse

0% Unsure
Bugs in the compiler (i.e., ICEs a.k.a. internal

compiler errors, miscompilations, etc.)
3%
16%
Much better
Better
Remained the same
Worse
59% 21%
Much worse
Unsure
1%
0%
Compiler error messages
10%
Much better
35% Better
Remained the same
37%
Worse
0% Much worse
0% Unsure
18%
Debugging experience
4%
Much better
17%
Better
Remained the same
51% Worse
Much worse
28%
Unsure
0% 0%
GUI development
2%
16% Much better

Better
Remained the same
Worse
57% 24%
Much worse
Unsure
1%
0%
IDE experience
18%
Much better
30% Better
Remained the same
0% Worse
1%
38%
Much worse
13%
Unsure
Available tools and support
9%
0% 20% Much better
0% Better
Unsure
36% Worse
Much worse
35% Remained the same
Async programming
11%
Much better
Better
42%
Remained the same
29%
Worse
Much worse
Unsure
17%
0% 1%
Rust language and standard library
documentation
7%
Much better
35% Better
25%
Remained the same
Worse
Much worse
0%
0% Unsure
33%
Do you agree with the following statements on Rust stability?
I can upgrade the stable compiler version

without fear of my code failing to compile
2%
12%
Agree
Neither agree nor

disagree
Disagree
86%
I can upgrade the nightly compiler version

without fear of my code failing to compile
17% 21% Agree
Neither agree nor

disagree
Disagree
62%
I can upgrade the stable compiler version
without fear of my code taking longer to compile
4%
Agree
31%
Neither agree nor
disagree
65% Disagree
I can upgrade the nightly compiler version

without fear of my code taking longer to compile
7%
25% Agree
Neither agree nor

disagree
Disagree
68%
Upgrading to a new stable compiler version

requires either no changes or extremely small &
easy changes to my code
1%
16% Agree
Neither agree nor

disagree
Disagree
83%
Upgrading to a new nightly compiler version
requires either no changes or extremely small
&easy changes to my code
6%
Agree
31%
Neither agree nor
disagree
63%
Disagree
Do you agree with the following statements on Rust employment?
It is easy for qualified applicants to find jobs

which use Rust for the majority of programming
11%
Agree
32%
Neither agree nor

disagree
Disagree
57%
Existing Rust jobs are attractive
15%
Agree
32%
Neither agree nor

disagree
Disagree
53%
Learning Rust provides me with skills that
employers seek
10%
Agree
49% Neither agree nor

disagree
41%
Disagree
I feel qualified to apply for at least some

advertised Rust jobs
18%
Agree
Neither agree nor

53% disagree
29% Disagree
Questions for Rust users who use Rust at work
These questions were asked of those respondents who answered ‘yes’ to the question ‘Are you
using Rust at work?’.
Rate how much the following statements are reasons why your team uses Rust at work
For its performance (i.e., speed, memory

footprint, etc.) characteristics
1% 0%
Strongly agree
5%
Agree
24%
Neither agree nor disagree
70% Disagree
Strongly disagree
We need precise control over exactly how our

software runs
1%
Agree
5%
30% Strongly agree

20%
Disagree
44%
Strongly disagree
Its security and safety properties are important
to us
1% 1%
Strongly agree
9%
Agree
25%
64%
Disagree
Strongly disagree
We already know Rust so it's our default choice
Strongly agree
13% 12%
Agree
15%
26% Neither agree nor disagree
Disagree
34%
Strongly disagree
We find it easy to prototype with
7%
Strongly agree
10%
Agree
25%
22%
Disagree
36% Strongly disagree

We must interact with existing Rust code
8% Strongly agree
10%
31%
Agree

24%
Disagree
27% Strongly disagree
Please rate your agreement with the following statements regarding your team's
experience using Rust at work.
Using Rust has helped us achieve our goals

1%
17%
Agree
Disagree
82%
Adopting Rust has been challenging
17%
Agree
47%
36% Disagree
Overall, adopting Rust has slowed down our
team
13%
Agree
41%
46% Disagree
Using Rust has been worth the cost of adoption

1%
20%
Agree
Disagree
79%
We're likely to use Rust again in the future

1%
9%
Agree
Disagree
90%
Questions for Rust users who are taking a course or training which
uses/teaches Rust
These questions were asked of those respondents who answered ‘yes’ to the question ‘Are you
currently, or have you in the last year, taken a course or training which uses or teaches Rust?’.
Where is/was the course or activity taught?
Frequency Percent
A course through an online "continuing education" provider (e.g., Udemy,
Coursera, edX, LinkedIn Learning, etc.) 549 67.6%
A short training course offered through your employer or contracted by
your employer 121 14.9%
University or other tertiary institute 88 10.8%
Other* 54 6.7%
* ‘other’ here subsumes ‘A bootcamp or other vocational-focused educational institute’ and ‘High
school or secondary school’.
A course through an online

7% "continuing education" provider (e.g.,
Udemy, Coursera, edX, LinkedIn
11% Learning, etc.)
A short training course offered
through your employer or contracted
by your employer
15%
University or other tertiary institute
67%
Other
Which best describes your course or activity?
Frequency Percent
A computer science course (e.g., operating systems, algorithms, etc.) course 10.6%
which uses Rust (and potentially other languages) 85
A course teaching exclusively how to program in Rust 630 78.5%
A course teaching how to program in Rust and other languages 39 4.9%
Other type of course where Rust was used 49 6.1%
6% A computer science course (e.g.,
11%
5% operating systems, algorithms, etc.)
course which uses Rust (and
potentially other languages)
A course teaching exclusively how to
program in Rust
A course teaching how to program in

Rust and other languages
Other type of course where Rust was

used
78%
Is/was Rust mandated for your course or activity, or did you choose it yourself?
Frequency Percent
I chose to use Rust 539 66.4%
Rust was mandated 273 33.6%
34%
I chose to use Rust

Rust was mandated
66%
Question for former Rust users
This question was asked of respondents who answered ‘no, I don't currently use Rust, but I have in
the past’ to the first question.
As you have indicated that you're no longer using Rust, what prompted you to
participate in this survey?
I plan to return to using Rust in the future 354

Curiosity 231
To provide feedback on Rust in general 178
I consider myself part of the Rust community 137
Specifically to provide feedback on why I stopped using Rust 70
Other 9
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
I plan to return to Curiosity To provide I consider myself Specifically to Other
using Rust in the feedback on Rust part of the Rust provide feedback
future in general community on why I stopped
using Rust
Question for non-Rust users
This question was asked of respondents who answered ‘no, I have never used Rust’ to the first
question.
As you have indicated that you have not used Rust, what prompted you to participate
in this survey?
I plan to use Rust in the future 328

Curiosity 244
Specifically to provide feedback on WHY I do not use Rust 33
I consider myself part of the Rust community 30
Other 18
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
I plan to use Rust in Curiosity Specifically to provide I consider myself part Other
the future feedback on WHY I do of the Rust
not use Rust community
Metadata
Number of respondents
Frequency Percent (of viewed) Percent (of started)

Viewed 16457 100%
Started 12268 74.5% 100%
Completed 9354 56.8% 76.2%
Not completed 2914 17.7% 23.8%
Survey language
English 7210
Chinese, Simplified 594
German 399
French 317
Russian 283
Japanese 184
Spanish 121
Portuguese 75
Korean 73
Chinese, Traditional 49
1% 1% 1%
2% 1%
3%
3%
4%
English
Chinese, Simplified
6% German
French
Russian
Japanese
Spanish
Portuguese
Korean
78% Chinese, Traditional
Elided questions
The following questions have been elided from this summary of results since the answers might be
sensitive. If you’re interested in these results, please get in touch with the survey working group.
 “Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?”

 “Which of the following underrepresented or marginalized groups in technology do you
consider yourself a part of?”
 “Do you consider yourself a member of a group which is underrepresented in technology?”
 “Do you feel your belonging to an underrepresented or marginalized group in technology
makes it difficult for you to participate in the Rust community?”
 “If you indicated that you did not feel welcome in the Rust community, are there any details
about your experience that you would like to share with us?”
 Any ‘other’ or similar free-form answers for various questions

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2021 Rust community annual survey

Questions we asked everyone

No, I have never used Rust

Yes, I use Rust (for any

Location and language

United States of America 2236 24.4%

English 8519 9000

I feel comfortable and capable of having a spoken technical

I feel comfortable and capable of

I feel comfortable and capable of having a

I feel comfortable and capable of having a

Assembly language (of any variety)

3% I am an expert in at least one

Languages with manual memory management

I have a basic familiarity with at

Statically typed functional programming

Dynamically typed functional programming

29% I have a basic familiarity with at

Dynamically typed languages (e.g., Javascript,

I have a basic familiarity with at

How long have you been programming?

Work and study

Are you a full- or part-time student?

71% Yes, in a doctorate program

Do you write or design software in your work?

Only asked if the respondent answered ‘yes’ to the previous question.

What category best describes your current employer’s industry?

Business software 1817

Server-side or "backend" application 3365

Questions for Rust users

How would you rate your Rust expertise?

27.3% I am productive writing

40.0% I can write simple

During 2014 or before 208 2.5%

Which operating systems do you use regularly for Rust development?

Linux 5962 64%

Which operating systems or runtimes do you develop Rust software for?

Linux (desktop or server) 6833 73%

** All platforms is the count of respondents who selected all answers.

Which version(s) of Rust do you use for local development?

Current stable version [i.e., 1.57] 7449

Which version(s) of Rust do you use in automated testing (e.g., CI)?

Current stable version [i.e., 1.57] 5970

If you use nightly, why?

I don't use nightly 3828

Note that graph excludes non-nightly users.

If you use beta, why?

I don't use beta 6957

Note that graph excludes non-beta users.

VS Code 4997 53.69%

23% 58% Both

Summary of ‘println’ debugging vs using a debugger:

Essential Somewhat important

Essential Somewhat important

Essential Somewhat important

Essential Somewhat important

Essential Somewhat important

Essential Somewhat important

Essential Somewhat important

Essential Somewhat important

On several occasions I have consumed informational content about Rust

Comment on, contribute to discussion of, or provide

Less frequently than monthly