One of the more interesting things to look at each month is the TIOBE Index. It collects all the programming languages and lists the top 20 based on “skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors.” C and Java are usually battling for the top, but the third position fro July is definitely interesting.

The TIOBE Index has found that Objective-C has overtaken C++ in popularity. Objective-C was in sixth place in July of 2011 and has jumped to third this month. Apple can take most of the credit for the jump in Objective-C popularity.

As The Inquisitr explains, C++ and Objective-C were developed in the same year. Programmers flocked to C++, however, because it’s better in high-performance systems whereas Objective-C is better for light-weight systems. It was’t until 1988 when Steve Jobs ordered Objective-C to be used on the NeXTSTEP OS, which eventually led to OS X, that the language began to gain notoriety.

From there, Objective-C really took off when the iPhone launched. Apps built for the iPhone rely heavily on the Objective-C language and it shows. Moving three spaces up and overtaking C++ in just a year is a pretty impressive feat. As more people begin to develop for iOS, we should start to see Objective-C rise even more. Granted, it’s probably won’t overtake Java or C for a while as both of those languages are pretty engrained into the overall programming ecosystem.

Here’s the top 20 programming languages for July. There might be a few more surprises beyond Objective-C’s rise to fame such as Visual Basic .NET’s massive jump from 25th to 15th place.