Data Science

Don’t Learn R Before Python For Data Science

R has lost the battle.

Imaged generated by Jacob Ferus using Midjourney.

One of the more common questions beginners ask before learning data science is:

Should I learn R or Python first?

The answer is unanimously Python for a multitude of reasons:

• It has a larger userbase
• It has more jobs
• It has better support for creating neural networks
• It has more broad functionality, i.e. it’s not just for statistical analysis or data science
• It is more similar to other languages, thus it is easier to transition later
• The trend is shifting further and further toward Python

For instance, here is a chart from the 2022 Kaggle Data Science & ML Survey where the question asked was “What programming languages do you use on a regular basis?”

As can be seen, R is steadily decreasing every year whereas Python is increasing. In my opinion, this is likely to keep the same trend in the future. Of course, Kaggle is not a perfect…