Java 17 is most-used LTS version of Java – report

Java 17, a Long Term Support (LTS) version of the Java language released in September 2021, has become the most-used Java LTS version, according to New Relic’s 2024 State of the Java Ecosystem report, published April 30. Java 21, an LTS version released in 2023, also is seeing higher adoption.

More than 35% of applications are using Java 17 in production this year, compared to 9.1% in 2023, observability provider New Relic reported. Java 17, also known as JDK 17, has overtaken Java 11, from September 2018, as the most-used LTS version. The adoption rate of Java 21, though, was 287% higher in the first six months after its release than that of Java 17, New Relic said.

Fewer than 2% of Java applications are using non-LTS versions of Java. This makes sense because these versions are usually not used production, New Relic said. New Java versions are released every six months as part of the standard Java release process, while LTS releases are published every two years. LTS versions offer multiple years of support versus only six months of support for the short-term releases.

New Relic’s report is based on data gathered from hundreds of thousands of applications monitored by New Relic’s software. All data was collected in 2024.

Other findings in the 2024 State of the Java Ecosystem report:

• Eclipse Adoptium was the rising star among JDK distributions, with 18.2% using it. Java steward Oracle still led, accounting for 20.8% of the Java market. Oracle’s JDK had roughly 75% of the market in 2020.
• Oracle Database was the most popular database system for Java applications, used by 17.3%. PostgreSQL was second at 14.4%.
• Log4j was the most popular logging framework for Java applications, with 76.4% of applications using it.
• Bouncy Castle was the most popular encryption library for Java applications, with a 17.1% share.
• New Relic noted an 18% year-over-year increase of applications running with four or fewer cores, with 68% of applications using that many.