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Java development in 2023 was a balance between modernization and a long-lived installed base. Java 17 was ahead of Java 11 in production responses to a developer survey, while Java 8 and older versions remained in use. Spring and Spring Boot dominated framework use in that survey, and separate New Relic telemetry showed container deployment was common among applications reporting to its service. These findings describe different populations—not a universal census of Java development.
Java version adoption was mixed
In JetBrains’ 2023 Java survey commentary, more respondents said they used Java 17 in production than Java 11. The same commentary noted continued use of Java 8 and older. The survey’s wording—“Which versions of Java do you regularly use?”—matters: it reports developer responses, not a count of all running Java applications.
JetBrains’ wider Developer Ecosystem survey received more than 26,000 responses worldwide in June and July 2023. JetBrains says the pool was designed to be representative, but may skew toward its own product users. The Java infographic does not establish that its Java-specific respondents represent every Java developer. See the JetBrains Java survey infographic and the survey overview.
Java 20 was announced on March 21, 2023, with seven JDK Enhancement Proposals. That makes it a notable release in the year’s history, not evidence that it was the most widely adopted runtime or that it remains the latest Java version today. Oracle’s Java 20 announcement is a release-era reference.
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Spring and Spring Boot led framework use
JetBrains’ Java survey commentary describes Spring and Spring Boot as leading framework use by a large margin. It does not provide a verified percentage in the commentary, so a precise share should not be inferred from that description. The survey also covered tools such as IDEs and editors, testing frameworks, build systems, and application servers, but the available text does not establish exact rankings or values for those categories.
Enterprise Java also includes Jakarta EE and MicroProfile. The Eclipse Foundation’s 2023 Jakarta EE survey announcement presents cloud-native Java and Jakarta EE 10 adoption as trends, and says 66% reported Spring/Spring Boot usage. However, the announcement labels the report as 2023 while describing survey dates of March 14 to May 23, 2025. That conflict makes its sample timing unclear, so the figure should be read cautiously rather than treated as a cleanly dated 2023 measure. Read the Eclipse Foundation announcement.
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Container deployment was common in New Relic’s telemetry
New Relic reported that 70% of Java applications reporting to its service ran in a container. The figure describes applications that reported to New Relic in January 2023; the company explicitly cautions that its data does not provide a global picture of Java usage. It is operational telemetry, not a measure of what all Java developers prefer.
Container limits on CPU and memory can affect JVM configuration and garbage-collection behavior. Teams should therefore assess the runtime’s resource limits and workload behavior when tuning Java applications in containers, rather than assume settings suited to an unconstrained host will transfer unchanged. New Relic’s 2023 State of the Java Ecosystem report explains its methodology and findings.
JDK vendor shares differed within New Relic’s dataset
Among applications reporting to New Relic in January 2023, Amazon was the most common JDK vendor in the report’s dataset, at 31%, while Oracle accounted for 28%. These are shares within that telemetry—not market-wide vendor shares. New Relic described Amazon’s share as rising and Oracle’s as falling compared with 2022; the figures should not be generalized beyond the report’s population.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What these trends meant for Java teams
The evidence points to several practical considerations for teams working in 2023:
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- Plan upgrades against the installed base. Java 17’s stronger production showing than Java 11 in survey responses coexisted with continued Java 8 and older use. An organization’s own dependencies, support needs, and deployment constraints determine its migration path.
- Expect Spring expertise to be widely relevant. Spring and Spring Boot stood out in the JetBrains survey, while Jakarta EE and MicroProfile remained part of the enterprise Java landscape.
- Treat containers as an operational reality, not a universal statistic. New Relic observed substantial container use among its reporting applications, but that does not establish the deployment mix for every organization.
- Keep evidence populations distinct. Developer surveys describe respondents; vendor telemetry describes applications observed by that service; neither alone establishes a global Java census.
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