SQL

SQL handles 85% of the world's structured data queries, a scale that makes #5 FORTRAN's scientific data processing look niche by comparison. Developed at IBM in 1974 by Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce, SQL introduced declarative querying that democratized database access. It is embedded in every major system—PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server—collectively managing over 10 zettabytes of data. SQL's efficiency is quantified by its ability to retrieve millions of rows in under 10 milliseconds, 50 times faster than the average file-based approach. As the universal language for data management, SQL underpins everything from e-commerce transactions to climate research databases, making it the most widely deployed language in history.