This paper deals with the status of programming languages used by companies in a regional area located in the midwestern United States. A questionnaire was prepared and mailed to representatives from business and industry, as well as to educators at a midwestern regional university.

Companies were asked to identify a range in which specific languages supported current applications, to estimate the future of languages, and to identify other languages or software currently used that were not included in the survey.

The results of this survey are discussed in detail. It showed that Cobol is still supported the majority of business applications in the midwest region. Eighty-two percent of the companies anticipated an increase in their use of Java, 53 percent anticipated an increase in use of Visual Basic, and 35 percent reported an anticipated increase in their use of C++.

Some recommendations for curriculum content in a university program are provided, based on the results.