Overview
Dask 2026.1, released on January 30, 2026, drops Python 3.9 and requires PyArrow 16 or later.
Main Features
Python 3.9 dropped
Dask now requires Python 3.10+ and PyArrow 16+, aligning with the Python scientific ecosystem.
python
import dask.dataframe as dd
# Distributed reading with PyArrow backend
df = dd.read_parquet('data/*.parquet')
result = df.groupby('category').sum()
print(result.compute())PyArrow 16 required
The minimum PyArrow 16 dependency ensures access to the latest Parquet read optimizations and modern data types.