With 1162 distributions uploaded to CPAN last month the highest ever – modern Perl is still going strong!
(See also isperldead.com for another opinion…. ;) )
Traditionally, the Perl community has been fairly quiet – probably because we’re all busy getting on and doing things rather than feeling the need to shout about how great our language is, but the Planet Perl Ironman project aims to help change that.
Also: perlisdead.com
I don’t think it will ever “die”. It will become (or has it already?) a bit obsolete, but there will always be people who will continue coding in it.