What is the Total Number of Translators and Interpreters in the World?

Much like the size of the translation market depends on how you define the market, the number of translators and interpreters worldwide depends on how you define a translator or interpreter. Does the number include only translators, or do you count interpreters too? Does the number count only full-time translators? And does the number include all the “bilingual professionals” who claim to be translators but don’t know the difference between a translator and an interpreter and are often considered “a disgrace to the profession.”

This little article will not attempt to narrowly define this measurement, but it will simply point to a few numbers that help approximate a rough estimate.

To begin, a Survey of the Canadian Translation Industry cited ABI a few years back as saying there were “140,000 full-time, salaried translators in the world (including in-house services and sub-contractors)." There are at least this many total translators and interpreters in the world based on the following information:

In 2006, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 41,000 employed translators and interpreters (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos175.htm). In 2005, the US Census counted 30,000 "nonemployers" in the translation industry (http://www.census.gov/epcd/nonemployer/2005/us/US000_54.HTM). If the number of nonemployers roughly equates to the number of freelancers, that means there are about 71,000 in-house and freelance translators and interpreters in the US. Based on Common Sense Advisory's (CSA) estimate that the US makes up 42% of the global translation industry, we can extrapolate a rough estimate of 169,000 translators and interpreters worldwide. However, there are two reasons why that estimate may be a little low. First, CSA’s estimate was based on agency revenues, not freelancer revenues, and US agencies presumably outsource more to non-US freelancers much more than non-US agencies outsource to US freelancers (for simple economic reasons). Second, over 190,000 translators have signed up on Proz.com, the internet’s largest translation brokering site, and even when you factor in multiple signups from a single user, its unlikely that Proz.com holds that high of a market share when you consider how many translators are luddites. (Note: only a fraction of registered Proz.com users are active.)

Another rough estimate: Another way to extrapolate an estimate would be to assume that in addition to the $10 billion estimate from CSA, there is another $10 billion that is not outsourced to LSPs. However, we can very roughly assume that only 1/2 that revenue makes into the pockets of translators, for a total of $10 billion in the pockets of translators. We then assume that the average translator makes 10 cents/word x 2500 words/day x 5 days/week x 50 weeks/year = $62,500/year/translator. $10 billion / $62,500 = 160,000 translators worldwide. However, if you account for the fact that many of that many of these translators work only part time, this number could easily increase by 50% to 100% or more.

According to Jeff Allen and some reports he did for the European Commission, "there is a total number of up to around 300,000 translators/interpreters worldwide." This may likely include a hundred thousand or so part-time translators. In my opinion, this sounds like a better rough estimate for general purposes.

So, if anyone asks , you can choose to tell them with rough numerical support that there are roughly 150,000 to 300,000 translators and interpreters worldwide, depending on how you define a translator or interpreter.

6/20/2008 update: Common Sense Advisory estimates 700,000 "professional translators" and more "accidental translators".

Just for fun, here is a painful example of someone on an old UK Candid Camera clip who is called an "interpreter" but who clearly does not know the first thing about interpreting, thus illustrating the importance of how you define an "interpreter":

Who knows? Maybe Candid Camera also hired a professional interpreter and could not air that clip when the interpreter actually did her job and thus did not add any humor to the situation.