Translation Services Rates

Per word rates for translation services often vary depending on the language. The main reason? Economics.

Translation services are best practiced by native speakers in the target language. So for example in a translation project going from English to Japanese, Japanese is the target language.

Native speakers of Japanese are of course most prevalently found in Japan. Native speakers of Chinese are in China. Native speakers of Italian live in Italy, and so on.

The cost of living and therefore the going rate for employment can vary significantly from country to country. Average wages in China, for example, are lower than the average wages in Japan. As a result translators living in Japan require a higher per word rate than translators living in countries where the cost of living is lower. In other words, the laws of economics apply in translation just as they do in other business sectors.