Translation Industry Statistics 2016

We scan publications and announcements for statistics about the translation industry. Some are in the ‘interesting’ category. Some are even useful.

The statistics listed below are at least in the interesting category, and possibly useful with some extrapolation.

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 46 percent increase in translation job opportunities between 2012 and 2022—much higher than the 11 percent average growth for all careers. – U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• The global language services industry was worth approximately 35 billion U.S. dollars in 2013 and was expected to exceed 37 billion in 2014. Over the next four years the industry was forecasted to experience a growth of ten billion U.S. dollars, reaching 47 billion in 2018. – Statistica
• A study done at Dartmouth in 2010 reported that out of all the American companies doing business overseas, about 26% of those U.S.-based multinational companies are classified as small businesses – companies that employ 500 or fewer people. – Omniglot
• The US’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is investing dozens of millions on an automatic translation toolkit for lesser known languages. The agency has publicly announced awarding phase one contracts to 13 organizations for the development of the Low Resource Languages for Emergent Incidents (LORELEI) program. Seven of these contracts, which altogether amount to nearly $26 million. – Slator