Number of interpreters in the worlds Thread poster: Jeremy Engel (X)
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Jeremy Engel (X) 
Switzerland
Local time: 02:53
English to French
+ ...
Hi everyone,
I was wondering if it possible to have statistics about the number of professional interpreters in the world (for all types of interpretation: conference, legal, public services). It seems impossible to have an idea of the size of our profession. Thanks for your help!
| | | | | Unqualified interpreters? | Sep 7, 2015 |
Jeremy Engel wrote:
Hi everyone,
I was wondering if it possible to have statistics about the number of professional interpreters in the world (for all types of interpretation: conference, legal, public services). It seems impossible to have an idea of the size of our profession. Thanks for your help!
If unqualified interpreters are included, the number is uncountable.
Most people can speak two or more languages and claim as interim/ad hoc interpreters. The question is how we exactly define the word "interpreter."
Soonthon L.
| | | | | interpreters in the worlds | Sep 12, 2015 |
Hey Jeremy,
Nice query! It is something to think about!
As Mr. Soonthon already mentioned, it is actually tough to count the number of actual interpreters across the world. There are a number of trained interpreters who professional work to serve the people, while there are others who have known more than one language and therefore claim to be interpreters. You still need to check how many registered companies are actually working on translation and interpretation ser... See more Hey Jeremy,
Nice query! It is something to think about!
As Mr. Soonthon already mentioned, it is actually tough to count the number of actual interpreters across the world. There are a number of trained interpreters who professional work to serve the people, while there are others who have known more than one language and therefore claim to be interpreters. You still need to check how many registered companies are actually working on translation and interpretation services. It is here that you might get a rough idea of how many true interpreters actually exist. It is yet difficult though, since there are a number of interpretation service providers in almost every country.
[Edited at 2015-09-16 10:15 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:53
Serbian to English
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| what's the point? | Sep 14, 2015 |
it's easy to have an educated guess that the number of professional interpreters in the world is tiny compared to the total world population - probably one of the professions with the lowest number of all.
Depending on how high or low you set the bar, it could vary wildly, but it would still be a pretty low number.
If you set the bar reasonably high - exclude all wannabe amateurs, for a middle sized country it would be in the range between few scores and few hundreds - ... See more it's easy to have an educated guess that the number of professional interpreters in the world is tiny compared to the total world population - probably one of the professions with the lowest number of all.
Depending on how high or low you set the bar, it could vary wildly, but it would still be a pretty low number.
If you set the bar reasonably high - exclude all wannabe amateurs, for a middle sized country it would be in the range between few scores and few hundreds - anyway, a more relevant indicator would be the number of professional interpreters per 1 million of population - probably a pretty low number - for one country I know pretty well I would make a guesstimate of around 10 max 15 per 1.000.000 of population.
Make any extrapolation you want yourself. ▲ Collapse
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