Translation statistics

The following table shows the relative positions of the top ten countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of translations published from 1979 to 2002 (the latest year for which statistics are available). Is translation an indicator of the level of true democracy in a country, or of the level of education, or its linguistic diversity, or the number of publishers – or simply reflects the number of immigrants? Readers are left to make their own conclusions…

1. Germany 218275
2. Spain 193946
3. France 137267
4. USSR 92755
5. Japan 90194
6. Netherlands 80229
7. Denmark 53732
8. Poland 51521
9. Brazil 49696
10. Hungary 41998

Source: UNESCO