Global Watchtower, published by language industry expert Common Sense Advisory, has  a facts and figures page with dozens of fascinating statistics about all aspects of the language service industry.

Many seem logical if you follow what’s going on in the world of language translation and related services. But here are some facts that can be surprising:

1.    We often think that big corporations are taking over everything; however, “63 percent of translation or localization teams have five or fewer workers.”

2.    Even though I know demand for translators is high, I wasn’t necessarily aware that translation is a “young profession with nearly half of professionals (48 percent) in their thirties.”

3.    Despite the rise of Spanish as a global tongue, and the recognition of Hispanic-Americans as an important marketing segment, “only 12 of the top 100 global brands and just four of the top 50 U.S. online retailers translated a significant part of their corporate websites in Spanish.”