PROFILE OF ARGENTINA’S TRANSLATORS

Rosario Traducciones presents the third edition of its survey on Argentina’s translation industry. The objective of the survey is two-fold: identify key aspects of the industry and detect other aspects that could facilitate the different stakeholders’ decision-making processes.

The survey questionnaire was answered by translators, editors and project managers—key players in the industry—with a total of 285 responses. The survey was carried out during the month of May 2019.

Below, we will highlight some of the main characteristics of Argentine translators.

Profile of Argentine Translators

91% of translators have a degree in translation, and 87% are women. Even though the majority live in Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Santa Fe (84%), there are many professional translators in Entre Ríos, Río Negro, Chubut, Corrientes, Neuquén, San Luis, Jujuy, La Pampa, Mendoza, Misiones, Salta, and Tucumán provinces.

Most Frequent Language Pairs and Subjects

The most frequent language pair among Argentina translators is still English-Spanish, with 91%. Portuguese-Spanish (7%), Italian-Spanish (6%), and French-Spanish (6%) follow.


The three most translated subjects are: medicine (48%), legal (40%), and technology (37%). Other areas include: marketing (33%), technical (29%), human resources (29%), education (29%), software (24%), tourism (19%), finance (16%), social sciences (14%), engineering (12%), e-commerce (10%), entertaining (10%), literature (8%), international relationships (7%), audiovisual (7%), and tools (6%).*

New subjects are emerging, for example, gaming, apps, and websites.

Volume of Work and Prospects

35% of respondents said they translate 2000-2500 words a day, 23% claimed to translate 1500-2000 words a day, 17% said they translated 1000-1500 words a day, and another 23% stated they translate 500-1000 words a day. 

On a related note, 68% also do editing work, with 44% claiming their average volume is 3000 words or less per day, 41% said it is 3000-5000 words a day, and 15% reported 5000-8000 words a day.



Regarding work prospects, 41% of respondents indicated that in the last three years their volume of work has increased, 38% reported no change, and 21% said it had decreased. Also, 44% estimate that their workload will increase in the next three years, 43% think it will stay the same, and 13% stated that it will decrease.

Post-Editing is Here to Stay

53% of translators have already done post editing work, and among those who haven’t yet, 62% answered they would be willing to.

In terms of average daily post-editing production levels, 60% of respondent reported a capacity of 5000 words; 24% said they can process 5000-8000 words per day; 13% stated their average is 7000-10,000 words per day; and 3% claimed they can post-edit more than 10,000 words per day.

Translation Tools

The more frequently used translation and editing tools are: Trados Studio (88%), followed by memoQ (55%), Wordfast (55%), Xbench (52%), and Memsource (36%). Other tools worth mentioned are MateCat (7%), Catalyst (6%), XTRF (4%), and Lilt (2%).

Client Scenario

55% of respondents work with local companies or agencies; 52% work with overseas agencies; 28% have local end clients; and 22% work with overseas end clients.



On a scale from one to five, the most important aspects of the client relationship are: rate (42%); a good relationship with the project manager (20%); long-term work (16%); prompt and timely payment (12%); and feedback on their completed work (9%).