China sees translation market reach 68.64b yuan in 2023

China had 623,260 translation enterprises by the end of last year, up by 7.1 percent from 2022, according to a new report released on Saturday.

The 2024 China translation industry development report was released by the Translators Association of China during the TAC Annual Conference 2024 held in Changsha, Hunan province over the weekend.

The market value of the translation enterprises reached 68.64 billion yuan ($9.5 billion) last year, up by 5.6 percent from a year earlier, the report said.

Beijing had the greatest number of translation enterprises, accounting for 27.5 percent of the total, followed by Shanghai with 15.7 percent and Guangdong province with 10.1 percent.

The country had 6.42 million translators by the end of last year, up by 6.8 percent from 2022, the report said.

Most of the translators, or 5.47 million, were doing translation part-time, which is the main reason impeding the development of the translation enterprises, the report added.

There were 309 universities in the country offering bachelor's degrees of translation and interpreting and 316 offering master's degrees in the sector.

However, only about one-third of students majoring in translation and interpreting have chosen to work in translation-related industry, the report added.