T-Index helps you identify the languages used by the people that will most likely buy from your website or your advertisers. It combines the Internet population and its estimated GDP per capita.
T-Index is a statistical index developed by Translated. It is a percentage value that indicates the market share of each language on the Internet and the languages that offer the best sales potential when translating your website.
Assumptions, methods and limitations are outlined below.
Sort by language Sort by country Sort by region
| Languages | T-Index | Cumulative T-Index | Countries | Internet population | Internet penetration | GDP p.c. of Int. pop.* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
(!) Restricted access to internet
(*) As reliable data do not exist, this amount has been estimated by our agency. (**) India has been included in the English language market as English is widely used in general business and on the web. * GDP per capita of the Internet population (!) Internet access is limited for most of the population (*) As reliable data do not exist, this amount has been estimated by our agency. (**) India has been included in the English language market as English is widely used in general business and on the web. |
|||||||
| 1 | English | 34.6% | 34.566% | 57 | 469,734,256 | 26.4 % | $39,725 |
| 2 | Chinese Simplified (!) | 11.4% | 45.950% | 2 | 421,097,520 | 31.4 % | $14,595 |
| 3 | Japanese | 7.0% | 52.959% | 1 | 99,143,700 | 78.0 % | $38,161 |
| 4 | Spanish | 7.0% | 59.940% | 21 | 147,873,934 | 36.6 % | $25,487 |
| 5 | German | 5.9% | 65.826% | 4 | 75,325,647 | 78.5 % | $42,183 |
| 6 | French | 4.5% | 70.366% | 22 | 62,714,969 | 19.6 % | $39,079 |
| 7 | Portuguese | 3.6% | 73.917% | 7 | 82,546,100 | 33.5 % | $23,224 |
| 8 | Russian (!) | 3.4% | 77.277% | 5 | 72,331,200 | 40.7 % | $25,080 |
| 9 | Arabic (!) | 2.6% | 79.839% | 19 | 65,041,000 | 19.1 % | $21,261 |
| 10 | Korean | 2.5% | 82.352% | 2 | 39,487,600 | 54.6 % | $34,362 |
| 11 | Italian | 2.4% | 84.753% | 4 | 30,455,574 | 51.9 % | $42,548 |
| 12 | Chinese Traditional | 1.9% | 86.622% | 3 | 21,289,613 | 69.6 % | $47,391 |
| 13 | Dutch | 1.6% | 88.216% | 3 | 19,927,120 | 85.0 % | $43,198 |
| 14 | Turkish (!) | 1.4% | 89.613% | 1 | 35,000,000 | 45.6 % | $21,536 |
| 15 | Polish | 1.1% | 90.682% | 1 | 22,450,600 | 58.3 % | $25,706 |
| 16 | Farsi (!) | 1.0% | 91.702% | 2 | 34,200,000 | 36.1 % | $16,110 |
| 17 | Malay (!) | 0.63% | 92.332% | 2 | 17,221,500 | 66.0 % | $19,753 |
| 18 | Swedish | 0.61% | 92.945% | 1 | 8,397,900 | 92.7 % | $39,395 |
| 19 | Thai (!) | 0.59% | 93.535% | 1 | 17,486,400 | 26.5 % | $18,204 |
| 20 | Indonesian | 0.55% | 94.089% | 1 | 30,000,000 | 12.5 % | $9,967 |
| 21 | Norwegian | 0.44% | 94.529% | 1 | 4,431,100 | 95.1 % | $53,647 |
| 22 | Greek | 0.44% | 94.968% | 2 | 5,404,500 | 45.7 % | $43,874 |
| 23 | Tagalog | 0.41% | 95.383% | 1 | 29,700,000 | 30.3 % | $7,542 |
| 24 | Czech | 0.37% | 95.758% | 1 | 6,680,800 | 65.4 % | $30,301 |
| 25 | Catalan | 0.37% | 96.131% | 2 | 5,502,340 | 71.9 % | $36,572 |
| 26 | Hebrew | 0.36% | 96.487% | 1 | 5,263,146 | 72.8 % | $36,576 |
| 27 | Danish | 0.35% | 96.841% | 1 | 4,750,500 | 86.4 % | $40,148 |
| 28 | Finnish | 0.31% | 97.152% | 1 | 4,480,900 | 85.3 % | $37,468 |
| 29 | Ukrainian | 0.29% | 97.446% | 1 | 15,300,000 | 33.5 % | $10,385 |
| 30 | Romanian | 0.29% | 97.736% | 2 | 9,081,700 | 34.2 % | $17,206 |
| 31 | Hungarian | 0.28% | 98.011% | 1 | 6,176,400 | 62.4 % | $24,110 |
| 32 | Vietnamese (!) | 0.27% | 98.285% | 1 | 24,269,083 | 27.4 % | $6,081 |
| 33 | Slovak | 0.20% | 98.481% | 1 | 4,063,600 | 74.4 % | $26,048 |
| 34 | Punjabi | 0.19% | 98.674% | 1 | 18,500,000 | 10.6 % | $5,651 |
| 35 | Hindi | 0.17% | 98.842% | 1 | 12,150,000 | 7.0 % | $7,460 |
| 36 | Serbian | 0.12% | 98.960% | 2 | 4,401,000 | 54.7 % | $14,439 |
| 37 | Afrikaans | 0.11% | 99.073% | 1 | 1,855,000 | 10.8 % | $32,908 |
| 38 | Bulgarian | 0.11% | 99.180% | 1 | 3,395,000 | 47.1 % | $17,037 |
| 39 | Croatian | 0.10% | 99.282% | 1 | 2,244,400 | 50.0 % | $24,393 |
| 40 | Lithuanian | 0.091% | 99.372% | 1 | 2,103,471 | 59.2 % | $23,268 |
| 41 | Azerbaijani | 0.085% | 99.458% | 1 | 3,689,000 | 44.8 % | $12,510 |
| 42 | Slovenian | 0.085% | 99.543% | 1 | 1,298,500 | 64.7 % | $35,360 |
| 43 | Luxembourgish | 0.070% | 99.613% | 1 | 424,500 | 86.3 % | $89,107 |
| 44 | Uzbek (!) | 0.058% | 99.671% | 1 | 4,689,000 | 17.0 % | $6,677 |
| 45 | Latvian | 0.051% | 99.722% | 1 | 1,503,400 | 67.4 % | $18,294 |
| 46 | Sinhala (!) | 0.040% | 99.762% | 1 | 1,776,200 | 8.3 % | $12,241 |
| 47 | Estonian | 0.040% | 99.802% | 1 | 969,700 | 74.6 % | $22,057 |
| 48 | Bosnian | 0.037% | 99.839% | 1 | 1,441,000 | 31.2 % | $13,892 |
| 49 | Albanian | 0.033% | 99.872% | 2 | 1,677,000 | 30.8 % | $10,704 |
| 50 | Macedonian | 0.028% | 99.900% | 1 | 1,057,400 | 51.2 % | $14,332 |
| 51 | Georgian | 0.024% | 99.924% | 1 | 1,300,000 | 28.2 % | $10,005 |
| 52 | Icelandic | 0.021% | 99.945% | 1 | 301,600 | 98.3 % | $37,110 |
| 53 | Maltese | 0.015% | 99.960% | 1 | 240,600 | 59.4 % | $33,666 |
| 54 | Mongolian | 0.0053% | 99.965% | 1 | 350,000 | 11.5 % | $8,204 |
| 55 | Lao | 0.0049% | 99.970% | 1 | 527,400 | 7.7 % | $5,039 |
| 56 | Swahili | 0.0040% | 99.974% | 1 | 676,000 | 1.6 % | $3,167 |
| 57 | Nepali | 0.0039% | 99.978% | 1 | 625,800 | 2.2 % | $3,390 |
| 58 | Armenian | 0.0039% | 99.982% | 1 | 208,200 | 7.0 % | $10,145 |
| 59 | Inuktitut, Greenlandic | 0.0037% | 99.986% | 1 | 52,000 | 90.3 % | $38,574 |
| 60 | Bengali | 0.0037% | 99.989% | 1 | 617,300 | 0.4 % | $3,192 |
| 61 | Faroese | 0.0027% | 99.992% | 1 | 37,500 | 76.8 % | $39,379 |
| 62 | Turkmen (!) | 0.0023% | 99.995% | 1 | 80,400 | 1.6 % | $15,580 |
| 63 | Maldivian | 0.0019% | 99.996% | 1 | 87,900 | 22.2 % | $11,574 |
| 64 | Amharic | 0.0016% | 99.998% | 1 | 445,400 | 0.5 % | $1,996 |
| 65 | Khmer | 0.00078% | 99.999% | 1 | 78,000 | 0.5 % | $5,430 |
| 66 | Burmese (!) | 0.00061% | 99.999% | 1 | 110,000 | 0.2 % | $2,972 |
| 67 | Somali | 0.00057% | 100.000% | 2 | 131,900 | 1.2 % | $2,316 |
In order to benefit from local users, translating your content just isn’t enough in some countries. Below is a map of countries for which the T-Index may provide information that is difficult to interpret without an understanding of local Internet limitations.
T-Index provides an indication of the purchase power of each language market.
English, with a T-Index percentage value of 34,6%, is the language with the Internet’s highest purchasing power. It covers more than 469 million Internet users all around the world with an average GDP per capita of $39,725.
Before making a decision though, take a look at the table above for a closer look at which countries are covered by the English language market. Can your company access all of the listed markets? The percentage value indicated by T-Index for English (34,6%) will deliver its full potential only if you can access all the countries on the list.
Have you considered the following?
Having studied the local market and the local environment of each listed country, the real value of the English language to your company should become clear and you can compare it with the value of other languages.
An English company has a website in English and Spanish and wants to translate it into one other language. Using T-Index they quickly find that the Chinese and Japanese are the most recommended. However, looking at the table above, the Chinese language market comprises 2 countries, whereas Japanese is only used in Japan. After studying the local markets, it is clear that, due to the nature of their product and the local demand, the company can only address one country in Chinese – Singapore for example. On the other hand, there is no problem for the company in accessing the Japanese market. This gives the following real values for each language:
The company should be translating their website into Japanese!
We developed this statistical index to help companies choose the right languages for translating their websites.
Each country has been ranked based on the local language(s) which are most commonly used in business and online, not just based on the number of speakers or on the official local language(s). Each country has been assessed according to a single language, except where the T-index value of the country is in excess of 0.1%, in which case we have assessed the country within several language markets. Only languages spoken by more than 15% of the population have been considered, except where minority language(s) are also official languages, used in business and online. For example, Switzerland, which has a T-index of 0.534%, has been assessed in three different language markets: 63.7% of Swiss internet users belong to the German market, 20.4% to the French market and 6.5% to the Italian market.
A lot of languages in use today are not yet represented on the Internet. In many African and Caribbean countries for example, English is the official language and, as well as often being the unifying language, is widely used in government, public administration, education, business and online. Local languages are often spoken as everyday informal languages by almost all of the population. However the T-Index study only considered languages that are used for business, written communication and the Internet. Many more languages could rise and flourish on the web if local people had better access to the Internet, and if web content and web tools were more easily available in local languages. However due to a combination of government restrictions, technical problems and prohibitive costs, easy Internet access is still not yet a reality in many parts of the world.
Languages that have international variations, such as English, Portuguese or Spanish for example, have been grouped together into their respective standard language. If you want to adapt the language to a particular country, you can do so by consulting the table above.
Dependent territories (e.g. Puerto Rico) have been evaluated according to the governing state, if they share the same language. If they do not share the same language, as is the case with Puerto Rico and the United States, they are included as separate entries based on the language market they belong to.
Not all countries are included in the T-Index study. We included every country for which we were able to find data concerning the number of Internet users and GDP per capita. Without the data it would have been impossible to make an evaluation.
Furthermore, we assumed that Internet users in each country belong to the richest segment of the country’s population.
Firstly, we gathered information about the number of Internet users and the total population, from which we determined the Internet penetration rate* for each country. We then analyzed each country's GDP per capita and income distribution to determine the proportion of GDP which is theoretically earned by Internet users, the average Internet user GDP per capita. Finally, from this information, we were able to establish a value for each language.
For those countries where income distribution data was not available, we calculated the average income distribution for all countries and used this estimate.
The T-Index ranking can be a useful tool for companies making website localization decisions. But other factors, not just the absolute sizes of each language market, need to be considered when choosing which languages (factors like local market demand, competition etc.). Localization is the first step towards attracting new customers, but other key factors, such as the quality of the products / services or the user-friendliness of the interface still need to be optimized to make people buy on your website.
*The Internet penetration rate is the percentage of Internet users in a country.
Statistics used in the T-Index study were taken from the following reliable Internet based sources.
This study was made in October 2010.
The number of Internet users for each country was taken from the Internet World Stats website which provides up-to-date world Internet statistics: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm. The statistics were up-to-date as of June 30, 2010.
In order to assign each country to a language market, we looked at the most commonly used languages in business, and online, in each country in question. Our worldwide network of freelance translators has also contributed to the project, helping to make it a reliable tool that reflects the reality of each country.
The total population of each country was taken from the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook 2009 (Washington, DC): https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html. The statistics are estimates from the US Census Bureau, July, 2010.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita data were taken from the International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook Database of October, 2010. The data refer to 2010 and is presented in current international dollars. For the countries or territories for which the GDP per capita was not indicated in the International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook Database, the data were taken from the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook.
To determine if a country has restricted access to online information, we looked at the ranking given by the international non-governmental organization Reporters without Borders, available on its official website: http://en.rsf.org/internet.html.
The percentage shares of income indicated by quintiles were taken from the online statistical data of the World Bank's Development Research Group: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.DST.05TH.20. Not all the data refer to the same year (the World Bank data are from 1992 to 2008).
This material can be freely reused and shared only if a link back to this page is provided and it is made clear to the user that the data came from the T-Index study. Copy and paste the following statement:
T-Index Study, 2010 www.translated.net/en/languages-that-matter-2010. The T-Index Study was carried out by Translated, a translation agency whose fast and easy professional service is completely Internet-based. Translated was founded in 1999 and already serves 12,881 customers worldwide.
Many thanks to all the people that provided us useful data or tips (in alphabetical order)
For all further information, please contact aurore@translated.net