At Literature Across Frontiers they have posted Publishing translated literature in the United Kingdom and Ireland 1990-2012 statistical report (pdf; see also the summary press release).
(This supersedes the preliminary and (so I found) very problematic 2012 study and looks to be considerably more thorough and precise (and reliable).)
Lots of interesting information here -- including re. source languages (where it's nice to know that some woefully under-represented ones have fared better in recent years (e.g. Georgian, with Dalkey Archive's Georgian-series -- or Korean, with Dalkey's Library of Korea-series outpacing all translations from Korean from 2000 to 2012)). But it's the methodology and definitional questions which are of course of the greatest interest -- what exactly is being counted, and how, and the discussion here is very helpful -- especially compared with the previous study, which helpfully provided raw data but overlooked many of the issues that data presented.
What's really exciting is the promise of what comes next:
All these numbers must be treated with some caution -- note for example with 168 translations from ancient Greek, these translations would make ancient Greek the ninth-most-translated from language in the period 2000-2012 (here's where the raw data/the database will be useful -- in revealing what these titles are, allowing us to better judge how we should consider them), while on the Three Percent database it essentially doesn't figure at all ... -- and I'd still be cautious about throwing around that 'three per cent' figure (unless you add it all up carefully -- as they do here --, noting all the necessary caveats and limiting definitions), but this is a nice step forward in coming to grips with the question of what and how much is getting translated into English.
(Of course, just like the Three Percent US-distribution requirement, the geographical/BNB limitation, in this age of much greater/easier cross-border movement of foreign publications (including of foreign English-language publications from huge markets such as India, Australia, and South Africa to local/governmental publications) doesn't necessarily reflect what and how much is actually quite readily available .....)
(This supersedes the preliminary and (so I found) very problematic 2012 study and looks to be considerably more thorough and precise (and reliable).)
Lots of interesting information here -- including re. source languages (where it's nice to know that some woefully under-represented ones have fared better in recent years (e.g. Georgian, with Dalkey Archive's Georgian-series -- or Korean, with Dalkey's Library of Korea-series outpacing all translations from Korean from 2000 to 2012)). But it's the methodology and definitional questions which are of course of the greatest interest -- what exactly is being counted, and how, and the discussion here is very helpful -- especially compared with the previous study, which helpfully provided raw data but overlooked many of the issues that data presented.
What's really exciting is the promise of what comes next:
The next step in the effort to provide comprehensive information on translations published in the United Kingdom and Ireland will be the creation of a freely available database of literary translations, analysis of the previous decade (1990-2000) and ongoing analysis of future annual data supplied by the British Library.With a slightly different ambit (beyond just the geographical) than the Three Percent Translation Database (limited, e.g., to (adult) fiction and poetry, and only first-time translations), this study counts a somewhat different (and, helpfully, broader) variety of titles -- but, like the Three Percent database, the database should prove very helpful in providing some insight and being a useful starting-point for analysis.
All these numbers must be treated with some caution -- note for example with 168 translations from ancient Greek, these translations would make ancient Greek the ninth-most-translated from language in the period 2000-2012 (here's where the raw data/the database will be useful -- in revealing what these titles are, allowing us to better judge how we should consider them), while on the Three Percent database it essentially doesn't figure at all ... -- and I'd still be cautious about throwing around that 'three per cent' figure (unless you add it all up carefully -- as they do here --, noting all the necessary caveats and limiting definitions), but this is a nice step forward in coming to grips with the question of what and how much is getting translated into English.
(Of course, just like the Three Percent US-distribution requirement, the geographical/BNB limitation, in this age of much greater/easier cross-border movement of foreign publications (including of foreign English-language publications from huge markets such as India, Australia, and South Africa to local/governmental publications) doesn't necessarily reflect what and how much is actually quite readily available .....)