In this follow-up to the previous post ‘SENSE ‒ A name and a meaning’, I will be breaking down the data from our membership database to look into the make-up of our Society. Even though membership numbers have fluctuated over the years, the general tendency has been towards growth. As of September 2023, the Society has roughly 280 members, and although this number changes slightly every month, I will assume it fixed, so we can read the data as a snapshot of our Society as it stands today.

Languages

Currently, SENSE is an international community of language lovers, with 20 languages represented in the Society. Besides English (73% of members are native English speakers) and Dutch (roughly 60% of our members work into or from Dutch), the most popular languages spoken are German and French (8% of our membership) and Spanish (3% of our membership). Other languages present among us are Italian, Danish, Czech, Portuguese, Afrikaans, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Japanese, Persian, Armenian, Chinese, Polish and Turkish.

Professionals

Our community has a number of distinctive features. The membership base has many long-standing members. Almost half of our members joined before 2010 (42%), 43% joined between 2010 and 2020, and 15% joined in the last three years. It is noticeable that 71% of our members are women and 29% are men.

SENSE encompasses a varied array of professionals such as translators, editors, proofreaders, copywriters, journalists, trainers, language teachers, subtitlers, interpreters, transcribers, indexers, technical writers and content writers. Most of our members offer two or more services, which is especially true for translation and editing, offered by 57% of our membership. It is worth mentioning here that 41 members (15%) are sworn translators. Many SENSE members also offer copywriting services (33%).

Most of our members work as freelancers (76%), have a website (56%) and have shared with us their LinkedIn profile (58%). We have three student members. Many of our members (39%) also belong to other language or freelancers’ organizations, such as ITI, NGTV, ATA, MET, NEaT, PEG, EMWA, CIEP, EASE, EFA, etc.

Geographical locations

Currently, 246 members (88%) live in the Netherlands and 34 members (12%) live abroad (UK, Germany, France, US, Spain, Finland, Poland, Australia, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Oman), distributed according to the table on the right.

In the Netherlands, almost half of our membership (45%) live in the Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland provinces combined. If we add two of the other central provinces such as Utrecht and Gelderland, more than 65% of our membership live in the four central regions of the country, as you can see in the figure below.

Over recent years, almost all of SENSE’s in-person events have been held in the city of Utrecht, which makes sense given that it’s one of the most central cities of the Netherlands.

Membership and freelance directories

If you are a member of SENSE, you can view other members’ services and contact details through the Membership Directory on our website. But of course you need to be logged in to access the directory. However, the contact details of the 218 SENSE members who have opted to be listed in our Freelance Register are public. If you visit either directory, you can fill in search criteria to find SENSE members who offer services you might need or find colleagues who live near you.

Our community is diverse, knowledgeable and passionate about language. We encourage you to reach out to each other with curiosity and confidence.

And if you are not a member of SENSE yet, you are welcome to contact us at membership@sense-online.nl to find out more and join us!