South America
To which language should you translate to localize in Argentina?
What we know from our community
Argentina speaks one language: Spanish. The difference with the one used in Spain and most of Latin America is the “VOSEO”. This means that the formal use of addressing a person (“USTED”) is replaced by the informal form of address (“VOS”). So, if a headline reads: “USTED PUEDE GANAR” or “TÚ PUEDES GANAR”, it is clearly not intended for Argentina. Instead, it would read: “VOS PODÉS GANAR.”
Like most countries, there are differences in idiomatic expressions and inflections, mainly defined by geographic circumstances. For example, people from the Córdoba Province are well known for having a very distinctive accent (and also for drinking ridiculous amounts of Fernet). Up north, Salta and Jujuy have their own singular cadence and pronunciation, similar to that of Bolivia. Misiones Province, closer to Brazil, has its own funny intonation. And the rest of Argentina speaks pretty much similar to the Spanish you hear in Buenos Aires. There are a few dialects used mainly by indigenous communities.
Then, first of all, take a look at what the 100 top websites do
Of the top 100 website (Global by design ranking):
- 49/100 translate into Argentinian Spanish
- 30/100 use a “neutral” Spanish variant for all LATAM
Now, if you need others information about that country to make your decision, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data
Introduction
Language
Official language
Spanish, with 480 million native speakers and a thriving online population of more than 330 million, Spanish is the world’s second most common language after Chinese and far surpasses English.
T-index
0.55%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Other languages
Portuguese, Italian, German, English and French.
Indigenous languages
Mapuche, Guarani, Aymara, Toba and Quechua.
English
High proficiency (EF) – 30 of 112 countries/regions in the world- 1/20 position in Latin America.
Demography
Capital: Buenos Aires
Currency: Argentine peso
Population: 45,81 m
Population density: 17/km2
Economy
GDP: 491.49 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 10,729.2 USD (2021)
Exports: $54.6 billion (2020)
Statistics
Internet users: 83% penetration, 38.02 million
Unemployment rate: 8.7% (2021)
Urbanisation: 91.99% (2020)
Literacy: 99.13 % (2019)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals and comma as decimal separator
Date format: dd – mm – yyyy
Time: 12h time system (a.m/p.m)
Country code: 0054
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$42.1 billion (2020). Cars ($1.77B), Soybeans ($1.76B), Vehicle Parts ($1.71B), Refined Petroleum ($1.25B), and Petroleum Gas ($1.17B), importing mostly from Brazil ($8.57B), China ($8.34B), United States ($5.02B), Germany ($2.13B), and Paraguay ($2.13B).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 48% have an account with a financial institution
• 24% have a credit card
• 2.4% have a mobile money account
• 19% make online purchases
Ease of doing business
Ease of conducting business is medium (rated 59 out of 100). Ranked 19th out of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Ranked 126th out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank).
Exports
$54.6 billion (2020). Soybean Meal ($7.89B), Corn ($6.46B), Soybean Oil ($3.9B), Soybeans ($2.31B), and Delivery Trucks ($2.3B), exporting mostly to Brazil ($7.67B), China ($5.41B), United States ($3.47B), Chile ($2.91B), and Vietnam ($2.87B).
Main local online stores
MercadoLibre, eBay and Amazon, Netshoes, Alibaba, Garbarino.com, Musimundo.com, Frávega, Apple and Cencosud
Economic freedom
‘Mostly not free’ (rated 50.1 out of 100). Ranked 27th out of 32 Latin American countries. Ranked 144th out of 186 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 8th out of 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries, and 69th out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service Imports (2018)
Source: OEC
Service Exports (2018)
Source: OEC
Most Complex Products by PCI
Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters
Source: OEC
Most specialised products by RCA Index
Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Argentina observed and expected exports in each product
Source: OEC
Export Opportunities by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that Argentina is not specialized in
Source: OEC
Distribution of e-commerce sales in 2018 in Argentina, by method of payment
Sources: Kantar TNS; CACE
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language Spanish
Information channels
The Grupo Clarin and La Nacion conglomerates are the main players in the national media. The top free-to-air TV networks – Telefe, America, El Nueve and El Trece – are privately owned. Public broadcasting has a minor role. Clarin and La Nacion are the leading national newspapers. The government does not routinely block or filter online content, says Freedom House.
The press
Clarin – popular daily
La Nacion – respected conservative daily
Cronica – tabloid daily
La Prensa – Argentina’s oldest newspaper
Pagina 12 – left-wing daily
Television
Telefe – leading national network, operated by Grupo Telef
El Trece – leading national network, operated by Grupo Clarin
El Nueve – popular national network
America (Canal 2) – popular network
Todo Noticias – cable/satellite news channel owned by Grupo Clarin
Radio
Radio Mitre – talk radio, operated by Grupo Clarin
Radio Nacional – public
Radio America – private, news and entertainment
Radio Continental – private speech-based network
Los 40 Principales – private FM music network
News agency
Telam – state-run
Noticias Argentinas – set up by privately-owned newspapers
Infobae – news portal
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
83% penetration, 38.02 million
Share of web traffic by device
56.69% mobile phones, 42.43% computers (laptops and desktops), 0.83% tablet devices and 0.05% other devices
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
21.09 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
38.61 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 122.9%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 83.3%
Most popular web search engines
Google (97.88%), Bing (1.05%), Yahoo (0.85%), DuckduckGo (0.1%), Ecosia (0.1%), Yandex Ru (0.01%)
Most used social media
Facebook (82.65%), Instagram (6.8%), Pinterest (4.85%), Twitter (2.83%), YouTube (2.67%), Tumblr (0.13%)
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
75 yrs (2021)
Gender
In recent decades, women have gained access to many positions in the job market as well as in politics, economics, etc. However, some constraints keep women from advancing within a more predominant male job culture and helps explain the small numbers of women at the top level of many organizations.
Religion
Generally speaking, Argentina is a Catholic country, with the presence of some minorities, such as the Jewish community (2% of the population, concentrated in the area of Buenos Aires) and other minorities such as Muslims. Religion does not usually have any particular impact in the workplace.
Ethnicity
85% of the population in Argentina has European origin and 15% are of mixed origin. Sometimes, discrimination due to physical appearance does arise.
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
Tertiary education in Argentina
Source: UNESCO
Tertiary education in Argentina, by sex
Source: UNESCO
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Languages research
Dialectal variants of the Spanish language in Argentina
Legend
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Andean or north-western
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Coastal or north-eastern
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Western or Cuyano
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Cordobes or central
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Rioplatense or oriental
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Patagonian or Southern
The capital and largest city is Buenos Aires, an autonomous city that is the second-largest metro area in South America. Buenos Aires has a population of 3 million, with a metropolitan population of close to 13 million. 92% of Argentina’s population live in cities, with the 10 largest metro areas accounting for nearly half of the population.
10 top cities population in Argentina
| Buenos Aires | 13,076,300 |
| Cordoba | 1,428,214 |
| Rosario | 1,173,533 |
| Mendoza | 876,884 |
| San Miguel de Tucuman | 781,023 |
| La Plata | 694,167 |
| Mar del Plata | 553,935 |
| Quilmes | 518,788 |
| Salta | 512,686 |
| Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz | 489,505 |
The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Juan Pablo Mascanfroni, Unsplash