Ten Industry Codes Hold a Quarter of Active Thai Firms 2026
In short
Just 10 of Thailand's 1,228 five digit industry codes hold 23.88 percent of the country's 993,373 active companies. The busiest single code, 41002, a construction classification, carries 58,492 active firms on its own, a 5.89 percent share by itself. Four of the ten leading codes sit inside the real estate section and together add 7.93 percent of the active total. Two more sit inside construction and add another 7.94 percent. Filtering out dormant firms barely moves the number, since the same ten codes hold 24.13 percent of all 1,986,709 companies with a code, active or not.
How much of the active company base sits in a handful of codes?
Ten codes answer the question. Rank all 1,228 five digit TSIC codes in market_tsic_insight by active_count and the top ten alone hold 237,217 of Thailand's 993,373 active companies (DBD, 2026). That works out to 23.88 percent of every active company in the country sitting inside just 0.81 percent of the codes that exist. Code 41002, a construction classification for non-residential buildings, leads with 58,492 active firms on its own, a 5.89 percent share by itself. The next nine codes each add a smaller slice, from 68102's 2.92 percent down to 49323's 1.60 percent. By the tenth code the running total already covers close to a quarter of the entire active registry.
Active companies in Thailand's ten busiest industry codes
- 41002: Construction58,492
- 68102: Real estate28,980
- 56101: Accommodation and food27,616
- 41001: Construction20,403
- 70209: Professional services19,424
- 68103: Real estate17,435
- 46599: Wholesale and retail16,647
- 68104: Real estate16,329
- 68101: Real estate16,007
- 49323: Transportation15,884
Figures in active companies.
Six of the ten leading codes belong to just two sections, construction and real estate.
The ten codes ranked by active companies
| Rank | TSIC code | Section | Active companies | Share of active total | Cumulative share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 41002 | Construction | 58,492 | 5.89% | 5.89% |
| 2 | 68102 | Real estate | 28,980 | 2.92% | 8.81% |
| 3 | 56101 | Accommodation and food service | 27,616 | 2.78% | 11.59% |
| 4 | 41001 | Construction | 20,403 | 2.05% | 13.64% |
| 5 | 70209 | Professional, scientific and technical | 19,424 | 1.96% | 15.59% |
| 6 | 68103 | Real estate | 17,435 | 1.76% | 17.35% |
| 7 | 46599 | Wholesale and retail trade | 16,647 | 1.68% | 19.03% |
| 8 | 68104 | Real estate | 16,329 | 1.64% | 20.67% |
| 9 | 68101 | Real estate | 16,007 | 1.61% | 22.28% |
| 10 | 49323 | Transportation and storage | 15,884 | 1.60% | 23.88% |
Active companies per five digit TSIC code, ranked from busiest to tenth, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Real estate and construction do the heavy lifting
Four of the ten leading codes, 68101 through 68104, all sit inside section L, real estate activities. Combined they carry 78,751 active companies, a 7.93 percent share of the national active total. Two more codes, 41001 and 41002, both sit inside section F, construction, and together add 78,895 active companies, another 7.94 percent. Two sections, reached through just six of the ten leading codes, account for nearly sixteen percent of every active company in Thailand. Survival rates inside the top ten vary just as sharply. Code 68104 still has 99.36 percent of everything ever registered under it active today, while 41002, the single busiest code, has already lost 64.67 percent of its history to closure. Being the biggest code and being the most durable one are two very different things.
Why this matters
A registry this concentrated changes how risk should be read. When 23.88 percent of active companies sit inside ten industry codes, a slowdown in building subcontracting or short term property rental does not stay contained, it moves the national active count. A lender or a landlord scoring small business exposure by sector name alone is really scoring six sectors that carry outsized weight. The four real estate codes together already outnumber the active company base of several entire single letter sections combined. Thailand's registry offers 1,228 possible five digit classifications on paper. In practice, the active firms cluster hard around building, renting, feeding and moving people, and that cluster barely thins out once dormant companies are added back in.
Definitions
- Active company
- A company the registry currently marks as active rather than dormant, based on DBD's own status classification.
- TSIC code
- The five digit Thailand Standard Industrial Classification code DBD assigns to a registered company's stated business activity.
- Section
- One of twenty one fixed lettered groupings, such as F for construction or L for real estate, that every five digit TSIC code rolls up into.
- Cumulative share
- The running total of active companies across ranked codes, expressed as a percent of the national active total, added one code at a time from busiest to smallest.
- Survival rate
- The share of every company ever registered under a code that is still active today, calculated as active_count divided by entity_count.
Assumptions
- Ranking uses active_count as reported in market_tsic_insight and does not adjust for companies that may operate across more than one registered code.
- Section names follow the fixed ISIC letter definitions used across Max Data Insights and are not derived from the five digit description field, which is empty in the aggregate database.
- Business descriptions for codes 41002 and 68101 through 68104 come from DBD's public TSIC search system, not from the aggregate database, since five digit descriptions are not stored there.
- The registry aggregate refreshed to a 17 July 2026 computed_at timestamp during this analysis, later than the 7 July 2026 date used in earlier companion pieces, though the national active total of 993,373 held steady across both dates.
Methodology
Active_count is drawn from market_tsic_insight, the DBD sourced aggregate table that reports active, inactive and total entity counts for every five digit TSIC industry code. A company counts as active when the registry currently marks it that way, as distinct from dormant or dissolved. Codes were ranked by active_count, not entity_count, so the ranking reflects the operating economy rather than every company ever registered under a code. Section letters are the fixed twenty one ISIC based groupings DBD assigns to each five digit code. Business descriptions for codes 41002 and 68101 through 68104 come from DBD's own public TSIC classification search system, since the aggregate database stores no description for five digit codes. All figures are as of the 17 July 2026 refresh of the registry aggregate.
How we verified this
- Summed active_count for the ten TSIC codes with the highest active_count in market_tsic_insight: 58492 plus 28980 plus 27616 plus 20403 plus 19424 plus 17435 plus 16647 plus 16329 plus 16007 plus 15884 equals 237217.
- Divided 237217 by the national active total of 993373 to get 0.2388, confirmed as 23.88 percent.
- Confirmed 1228 as the exact count of distinct TSIC codes in market_tsic_insight, so ten codes are 10 divided by 1228, or 0.81 percent of all codes.
- Summed active_count for codes 68101, 68102, 68103 and 68104, all section L, to get 78751, then divided by 993373 to get 7.93 percent.
- Summed active_count for codes 41001 and 41002, both section F, to get 78895, then divided by 993373 to get 7.94 percent.
- Summed entity_count for the same ten codes to get 479420, divided by the sum of entity_count across all TSIC codes, 1986709, to get 24.13 percent, showing the concentration barely changes once dormant companies are included.
- Confirmed entity_count equals active_count plus inactive_count for each of the ten codes, for example 165550 equals 58492 plus 107058 for code 41002.
- Recomputed every cumulative share from the raw running total divided by 993373, not from adding the rounded per code percentages, for example rank 5's running total of 154915 divided by 993373 gives 15.59 percent.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and active company aggregates by TSIC classification. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Department of Business Development. (2026). TSIC business type classification search system. https://tsic.dbd.go.th/
Frequently asked questions
Which industry code has the most active companies in Thailand?
Code 41002, a construction classification for non residential buildings, leads with 58,492 active companies, 5.89 percent of the national active total, as of 17 July 2026.
How concentrated are Thailand's active companies by industry code?
Just ten of the 1,228 five digit TSIC codes, 0.81 percent of all codes, hold 23.88 percent of the 993,373 active companies nationwide.
Does the concentration change once dormant companies are counted too?
Barely. The same ten codes hold 24.13 percent of the 1,986,709 companies carrying a TSIC code whether active or not, only about a quarter of a percentage point different from the active only figure.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Ten Industry Codes Hold a Quarter of Active Thai Firms 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/active-company-concentration-among-thai-industry-codes-2026
Data & corrections
Download the data (CSV)Spot something off, or want to ask about the data? Email insights@maxsolutions.co.th. We publish corrections.
Written by
Chatpong L.Founder, Max Data, Max Solutions Co., Ltd.
Chatpong L. leads Max Data, a company-intelligence platform built on Thailand's official business registry. He writes about the structure of the Thai economy using primary registry data. His work covers company formation, industry concentration, and regional business activity.
Related insights
This page reports company-level and aggregate statistics only. It names no individuals and makes no claims about any person. Figures are provided for information and may be revised as source data updates.