Company Size and Survival Rates Across Thai Industries 2026
In short
Human health and social work posts Thailand's highest industry survival rate at 73.9 percent, with just 1.03 percent of its companies classed large. Manufacturing carries the second highest large company share of any sector at 2.05 percent, yet its survival rate is only 47.3 percent. Across eighteen major industry sections, the relationship between large company share and survival rate is essentially flat, a correlation of 0.07. A bigger mix of large companies does not buy a Thai industry a longer life.
Does having more large companies make an industry survive longer?
Not in any way that shows up in the numbers. Human health and social work carries Thailand's highest industry survival rate at 73.9 percent as of 7 July 2026, calculated as the share of companies still classified active rather than dormant. Only 1.03 percent of health companies are large, roughly half the large company share carried by manufacturing. Manufacturing sits at the other extreme of the story. It carries the second highest large company share of any industry section at 2.05 percent, behind only electricity and gas at 2.44 percent, yet its survival rate is just 47.3 percent, near the bottom of the table. Mining and quarrying posts the lowest survival rate in the economy at 30.9 percent despite a large company share close to the national average. Line up large company share against survival rate across all eighteen major industry sections with enough companies to be stable, and the correlation comes out to 0.07, on a scale where 1.0 would mean size fully predicts survival and 0 would mean no relationship at all. That is effectively no relationship.
Survival rate by industry section
- Human health and social work74
- Real estate62
- Water and waste62
- Other services62
- Electricity and gas60
- Professional, scientific and technical59
- Financial and insurance58
- Accommodation and food service58
- Education58
- Administrative and support57
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing56
- Information and communication55
- Transportation and storage52
- Arts and entertainment49
- Manufacturing47
- Wholesale and retail trade46
- Construction43
- Mining and quarrying31
Figures in percent of companies currently active.
Human health tops the table with a modest large company share. Manufacturing and construction sit near the bottom despite carrying more large companies than most.
Large company share and survival rate by industry section
| Industry section | Large company share | Survival rate | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human health and social work | 1.03% | 73.9% | 17,294 |
| Real estate | 0.26% | 62.4% | 149,618 |
| Water and waste | 1.02% | 62.4% | 4,818 |
| Other services | 0.08% | 61.8% | 20,455 |
| Electricity and gas | 2.44% | 60.3% | 7,833 |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 0.18% | 58.5% | 138,982 |
| Financial and insurance | 1.56% | 58.2% | 35,577 |
| Accommodation and food service | 0.31% | 58.1% | 83,608 |
| Education | 0.13% | 57.7% | 13,897 |
| Administrative and support | 0.24% | 56.6% | 100,711 |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 0.66% | 55.7% | 19,259 |
| Information and communication | 0.37% | 55.3% | 52,537 |
| Transportation and storage | 0.53% | 51.8% | 85,303 |
| Arts and entertainment | 0.17% | 49.1% | 18,486 |
| Manufacturing | 2.05% | 47.3% | 230,396 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 0.78% | 45.5% | 716,066 |
| Construction | 0.20% | 42.5% | 283,564 |
| Mining and quarrying | 0.67% | 30.9% | 8,231 |
Eighteen major TSIC industry sections ranked by survival rate, as of 7 Jul 2026. Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations are excluded for having fewer than 40 companies each.
Why size does not explain survival
The simple story would be that scale buys staying power, since large companies tend to hold more capital and more slack to absorb a bad year. The Thai registry does not back that story up at the industry level. Human health survives at more than twice the rate of mining and quarrying. Mining's own large company share of 0.67 percent sits close to the national average of 0.70 percent, so its weak survival rate is not a size story either. Manufacturing carries more large companies than a typical sector, at 2.05 percent against a national average of 0.70 percent, and still posts a survival rate under 50 percent. Construction carries fewer large companies than a typical sector, at just 0.20 percent, and posts an even lower survival rate of 42.5 percent. What separates the top of the table from the bottom looks more like the nature of the business than the size mix inside it. Health, real estate, water and waste, and financial services all sell something a customer keeps paying for on an ongoing basis, whether that is a license, a lease, a utility connection or an account. Mining, construction and manufacturing all depend more heavily on project cycles and commodity swings, which push a company into dormancy long before its balance sheet size runs out. Micro company share tells a somewhat stronger story than large company share does, correlating at negative 0.39 with survival, but even that relationship is loose enough that plenty of micro-heavy sectors, like real estate and other services, post strong survival rates. The honest reading is that industry economics, not company size, drives which Thai businesses keep their doors open.
Definitions
- Survival rate
- The share of companies in a group currently classified active on the registry rather than dormant. It reflects current status, not the age or lifespan of any single company.
- Active company
- A company on the DBD registry showing a current activity signal, as opposed to dormant.
- Dormant company
- A registered company with no current trading or filing signal, still on the register but not operating.
- Large company
- A company in the top DBD size band by revenue and employment, as opposed to micro, small or medium.
- Large company share
- The count of large companies in a group divided by the total count of companies with a size band assigned, expressed as a percentage.
- Correlation coefficient
- A number from negative 1 to positive 1 that measures how closely two variables move together. Zero means no relationship, 1 means they move perfectly together, and negative 1 means they move perfectly in opposite directions.
- TSIC industry section
- One of the lettered top level categories in Thailand's Standard Industrial Classification, such as manufacturing or human health and social work, each made up of many 5 digit industry codes.
Assumptions
- Survival rate is measured as current active status on the registry, not a longitudinal cohort tracked from founding to closure.
- Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations are excluded from the ranked table and correlation because each has fewer than 40 companies.
- Size band and active status are drawn from the same computed_at snapshot, 2026-07-07, so the comparison is cross sectional across industries at one point in time.
- Correlation measures a linear relationship only and does not by itself establish that company size mix causes an industry's survival rate.
Methodology
Survival rate is the share of companies in an industry currently classified active rather than dormant on the DBD registry, drawn from market_tsic_insight as of 7 July 2026, computed_at timestamp 2026-07-07. Figures for each of the 21 TSIC industry sections were built by summing active_count, inactive_count and the four size band counts, count_micro through count_large, across every 5 digit TSIC code within that section. Large company share is count_large divided by the sum of all four size bands. Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations were dropped from the ranked table and correlation because each has fewer than 40 companies, too small for a stable rate. The correlation is a standard Pearson coefficient computed across the remaining eighteen sections. This is a snapshot of current activity status by industry, not a cohort study that tracks individual companies over time.
How we verified this
- Active and inactive counts were summed across all 21 sections and matched the national constants of 993,373 active and 993,336 inactive companies.
- Large company counts were summed across all 21 sections and matched the national constant of 13,876 large companies, 0.70 percent of 1,986,709 sized companies.
- Human health survival rate was recomputed as 12,778 active divided by 17,294 total companies, equal to 73.89 percent.
- Manufacturing large company share was recomputed as 4,718 large divided by 230,396 total companies, equal to 2.05 percent.
- A Pearson correlation was computed between large company share and survival rate across the 18 major sections, returning 0.066, and separately between micro company share and survival rate, returning negative 0.393.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and business size classification. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- OECD. (2025). Enterprises by business size. OECD Data Explorer. https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/enterprises-by-business-size.html
Frequently asked questions
Do industries with more large companies survive longer in Thailand?
No. Across 18 major industry sections the correlation between large company share and survival rate is 0.07, effectively no relationship. Human health has the highest survival rate with a modest large company share, and manufacturing has one of the lowest survival rates despite one of the highest large company shares.
Which Thai industry has the highest survival rate?
Human health and social work, at 73.9 percent of companies currently classified active, the highest of any major industry section as of 7 July 2026.
Which Thai industry has the lowest survival rate?
Mining and quarrying, at 30.9 percent active, the lowest survival rate among the 18 major sections with a stable company count.
What does survival rate mean in this data?
The share of companies in an industry currently classified active on the DBD registry rather than dormant. It is a snapshot of current status, not a measure of how many years a company has operated.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Company Size and Survival Rates Across Thai Industries 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/do-bigger-thai-companies-survive-longer-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.