Filed vs Active Company Ratio by Thai Industry, 2026
In short
Arts and entertainment has filed 45 percent more financial statements than it has active companies on the register today, the widest gap of any Thai industry section as of 17 July 2026. Mining, manufacturing and construction all show gaps above 34 percent. Human health sits closest to parity, with a filing history only 3 percent above its current active count. Nationally, the register carries 27 percent more historical filers than active companies. The spread between the widest and narrowest section runs to fourteen times.
Which industry has the biggest filed-to-active gap?
Arts and entertainment carries the widest filed-to-active gap of any Thai industry section. The section has 13,177 companies with at least one financial statement on file, but only 9,072 of them remain active today. That gap works out to 45.2 percent, meaning the sector's filing history outnumbers its current active roster by nearly half again (DBD, 2026). Mining and quarrying follows at 40.9 percent, then manufacturing at 36.4 percent and construction at 34.6 percent. Human health sits at the opposite end. Its 13,183 filed companies and 12,778 active companies land almost one to one, a gap of just 3.2 percent, the tightest of any section in the register. Other services and agriculture are the next closest, at 10.2 percent and 12.5 percent.
Filed-to-active excess by industry section
- Arts and entertainment45
- Mining and quarrying41
- Manufacturing36
- Construction35
- Information and communication34
- Electricity and gas32
- Wholesale and retail trade30
- Education25
- Financial and insurance24
- Accommodation and food service22
- Professional, scientific and technical22
- Administrative and support20
- Water and waste17
- Transportation and storage17
- Real estate16
- Agriculture13
- Other services10
- Human health3
Figures in percent excess of filed over active.
Arts and entertainment, mining and manufacturing carry the widest gaps. Human health sits nearest to one to one.
Filed and active company counts by industry section
| Industry section | Filed at least once | Active today | Gap in companies | Excess percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arts and entertainment | 13,177 | 9,072 | 4,105 | 45.2% |
| Mining and quarrying | 3,579 | 2,540 | 1,039 | 40.9% |
| Manufacturing | 148,775 | 109,063 | 39,712 | 36.4% |
| Construction | 162,173 | 120,488 | 41,685 | 34.6% |
| Information and communication | 38,810 | 29,027 | 9,783 | 33.7% |
| Electricity and gas | 6,211 | 4,721 | 1,490 | 31.6% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 424,695 | 326,070 | 98,625 | 30.2% |
| Education | 10,012 | 8,018 | 1,994 | 24.9% |
| Financial and insurance | 25,730 | 20,710 | 5,020 | 24.2% |
| Accommodation and food service | 59,340 | 48,564 | 10,776 | 22.2% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 99,173 | 81,315 | 17,858 | 22.0% |
| Administrative and support | 68,351 | 57,034 | 11,317 | 19.8% |
| Water and waste | 3,528 | 3,007 | 521 | 17.3% |
| Transportation and storage | 51,532 | 44,190 | 7,342 | 16.6% |
| Real estate | 108,582 | 93,390 | 15,192 | 16.3% |
| Agriculture | 12,067 | 10,729 | 1,338 | 12.5% |
| Other services | 13,933 | 12,642 | 1,291 | 10.2% |
| Human health | 13,183 | 12,778 | 405 | 3.2% |
Companies with at least one filed financial statement against companies active today, by TSIC section, as of 17 Jul 2026. Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations are excluded, each has fewer than 50 total companies.
Why this matters
This ratio is a rough gauge of churn inside a section, not a mark against anyone. A high excess means a large share of a section's historical filers have since gone inactive, closed, or fallen behind on paperwork, while the active roster has not kept pace with the filing history. Thailand's Department of Business Development ran a registry cleanup in September 2025 that struck off thousands of companies for failing to submit financial statements for three straight years (SILQ, 2025). Arts and entertainment, mining and construction are all sectors where a single project or contract can justify opening a company and closing it once the work ends, which fits a wide gap. Human health looks different. Clinics and hospitals tend to keep filing as long as they keep operating, so the section's filing history barely clears its active count. For anyone screening a sector by company count alone, a wide gap is a reminder to check current activity status company by company rather than take the historical filer count at face value.
Definitions
- Active company
- A company whose current registration status with the DBD is active, as opposed to dormant, dissolved or struck off.
- Filed at least once
- A company that has submitted at least one annual financial statement to the DBD at some point in its registration history. It does not mean the company filed in the most recent year or files every year.
- Excess percent
- The filed count divided by the active count, minus one, expressed as a percent. An excess of zero means the filed count equals the active count. A positive excess means more companies have filed at some point than are active today.
- TSIC section
- One of the 21 lettered sections of the Thailand Standard Industrial Classification, the broadest grouping of industries used by the DBD, built up from thousands of 5-digit industry codes.
Assumptions
- Three sections, public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial organizations, are excluded from the ranking because each has fewer than 50 total companies, too small for a stable ratio.
- The filed count is cumulative across a company's full registration history and does not confirm the company's most recent filing year.
- Active status reflects DBD's registration state on the date queried and is tracked independently of whether a company has ever filed a financial statement.
Methodology
For each Thai industry section, we summed the count of companies with at least one filed financial statement and the count of companies currently marked active across every 5-digit TSIC code that rolls up into that section, using DBD registry aggregates as of 17 July 2026. The excess ratio is the filed count divided by the active count, minus one, expressed as a percent. A ratio near zero means the filed count and the active count are close to equal. Three sections, public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations, were dropped from the ranking because each has fewer than 50 total companies, too small to read a stable ratio. This is a company-count comparison across a section's full filing history, not a single-year survival study, and it does not identify or describe any individual company or person.
How we verified this
- Excess ratio recomputed for every section as filed count divided by active count minus one, and each result matches the percent shown in the table.
- Arts and entertainment confirmed as the widest gap: 13,177 filed divided by 9,072 active equals 1.452, an excess of 45.2 percent.
- Human health confirmed as the narrowest gap: 13,183 filed divided by 12,778 active equals 1.032, an excess of 3.2 percent.
- Filed and active counts for the 18 ranked sections were summed and, together with the three excluded small sections, reconcile to the national totals of 1,262,882 filed and 993,373 active companies.
- The national excess ratio was recomputed independently as 1,262,882 divided by 993,373 minus one, equal to 27.1 percent.
- The ratio of the widest gap to the narrowest gap was recomputed as 45.2 divided by 3.2, equal to 14.1.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- SILQ. (2025). Thailand's DBD acts: Over 9,300 companies to be struck off as inactive. https://silqlaw.com/2025/dbd-inactive-companies-struckoff/
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry section has the biggest gap between filed and active companies?
Arts and entertainment, where 13,177 companies have filed at least one financial statement but only 9,072 are active today, an excess of 45.2 percent.
Which industry sits closest to parity between its filing history and its active count?
Human health, with 13,183 companies ever filed against 12,778 active today, an excess of just 3.2 percent.
What does a high filed-to-active ratio mean for an industry?
It means a large share of the companies that once filed a financial statement in that section are no longer active, which usually points to shorter-lived, project-based or contract-driven businesses.
Is the national register mostly filed companies that are still active?
No. Nationally there are 1,262,882 companies with a filing history against 993,373 active companies, a 27.1 percent excess, so every section runs above one to one except human health, which comes close.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Filed vs Active Company Ratio by Thai Industry, 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/filed-to-active-company-ratio-by-thai-industry-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.
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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.