Half of Thailand's Provinces Hold Just 12% of Companies 2026
In short
Fifty of Thailand's 77 provinces have fewer than 10,000 registered companies each. Together they account for just 12.3 percent of the 1,989,709 companies on the national register, as of 17 July 2026. Bangkok alone holds 40.9 percent, more than three times that combined share. The median province counts just 6,728 companies, a rounding error next to the capital.
How much of Thailand's company register sits in its smallest provinces?
Registration in Thailand concentrates hard in a handful of places. As of 17 July 2026, fifty of the country's 77 provinces count fewer than 10,000 registered companies apiece (DBD, 2026). Add up every company in those fifty provinces and the total comes to 245,004, just 12.3 percent of the 1,989,709 companies on the national register. Bangkok alone holds 812,799 companies, a 40.9 percent share from a single province. Twenty six mid sized provinces, from Chon Buri down to Kanchanaburi, hold another 46.7 percent between them. Put together, the bottom fifty provinces do not even match Bangkok's count on their own.
Where Thailand's companies are registered
- Bangkok, 1 province812,799
- 26 mid sized provinces928,334
- 50 smallest provinces245,004
Figures in registered companies.
Bangkok alone out registers the fifty smallest provinces combined by a factor of more than three.
Thailand's 15 smallest provinces by company count
| Province | Registered companies | Revenue, billion baht |
|---|---|---|
| Mae Hong Son | 1,569 | 6 |
| Uthai Thani | 2,099 | 29 |
| Satun | 2,110 | 25 |
| Amnat Charoen | 2,288 | 21 |
| Sing Buri | 2,306 | 52 |
| Bueng Kan | 2,326 | 18 |
| Samut Songkhram | 2,468 | 57 |
| Ranong | 2,651 | 39 |
| Ang Thong | 2,894 | 40 |
| Chai Nat | 2,897 | 80 |
| Nong Bua Lam Phu | 2,904 | 41 |
| Nakhon Nayok | 2,996 | 51 |
| Trat | 3,331 | 26 |
| Mukdahan | 3,472 | 58 |
| Pattani | 3,500 | 54 |
Ranked smallest first by registered companies, with total reported revenue, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
The imbalance runs deeper than company counts. These fifty provinces generate an estimated 4.13 trillion baht in reported revenue combined, just 5.2 percent of the 80.15 trillion baht reported nationwide (DBD, 2026). That is a smaller share than their 12.3 percent of companies, so the average firm registered outside the country's economic core carries less revenue too, not merely fewer neighbors. For a bank or a franchise scouting expansion beyond Bangkok, the fifty are not one uniform market. Chai Nat counts just 2,897 companies, yet reports 80.3 billion baht in revenue, the highest of the fifteen smallest provinces and more than thirteen times Mae Hong Son's 6.1 billion baht. Company count on its own will point you to the wrong province. National statisticians describe the same pattern from a different angle, with Bangkok's gross provincial product running more than five times that of the next largest province (NESDC, 2024).
Definitions
- Entity count
- The number of registered companies whose head office address is recorded against a given province in the DBD registry, regardless of whether the company is active or has filed a financial statement.
- Registered company
- A juristic person recorded in Thailand's company registry, whether or not it currently files financial statements or remains active.
- Revenue share
- A province's total reported revenue divided by the national total reported revenue, expressed as a percent.
- Median province
- The province that sits exactly in the middle when all 77 provinces are ranked by company count, with 38 provinces holding more companies and 38 holding fewer.
- Aggregate
- A total or ratio computed by summing every company in a group first, then dividing, rather than averaging each company's own ratio.
Assumptions
- Province reflects a company's registered head office address, not necessarily where it actually trades or operates, so a firm with a Bangkok head office and upcountry branches still counts entirely as Bangkok.
- Entity counts include companies that have never filed a financial statement, so revenue figures are drawn from a smaller set of filers within each province than the headline company count.
- 556 records and a further 16 records carry no mapped province code, 572 in total, and a further 3,000 companies in the national total have no matching province row at all. All are excluded from the province level ranking and table, though they remain inside the national totals used as denominators, together under 0.2 percent of the register.
- The 10,000 company threshold is a descriptive cut chosen to split the provinces roughly around their natural gap, not an official DBD size classification.
- Revenue and company counts are not measured on an identical set of firms, since only companies with a filed statement contribute revenue.
Methodology
Entity counts and revenue are drawn from the DBD derived provincial aggregate table as of 17 July 2026. A company's province is the province of its registered head office, not necessarily where it operates. The under 10,000 threshold splits Thailand's 77 provinces, 76 provinces plus Bangkok, into a smaller tier and a larger tier purely for comparison. It is not an official DBD size category. Revenue figures sum reported revenue for companies that filed a financial statement. A small number of records carry no mapped province code, 556 head office rows and 16 further records, 572 in total. A further 3,000 companies counted in the national total have no matching row in the province level table at all. Both groups are excluded from the province ranking but remain part of the national totals used as denominators.
How we verified this
- Counted all 77 named provinces returned by market_province_insight and confirmed 50 have entity_count below 10,000, versus 27 at or above it.
- Summed entity_count for the 50 provinces below 10,000: 245,004. Divided by the national total of 1,989,709 to get 245,004 / 1,989,709 = 12.31 percent, rounded to 12.3 percent.
- Summed entity_count for the 26 provinces at or above 10,000 excluding Bangkok: 928,334, equal to 928,334 / 1,989,709 = 46.66 percent, rounded to 46.7 percent.
- Bangkok's entity_count of 812,799 divided by 1,989,709 equals 40.85 percent, rounded to 40.9 percent.
- Sorted all 77 provinces by entity_count descending. The 39th value, the median of 77, is 6,728, matching Phetchaburi and Chaiyaphum.
- Summed total_revenue for the same 50 provinces: 4,129,183,825,939.09 baht. Divided by the national total_revenue of 80,146,498,562,463.62 to get 5.15 percent, rounded to 5.2 percent, versus their 12.3 percent share of companies.
- Mae Hong Son's entity_count of 1,569 was confirmed as the minimum across all 77 provinces.
- 80.3 divided by 6.1 equals 13.16, confirming the more than thirteen times comparison between Chai Nat and Mae Hong Son revenue.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council. (2024). Gross regional and provincial product of Thailand. NESDC. https://www.nesdc.go.th/en/info/national-accounts/
Frequently asked questions
How many Thai provinces have fewer than 10,000 registered companies?
Fifty of Thailand's 77 provinces, 76 provinces plus Bangkok, have fewer than 10,000 registered companies each, as of 17 July 2026.
What share of Thailand's companies sit in those fifty provinces?
Just 12.3 percent. The 245,004 companies across those fifty provinces are a small fraction of the 1,989,709 companies registered nationwide.
Is Bangkok really bigger than all fifty of the smallest provinces combined?
Yes. Bangkok's 812,799 companies outnumber the 245,004 companies spread across the fifty smallest provinces by more than three to one.
Which province has the fewest registered companies?
Mae Hong Son, with 1,569 registered companies and 6.1 billion baht in reported revenue, the smallest of any province on both counts.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Half of Thailand's Provinces Hold Just 12% of Companies 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/half-of-thai-provinces-hold-just-a-sliver-of-companies-2026
Data & corrections
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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.