How One 5-Digit Code Dominates Thai Industry Sections, 2026
In short
Electricity and gas is 89.12 percent a single five digit industry code in Thailand, more than any other sector. Accommodation and food service is 61.24 percent one code, mostly restaurants. Construction runs 58.38 percent through one code too. Manufacturing sits at the other extreme, its 230,396 companies spread so thin that the largest single code holds just 4.94 percent, as of 7 Jul 2026.
How much of each industry sits in one code?
Within each of Thailand's 21 registered industry sections, one five digit TSIC code usually does most of the work. Electricity and gas is the most concentrated section in the country: 89.12 percent of its 7,833 companies sit in a single code, TSIC 35101, electric power generation (DBD, 2026). Accommodation and food service is next: 61.24 percent of its 83,608 companies sit in TSIC 56101, restaurants. Construction follows at 58.38 percent in TSIC 41002. Real estate is 39.5 percent one code, TSIC 68102, out of only 9 codes total in that section. At the other end, manufacturing spreads its 230,396 companies across 421 separate codes, so even the largest one, TSIC 18119, holds only 4.94 percent. Wholesale and retail trade is almost as scattered, with its biggest code holding just 5.13 percent of 716,066 companies.
Share of section held by the single largest 5-digit code
- Electricity and gas89
- Accommodation and food service61
- Construction58
- Real estate40
- Water supply and waste management35
- Mining and quarrying35
- Transportation and storage30
- Arts, entertainment and recreation27
- Other service activities25
- Human health and social work25
- Professional, scientific and technical25
- Education24
- Financial and insurance23
- Administrative and support14
- Information and communication11
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing9
- Wholesale and retail trade5
- Manufacturing5
Figures in percent of section company count.
Electricity and gas, food service and construction are each mostly one trade. Manufacturing and wholesale and retail are the opposite: hundreds of codes, none of them dominant.
Top 5-digit code share by industry section
| Industry section | Top code | Companies in top code | Companies in section | Share of section |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity and gas | 35101 | 6,981 | 7,833 | 89.12% |
| Accommodation and food service | 56101 | 51,204 | 83,608 | 61.24% |
| Construction | 41002 | 165,550 | 283,564 | 58.38% |
| Real estate | 68102 | 59,095 | 149,618 | 39.5% |
| Water supply and waste management | 38300 | 1,681 | 4,818 | 34.89% |
| Mining and quarrying | 07299 | 2,865 | 8,231 | 34.81% |
| Transportation and storage | 49323 | 25,521 | 85,303 | 29.92% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 90002 | 4,968 | 18,486 | 26.87% |
| Other service activities | 96309 | 5,054 | 20,455 | 24.71% |
| Human health and social work | 86201 | 4,261 | 17,294 | 24.64% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 70209 | 34,086 | 138,982 | 24.53% |
| Education | 85500 | 3,289 | 13,897 | 23.67% |
| Financial and insurance | 64202 | 8,323 | 35,577 | 23.39% |
| Administrative and support | 82990 | 14,194 | 100,711 | 14.09% |
| Information and communication | 62012 | 5,749 | 52,537 | 10.94% |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 01289 | 1,820 | 19,259 | 9.45% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 46599 | 36,728 | 716,066 | 5.13% |
| Manufacturing | 18119 | 11,390 | 230,396 | 4.94% |
Companies in the single largest 5-digit TSIC code as a share of each section, as of 7 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
A label with 21 letters flattens businesses that range from a single dominant trade to hundreds of genuinely different ones. Screen investment or policy by the letter D, electricity and gas, and you are effectively screening for power generation, since almost nine in ten companies in that section sit in one code. A subsidy or incentive aimed broadly at accommodation and food service reaches restaurants roughly six times out of ten, not hotels or catering. Wholesale and retail trade tells the opposite story: its 716,066 companies spread across 200 codes, so the section letter tells you almost nothing about what any individual company actually sells. Manufacturing is even more fragmented, with 421 codes and no single trade above five percent. Anyone comparing sectors by their lettered label alone is comparing a single narrow trade against a coalition of hundreds.
Definitions
- TSIC code
- Thailand Standard Industrial Classification code, a five digit number that identifies a specific business activity, grouped under one of 21 lettered sections.
- Industry section
- One of the 21 broad, lettered categories in the TSIC system, such as manufacturing or construction, each containing many five digit codes.
- Top code share
- The company count of the single largest five digit code within a section, divided by the total company count of that section.
Assumptions
- Concentration is measured by company count, not revenue, profit, or employment, so a code with fewer but larger companies could matter more economically than its count share shows.
- Public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial organizations were excluded from the chart and table because each has fewer than 40 total companies, making a single-code share too noisy to publish as a headline figure.
- A company is assigned to exactly one five digit code in the registry, so shares are not affected by double counting across codes.
Methodology
For each of Thailand's 21 TSIC industry sections, we summed entity_count across every five digit TSIC code recorded in the DBD registry aggregates to get a section total, then identified the single five digit code with the highest entity_count within that section and divided by the section total. This measures company count, not revenue or employment. Figures are drawn from DBD registry aggregates as of 7 July 2026. Public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial organizations were excluded from the chart and table because each has fewer than 40 registered companies, so a single-code share would be unstable, but their raw counts are included in the downloadable data.
How we verified this
- Electricity and gas: 6981 companies in TSIC 35101 divided by 7833 total section companies equals 89.12 percent.
- Accommodation and food service: 51204 divided by 83608 equals 61.24 percent.
- Construction: 165550 divided by 283564 equals 58.38 percent.
- Manufacturing: 11390 divided by 230396 equals 4.94 percent, the lowest share of any of the 18 sections shown.
- Wholesale and retail trade: 36728 divided by 716066 equals 5.13 percent.
- Summed section totals across all 21 sections equal 1,986,709, matching the company count with a size band in the data guide's national anchors.
- Sections were sorted descending by share and the order was checked against the published chart and table.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons by TSIC industry code. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- National Economic and Social Development Council. (2019). Exposition of the transition from ISIC to TSIC. NESDC, Thailand. https://www.nesdc.go.th/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/04-article_file_20190521111537.pdf
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry section is most dominated by a single 5-digit code?
Electricity and gas, where 89.12 percent of the section's 7,833 companies sit in one code, TSIC 35101, electric power generation.
Is accommodation and food service really just restaurants?
Mostly. TSIC 56101, restaurants, accounts for 61.24 percent of the 83,608 companies registered under accommodation and food service.
Which industry section is the least concentrated in a single code?
Manufacturing. Its 230,396 companies spread across 421 codes, and the largest single code holds only 4.94 percent.
Why does this matter for reading Thai industry statistics?
Some sections are a genuine coalition of hundreds of trades while others are almost one business type wearing a broad letter, so comparing sections by their label alone can be misleading.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). How One 5-Digit Code Dominates Thai Industry Sections, 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/how-much-of-each-thai-sector-sits-in-one-industry-code-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.