Return on Assets by Industry in Thailand 2026: Health Leads
In short
Human health and social work leads Thailand's industry sections on return on assets at 6.71 percent, as of 17 July 2026. Professional services, mining and transportation follow, each above 4.5 percent. Education sits at the very bottom at just 0.71 percent return on assets. Switch to return on equity and education leads instead, at 12.1 percent, ahead of every other sizable sector. The flip comes down to debt. Education holds a far thinner equity cushion behind its assets than health does, so the same modest profit reads as tiny against assets and large against equity.
Which industry earns the highest return on assets in Thailand?
Ranked by return on assets, human health and social work leads Thailand at 6.71 percent as of 17 July 2026 (DBD, 2026). Professional, scientific and technical services follows at 5.30 percent. Mining and quarrying takes third at 5.22 percent. Transportation and storage and manufacturing round out the top five, both above 4.5 percent. The national average across all filing companies is 2.55 percent. Six of the fifteen tracked sections beat that average. Education sits at the very bottom of the list at 0.71 percent, the lowest return on assets of any tracked section.
Return on assets by industry section
- Human health and social work7
- Professional, scientific and technical5
- Mining and quarrying5
- Transportation and storage5
- Manufacturing5
- Electricity and gas4
- Information and communication2
- Accommodation and food service2
- Wholesale and retail trade2
- Administrative and support2
- Financial and insurance2
- Agriculture1
- Construction1
- Real estate1
- Education1
Figures in percent return on assets.
Health, professional services and mining turn assets into profit fastest. Education, real estate and construction barely earn anything on the assets they hold.
Return on assets and return on equity by industry section
| Industry section | Return on assets | Return on equity | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human health and social work | 6.71% | 10.89% | 17,294 |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 5.30% | 10.74% | 138,962 |
| Mining and quarrying | 5.22% | 7.92% | 8,231 |
| Transportation and storage | 4.56% | 11.02% | 85,273 |
| Manufacturing | 4.52% | 9.84% | 230,396 |
| Electricity and gas | 3.98% | 7.73% | 7,833 |
| Information and communication | 2.36% | 5.57% | 52,537 |
| Accommodation and food service | 2.23% | 7.90% | 83,598 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 2.06% | 3.23% | 715,976 |
| Administrative and support | 1.93% | 4.86% | 100,691 |
| Financial and insurance | 1.80% | 6.71% | 35,567 |
| Agriculture | 1.45% | 2.72% | 19,259 |
| Construction | 1.43% | 2.55% | 283,534 |
| Real estate | 1.05% | 2.69% | 149,608 |
| Education | 0.71% | 12.10% | 13,897 |
Return on assets, return on equity and company count by section, as of 17 Jul 2026, ranked by return on assets.
Why education tops one ranking and bottoms the other
The two rankings are not measuring the same thing. Return on assets divides a sector's profit by everything it owns. Return on equity divides that same profit by only the owners' stake, after every liability is subtracted. Divide education's return on equity by its return on assets and the answer is 17.02. That figure is exactly how many times larger education's asset base is than the equity sitting behind it. Mining and quarrying holds the smallest such gap among the five sectors that lead on assets, at 1.52. Human health's is close behind at 1.62. Financial and insurance, a sector built on other people's deposits, carries the next widest gap in the whole table at 3.72. Education still runs well past the banks. A sector this thin on equity needs very little profit to post a strong return on equity, and that same modest profit disappears against a much larger pile of assets. The OECD has pointed out how unevenly Thai firms lean on debt, from under thirty percent of assets at large unlisted companies to close to half at independent small firms (OECD, 2025). Education's numbers here sit at the far edge of that spread.
Why this split matters
An investor or a lender who only checks return on equity would rank education among Thailand's strongest sectors and would be missing the point entirely. Return on assets asks a plainer question: does this business turn what it owns into profit. On that test, hospitals and clinics do the job well and schools barely do it at all. Return on equity answers a narrower question about the owners' stake, and a thin equity base can flatter a sector that is not actually generating much operating profit. Reading the two ratios side by side, not one alone, is what keeps a ranking honest.
Definitions
- Return on assets
- Net profit as a share of total assets. A seven percent return on assets means seven satang of profit a year for every baht a sector has tied up in assets.
- Return on equity
- Net profit as a share of shareholder equity, the owners' stake after subtracting all liabilities from assets.
- Equity multiplier
- Return on equity divided by return on assets for the same sector, equal to total assets divided by shareholder equity. A higher number means a smaller equity cushion behind a larger pile of assets.
- Aggregate ratio
- Total sector net profit divided by total sector assets or equity, rather than the average of each company's own ratio.
- TSIC section
- A broad industry grouping in the Thailand Standard Industrial Classification, such as education, manufacturing or human health.
Assumptions
- Only companies that filed a financial statement contribute to a sector's return on assets or return on equity.
- Public administration, households and extraterritorial bodies are excluded for having too few reporting companies for a stable ratio. Water and waste, arts and entertainment and other services are excluded to match the fifteen sections used in the site's return on equity ranking.
- Both ratios are section-wide aggregates, not the average of each company's own ratio.
- The equity multiplier is an accounting identity drawn from the two published ratios, not a separate measurement of any single company's borrowing.
Methodology
Return on assets and return on equity are aggregate net profit divided by, respectively, aggregate total assets and aggregate shareholder equity for every company in a TSIC industry section that filed a financial statement, drawn from the Department of Business Development registry as of 17 July 2026. Figures are section-wide aggregates, not the average of each company's own ratio. Public administration, households and extraterritorial bodies file too few statements for a stable ratio and are left out. Water and waste, arts and entertainment and other services are also left out, to match the fifteen sections used in the site's companion return on equity ranking. That leaves fifteen sections. The equity multiplier cited in the text is return on equity divided by return on assets for the same section, an accounting identity equal to total assets divided by shareholder equity.
How we verified this
- The fifteen tracked sections were sorted by return on assets. Human health and social work came out as the maximum at 6.71 percent and education as the minimum at 0.71 percent, matching the raw section table.
- The same fifteen sections were sorted by return on equity. Education came out as the maximum at 12.10 percent, ahead of transportation and storage at 11.02 percent and human health at 10.89 percent.
- Six of the fifteen sections were confirmed above the 2.55 percent national return on assets average: human health, professional services, mining, transportation, manufacturing and electricity and gas, each individually checked against the section figures.
- Education's equity multiplier was recomputed from the underlying return on equity and return on assets figures, before rounding to two decimals, as 17.02. Human health's was recomputed the same way as 1.62, and mining and quarrying's as 1.52, the smallest of the five sectors that lead on assets.
- Financial and insurance was confirmed as the second widest equity multiplier in the full underlying data at 3.72, still far below education's 17.02.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- OECD. (2025). The corporate sector: OECD capital market review of Thailand 2025. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-capital-market-review-of-thailand-2025_0a975590-en/full-report/the-corporate-sector_008c96e5.html
Frequently asked questions
Which industry has the highest return on assets in Thailand?
Human health and social work, at 6.71 percent, the highest of the fifteen tracked sections as of 17 July 2026.
Why does education rank so differently on return on assets and return on equity?
Education holds a very small equity base next to its assets, about seventeen times smaller by this math, so a modest profit reads as tiny against assets and large against equity.
Is the sector with the highest return on assets also the one with the highest return on equity?
No. Human health leads on return on assets but ranks only third on return on equity, while education is last on assets and first on equity.
What is an equity multiplier?
Return on equity divided by return on assets for the same sector, equal to how many times larger its assets are than the equity behind them.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Return on Assets by Industry in Thailand 2026: Health Leads. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/return-on-assets-by-industry-in-thailand-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.