Dormant Company Share by Thai Industry Section (2026)
In short
Mining and quarrying has the highest dormant share of any sizeable Thai industry section, at 69.14 percent as of 17 July 2026. Human health and social work has the lowest, at 26.11 percent. The national line sits at 50.0 percent. Only five of 18 sections land above it, but they include construction and wholesale and retail, which hold 999,630 companies between them. Dormant is not dissolved.
Which sections sit furthest from the 50 percent line?
Mining and quarrying is the outlier, with 69.14 percent of its 8,231 companies dormant (DBD, 2026). Construction follows at 57.51 percent. Wholesale and retail trade is next at 54.46 percent, then manufacturing at 52.66 percent and arts and entertainment at 50.93 percent. Those five are the only sections above the national 50.0 percent. At the other end, human health and social work is dormant at just 26.11 percent. Real estate and water and waste both come in near 37.6 percent. Eurostat publishes a death rate for each sector in its business demography statistics, and this page is the closest analogue the registry allows. It is a rougher one, because dormant is not dissolved. A dormant company is still on the register. It simply shows no active status.
Dormant share of companies by industry section
- Mining and quarrying69
- Construction58
- Wholesale and retail trade54
- Manufacturing53
- Arts and entertainment51
- Transportation and storage48
- Information and communication45
- Agriculture44
- Administrative and support43
- Education42
- Accommodation and food service42
- Financial and insurance42
- Professional, scientific and technical41
- Electricity and gas40
- Other services38
- Water and waste38
- Real estate38
- Human health and social work26
Figures in percent of companies dormant.
The national line is 50.0 percent. Sections with fewer than 100 companies are left out of the chart.
Sections ranked by dormant share against the national line
| Industry section | Companies | Dormant | Dormant share | Gap to 50.0, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining and quarrying | 8,231 | 5,691 | 69.14% | +19.14 |
| Construction | 283,564 | 163,076 | 57.51% | +7.51 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 716,066 | 389,996 | 54.46% | +4.46 |
| Manufacturing | 230,396 | 121,333 | 52.66% | +2.66 |
| Arts and entertainment | 18,486 | 9,414 | 50.93% | +0.93 |
| Transportation and storage | 85,303 | 41,113 | 48.2% | -1.80 |
| Information and communication | 52,537 | 23,510 | 44.75% | -5.25 |
| Agriculture | 19,259 | 8,530 | 44.29% | -5.71 |
| Administrative and support | 100,711 | 43,677 | 43.37% | -6.63 |
| Education | 13,897 | 5,879 | 42.3% | -7.70 |
| Accommodation and food service | 83,608 | 35,044 | 41.91% | -8.09 |
| Financial and insurance | 35,577 | 14,867 | 41.79% | -8.21 |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 138,982 | 57,667 | 41.49% | -8.51 |
| Electricity and gas | 7,833 | 3,112 | 39.73% | -10.27 |
| Other services | 20,455 | 7,813 | 38.2% | -11.80 |
| Water and waste | 4,818 | 1,811 | 37.59% | -12.41 |
| Real estate | 149,618 | 56,228 | 37.58% | -12.42 |
| Human health and social work | 17,294 | 4,516 | 26.11% | -23.89 |
Company counts, dormant counts and the gap to 50.0 percent, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
Volume hides the pattern. Wholesale and retail alone holds 716,066 companies, and 389,996 of them are dormant. Construction adds 163,076 more. Those two sections hold 553,072 dormant companies, which is 55.7 percent of every dormant company in the registry. Any plan that treats the register as a list of live buyers will overcount in exactly the places where the lists are longest. Mining is a different story. It is small, and capital heavy, so a dormant shell there may be a licence holder waiting on a project and not a failed business. Health sits at the opposite pole, where professional licensing and steady demand seem to keep companies active. We cannot prove those reasons from registry data. We can say that the same 50.0 percent national figure hides a 43 point spread between the top and bottom sections. Read the section before you read the average.
What this page does not show
Dormant is not dissolved, and it is not a death rate. Companies leave the dormant group by reviving as well as by closing. We have no dates for either move in these aggregates. Treat each share as a snapshot of status, not a flow.
Definitions
- Dormant
- A registered company the registry does not mark as active. It has not been dissolved and can still return to active status.
- Dormant share
- Dormant companies in a section divided by all companies in that section.
- Industry section
- One of the 21 lettered top-level groups of the Thailand Standard Industrial Classification, which follows the international ISIC letters.
- Death rate
- In Eurostat business demography, the share of enterprises that cease to exist in a year. It is a flow, unlike the dormant share here, which is a stock.
Assumptions
- Dormant means not active in the registry. It does not mean closed, insolvent or dissolved.
- The figures are a single snapshot and carry no dates of revival or closure.
- Section counts come from 5-digit TSIC rows, so a few sections differ by under 100 companies from the section summary table.
- Tiny sections T, U and O, with 74 companies in all, are left out of the ranking.
Methodology
Dormant companies are those the Department of Business Development registry marks as not active, counted per 5-digit TSIC code and summed to the 21 lettered industry sections as of 17 July 2026. Dormant share is dormant companies divided by all companies in the section. The national 50.0 percent is 993,336 dormant of 1,986,709 companies with a size band. Section counts here come from the 5-digit table and differ by under 100 companies in a few sections from the section summary table. Sections T, U and O hold 74 companies in total and are excluded from the chart and ranking.
How we verified this
- National share recomputed: 993,336 dormant divided by 1,986,709 companies equals 50.00 percent. Dormant plus active (993,373) sums to 1,986,709.
- Mining: 5,691 divided by 8,231 equals 69.14 percent. Construction: 163,076 divided by 283,564 equals 57.51 percent. Wholesale and retail: 389,996 divided by 716,066 equals 54.46 percent.
- Health: 4,516 divided by 17,294 equals 26.11 percent. Spread between mining and health: 69.14 minus 26.11 equals 43.03 points.
- Construction plus wholesale and retail companies: 283,564 plus 716,066 equals 999,630. Their dormant companies: 163,076 plus 389,996 equals 553,072, and 553,072 divided by 993,336 equals 55.7 percent.
- Section company counts across all 21 sections sum to 1,986,709, matching the national size-band total. Five of 18 ranked sections exceed 50.0 percent.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Eurostat. (n.d.). Business demography statistics. European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Business_demography_statistics
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry has the highest share of dormant companies?
Mining and quarrying, at 69.14 percent of 8,231 companies, among sections with at least 4,818 companies (DBD, 2026).
Which industry has the lowest dormant share?
Human health and social work, at 26.11 percent, or 4,516 of 17,294 companies.
Is a dormant company the same as a dissolved company?
No. A dormant company is still registered but not marked active. It may revive or later close, and these aggregates do not show which.
What is the national dormant share?
50.0 percent, or 993,336 of 1,986,709 companies with a size band as of 17 July 2026.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Dormant Company Share by Thai Industry Section (2026). Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/share-of-dormant-companies-in-each-thai-industry-section-vs-the-national-50-percent-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.