Thailand's Smallest Business Provinces by Company Count (2026)
In short
Mae Hong Son has 1,569 registered companies, the fewest of any classified province in Thailand, as of 2 July 2026. Uthai Thani follows at 2,099 and Satun at 2,110. Bangkok alone holds 812,799 companies, about 518 times Mae Hong Son's count. The ten smallest provinces combined hold only 23,608 companies, just 1.19 percent of the national total. Company count and business intensity do not always move together. Chai Nat, the tenth smallest province by count, still books 27.09 million baht of revenue per company, the highest among the ten.
Which province has the fewest registered companies?
Mae Hong Son, a mountainous northern province on the Myanmar border, holds just 1,569 registered companies as of 2 July 2026 (DBD, 2026), the lowest of any classified province in the country. Uthai Thani sits second at 2,099 and Satun third at 2,110, both still under 2,120. Amnat Charoen, Sing Buri, Bueng Kan, Samut Songkhram, Ranong, Ang Thong and Chai Nat round out the ten smallest, none topping 2,900. For scale, Bangkok alone carries 812,799 registered companies, about 518 times Mae Hong Son's count. This page runs the country's richest and most efficient province rankings in reverse: it starts from the bottom.
Ten provinces with the fewest registered companies
- Mae Hong Son1,569
- Uthai Thani2,099
- Satun2,110
- Amnat Charoen2,288
- Sing Buri2,306
- Bueng Kan2,326
- Samut Songkhram2,468
- Ranong2,651
- Ang Thong2,894
- Chai Nat2,897
Figures in registered companies.
Mae Hong Son sits alone at the bottom. Every other province in the ranking still clears 2,000 companies.
The ten smallest provinces by company count
| Province | Companies | Revenue, million baht | Revenue per company, million baht |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mae Hong Son | 1,569 | 5,948 | 3.79 |
| Uthai Thani | 2,099 | 28,320 | 13.49 |
| Satun | 2,110 | 25,274 | 11.98 |
| Amnat Charoen | 2,288 | 20,748 | 9.07 |
| Sing Buri | 2,306 | 52,251 | 22.66 |
| Bueng Kan | 2,326 | 17,508 | 7.53 |
| Samut Songkhram | 2,468 | 57,208 | 23.18 |
| Ranong | 2,651 | 38,554 | 14.54 |
| Ang Thong | 2,894 | 38,879 | 13.43 |
| Chai Nat | 2,897 | 78,479 | 27.09 |
Ranked ascending by registered companies, as of 2 Jul 2026. Revenue per company is total reported revenue divided by registered companies.
Why this matters
A thin company count usually maps onto geography and population, not neglect. Mae Hong Son is the most sparsely populated province in Thailand, hemmed in by mountains with limited road access to the rest of the country, so it never built the dense small-business base that flatter, better-connected provinces did. That same physical isolation is why it also ranks among Thailand's poorest provinces by gross provincial product on official regional accounts (NESDC, 2024). The company data adds a sharper detail than population alone would. Mae Hong Son is not just short on companies, it is short on companies that generate much revenue. Its revenue per company is 3.79 million baht, the lowest of the ten smallest provinces and just about half of Bueng Kan's 7.53 million, its nearest neighbor on this measure. Chai Nat breaks the pattern entirely. It ranks tenth by company count yet books 27.09 million baht of revenue per company, about seven times Mae Hong Son's figure and nearly half of Bangkok's own revenue per company of 57.98 million baht. A province can be small on paper and still hold a handful of companies that punch well above their headcount. Scarcity of companies and scarcity of output are related but not identical stories. Mae Hong Son happens to score low on both.
Definitions
- Registered company
- A juristic person recorded in the Department of Business Development registry, whether or not it has filed a financial statement.
- Classified province
- A province with a recognized code in the registry. Two records in the underlying table carry no province code and are excluded from every ranking on this page.
- Revenue per company
- A province's total reported revenue divided by its full registered company count, including companies that never filed. It is an intensity measure, not an average of filing firms.
- Registered head office
- The address a company records with the registry. A company is counted in this province even if it operates elsewhere.
Assumptions
- Companies are counted where their registered head office sits, not necessarily where they physically operate.
- Revenue per company divides by all registered companies including non-filers, so it understates the true average revenue of companies that actually filed.
- Two unclassified province records covering 572 companies are excluded from the ranking and from the 1,986,137 national total used here.
- Gross provincial product context is drawn from a separate NESDC dataset and is not directly comparable to the registry's revenue figures.
Methodology
Company counts and reported revenue are drawn from the Department of Business Development registry as of 2 July 2026, aggregated per province of registered head office. The ranking excludes two unclassified records in the underlying table, together 572 companies with no assigned province, leaving 77 classified provinces summing to 1,986,137 companies. Revenue per company divides a province's total reported revenue by its full registered company count, including companies that never filed a financial statement, so it is a rough intensity measure rather than an average of filing firms.
How we verified this
- Mae Hong Son confirmed as the company-count minimum among 77 classified provinces at 1,569, below Uthai Thani's 2,099 and Satun's 2,110.
- Bangkok's multiple recomputed: 812,799 divided by 1,569 equals about 518 times Mae Hong Son's company count.
- Ten smallest provinces summed to 23,608 companies, recomputed as 23,608 divided by 1,986,137 equals 1.19 percent of the national classified total.
- Ten smallest provinces summed to 363,168,155,507.72 baht of revenue, recomputed as that sum divided by the 76,623,676,606,250 baht national total equals 0.47 percent.
- Chai Nat revenue per company recomputed: 78,478,864,724.47 baht divided by 2,897 companies equals about 27.09 million baht, the highest per-company figure among the ten smallest provinces.
- Mae Hong Son revenue per company recomputed: 5,947,639,059.19 baht divided by 1,569 companies equals about 3.79 million baht, the lowest among the ten.
- Bangkok revenue per company recomputed: 47,126,517,712,432.41 baht divided by 812,799 companies equals about 57.98 million baht, so Chai Nat's 27.09 million baht sits at just under half of Bangkok's intensity.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates by province. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council. (2024). Gross Regional and Provincial Product, Chain Volume Measures. NESDC, Thailand. https://www.nesdc.go.th/en/info/gross-regional-and-provincial-product-gpp/
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai province has the fewest registered companies?
Mae Hong Son, with 1,569 registered companies as of 2 July 2026, the fewest of any classified province in the country.
What are the second and third smallest provinces by company count?
Uthai Thani, with 2,099 registered companies, and Satun, with 2,110, both still under 2,120 total.
How many companies do the ten smallest provinces hold combined?
23,608 companies combined, just 1.19 percent of the 1,986,137 companies across all 77 classified provinces.
Does a low company count mean a weak local economy?
Often, but not always. Mae Hong Son also has the lowest revenue per company among the ten smallest provinces at 3.79 million baht, while Chai Nat, also in the bottom ten by count, reaches 27.09 million baht per company.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thailand's Smallest Business Provinces by Company Count (2026). Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/smallest-business-provinces-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.