Thai Companies Still Active vs EU Five-Year Survival (2026)
In short
Half of Thai registered companies are still active, 993,373 of 1,986,709, as of 17 July 2026. By sector the share runs from 30.86 percent in mining to 73.89 percent in health care. That is a gap of 43 points inside one country. Eurostat measures something different, the share of one birth cohort alive five years later. Read the two side by side, but never subtract one from the other.
Is half of the Thai register really alive?
Exactly 993,373 of 1,986,709 registered companies are active, which is 50.0 percent (DBD, 2026). The other 993,336 are marked inactive. That sounds alarming until you ask what Eurostat counts. Its business demography series follows enterprises born in one year and asks how many are still operating five years later (Eurostat, 2024). Our figure is a snapshot of every company ever registered and still on the books, whatever its age. A register that never purges old entries will always look worse than a cohort that has only had five years to fail. So the honest reading is a ceiling on how much damage the register can show, not a death rate.
Share of companies still active, by industry section
- Human health and social work74
- Real estate62
- Water and waste62
- Other services62
- Electricity and gas60
- Professional, scientific and technical59
- Financial and insurance58
- Accommodation and food service58
- Education58
- Administrative and support57
- Agriculture56
- Information and communication55
- Transportation and storage52
- Arts and entertainment49
- Manufacturing47
- Wholesale and retail trade46
- Construction42
- Mining and quarrying31
Figures in percent active.
Sections with fewer than 100 companies are left out. The spread from mining to health care is 43.03 points.
Active companies by industry section
| Industry section | Companies | Active | Active share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human health and social work | 17,294 | 12,778 | 73.89% |
| Real estate | 149,618 | 93,390 | 62.42% |
| Water and waste | 4,818 | 3,007 | 62.41% |
| Other services | 20,455 | 12,642 | 61.80% |
| Electricity and gas | 7,833 | 4,721 | 60.27% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 138,982 | 81,315 | 58.51% |
| Financial and insurance | 35,577 | 20,710 | 58.21% |
| Accommodation and food service | 83,608 | 48,564 | 58.09% |
| Education | 13,897 | 8,018 | 57.70% |
| Administrative and support | 100,711 | 57,034 | 56.63% |
| Agriculture | 19,259 | 10,729 | 55.71% |
| Information and communication | 52,537 | 29,027 | 55.25% |
| Transportation and storage | 85,303 | 44,190 | 51.80% |
| Arts and entertainment | 18,486 | 9,072 | 49.07% |
| Manufacturing | 230,396 | 109,063 | 47.34% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 716,066 | 326,070 | 45.54% |
| Construction | 283,564 | 120,488 | 42.49% |
| Mining and quarrying | 8,231 | 2,540 | 30.86% |
Active share equals active companies divided by all companies in the section, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why the sector spread is the real story
Health care keeps 73.89 percent of its companies active. Real estate keeps 62.42 percent. Construction keeps 42.49 percent and mining keeps 30.86 percent. Wholesale and retail, the biggest section with 716,066 companies, sits at 45.54 percent. That single section holds 389,996 inactive entries, more than any other. Eurostat also reports survival that differs sharply by sector, with services and trade usually behaving differently from industry. Thailand shows a similar pattern in a different metric. Licensed, capital-heavy or regulated lines hold their entries. Easy-entry trading and building lines shed them.
What the comparison can and cannot tell you
Three differences matter. First, cohort versus stock. Eurostat tracks a birth year, Thailand counts everyone. Second, definition. Eurostat treats an enterprise as dead when it stops operating, while a Thai company can stay registered long after it stops trading, or be flagged inactive for filing reasons. Third, scope. Eurostat covers market enterprises with employees or turnover, and the Thai register includes micro shells of every kind. Our active share is therefore a lower bound on how many firms are truly trading and an unreliable guide to how fast new firms die. Anyone quoting a Thai five-year survival rate from this table has invented it. Reading the sector ranking is safe. Reading a gap against Europe is not.
Why this matters
A founder, lender or supplier who sees half the register inactive might price Thai business risk far too high. A supplier checking a counterparty in construction should assume a thinner active pool than one checking a clinic. Better still, read the individual filing history before extending credit. The path to a true Thai survival rate is a cohort table, built from founding year and current status. That is the next dataset worth building.
Definitions
- Active company
- A company whose registry status is active, regardless of its age or whether it has filed accounts.
- Inactive company
- A registered company not flagged active. It may have stopped trading, been dissolved, or stopped reporting.
- Five-year survival rate
- The share of enterprises born in one year that are still operating five years later, as defined by Eurostat.
- Birth cohort
- All enterprises founded in the same year, followed together over time.
- TSIC section
- One of 21 lettered industry groups in the Thai Standard Industrial Classification.
Assumptions
- The Thai figure is a stock of all registered companies, not a birth cohort, so it is not a survival rate.
- Registry inactive status may lag real trading status in either direction.
- No numeric EU survival rate is quoted. Readers should take the current figure from Eurostat directly.
- Rows were computed on 17 July 2026, later than the 7 July anchors, and the headline counts are unchanged.
Methodology
Counts come from the Department of Business Development registry as aggregated by Max Data, with rows computed on 17 July 2026. A company is counted as active or inactive using the registry status flag. Section figures sum the five-digit TSIC codes within each lettered section. Active share is active companies divided by all companies in the section. Sections O, T and U hold fewer than 40 companies each and are excluded from charts. No cohort survival rate was computed and none is claimed. Eurostat is cited for definitions only.
How we verified this
- Active share recomputed: 993,373 divided by 1,986,709 equals 50.00 percent.
- Active plus inactive recomputed: 993,373 plus 993,336 equals 1,986,709.
- Mining recomputed: 2,540 divided by 8,231 equals 30.86 percent.
- Health care recomputed: 12,778 divided by 17,294 equals 73.89 percent.
- Spread recomputed: 73.89 minus 30.86 equals 43.03 points.
- Wholesale and retail recomputed: 326,070 divided by 716,066 equals 45.54 percent, with 389,996 inactive.
- Section sums of entity count and active count match the national 1,986,709 and 993,373 once sections O, T and U are included.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and status aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Eurostat. (2024). Business demography statistics. European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Business_demography_statistics
Frequently asked questions
What share of Thai companies is active?
50.0 percent, which is 993,373 of 1,986,709 companies with a size band, as of 17 July 2026.
Is this the same as the EU five-year survival rate?
No. Eurostat follows one birth cohort for five years. The Thai figure is a snapshot of the whole register regardless of company age.
Which Thai sector has the highest active share?
Human health and social work at 73.89 percent, followed by real estate at 62.42 percent.
Which sector has the lowest active share?
Mining and quarrying at 30.86 percent among sections with meaningful counts.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thai Companies Still Active vs EU Five-Year Survival (2026). Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thai-company-survival-vs-eu-five-year-survival-rates-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.