High Margins, Low Survival: Thai Industry Sections, 2026
In short
Mining and quarrying posts Thailand's second highest net margin among 18 major industry sections, at 14.03 percent, trailing only financial and insurance at 25.40 percent. Its survival rate tells the opposite story. Only 30.86 percent of registered mining and quarrying companies remain active, the lowest of any of the 18 sections and nearly 24 points under the 54.89 percent section average. Financial and insurance, education, electricity and human health all combine strong margins with survival rates above 57 percent. Mining stands alone as proof that a fat margin does not buy a company a long life.
Which Thai industry has high margins but low survival?
Mining and quarrying answers that question on its own. The sector turns 14.03 percent of every baht of revenue into net profit, the second highest margin among Thailand's 18 major industry sections, just behind financial and insurance at 25.40 percent (DBD, 2026). Its survival record tells a different story. Only 30.86 percent of registered mining and quarrying companies remain active, the lowest of all 18 sections and nearly 24 points under the 54.89 percent average. No other section pairs a top two margin with a bottom of the table survival rate. Financial and insurance, the only section with a fatter margin, still keeps 58.21 percent of its companies active. Human health and social work shows what the pattern is meant to look like. It runs an 11.07 percent margin, the sixth richest of the 18 sections, and posts a 73.89 percent survival rate, the highest of any section. Mining is the outlier that breaks the rule, not the rule itself.
Survival rate by industry section
- Mining and quarrying31
- Construction42
- Wholesale and retail trade46
- Manufacturing47
- Arts, entertainment and recreation49
- Transportation and storage52
- Information and communication55
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing56
- Administrative and support57
- Education58
- Accommodation and food service58
- Financial and insurance58
- Professional, scientific and technical59
- Electricity and gas60
- Other services62
- Water supply and waste management62
- Real estate62
- Human health and social work74
Figures in percent of registered companies still active.
Mining and quarrying sits alone at the bottom of the survival ranking, well below sections with weaker margins and below every other high margin section.
Net margin and survival rate, ranked by margin
| Industry section | Net margin | Survival rate | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial and insurance | 25.40% | 58.21% | 35,567 |
| Mining and quarrying | 14.03% | 30.86% | 8,231 |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 13.64% | 58.51% | 138,962 |
| Education | 13.13% | 57.70% | 13,897 |
| Electricity and gas | 11.86% | 60.27% | 7,833 |
| Human health and social work | 11.07% | 73.89% | 17,294 |
| Real estate | 7.69% | 62.42% | 149,608 |
| Water supply and waste management | 7.31% | 62.41% | 4,818 |
| Transportation and storage | 6.27% | 51.80% | 85,273 |
| Information and communication | 5.81% | 55.25% | 52,537 |
| Accommodation and food service | 5.65% | 58.09% | 83,598 |
| Manufacturing | 4.38% | 47.34% | 230,396 |
| Administrative and support | 4.33% | 56.63% | 100,691 |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 2.55% | 55.71% | 19,259 |
| Construction | 2.31% | 42.49% | 283,534 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 1.27% | 45.54% | 715,976 |
| Other services | 0.37% | 61.80% | 20,455 |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | -1.09% | 49.07% | 18,486 |
The 18 major industry sections, ranked from the richest margin to the thinnest, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
The pattern across Thailand's 18 major sections is reassuring for most of the economy. A high margin usually travels with a high survival rate, not against it. Financial and insurance, professional services, education, electricity and human health all rank among the six richest margins and each still keeps more than 57 percent of its companies active. Mining and quarrying breaks that pattern by itself. A rich margin lets a mining company post strong profits while a deposit still yields ore or stone, but licensing terms, commodity price cycles and the finite size of a concession decide how long that flow lasts. When a concession expires or a price cycle turns, the company closes no matter how profitable its last filed statement looked. That is the real lesson for an investor, a lender or a supplier reading these numbers. A margin says how well a company converts revenue into profit this year. A survival rate says whether the company is still standing to report a margin at all. Reading only the margin, in mining above all, means missing half the picture.
Definitions
- Net margin
- Net profit as a share of revenue. A ten percent margin means ten satang of profit for every baht of revenue.
- Survival rate
- The share of a section's registered companies whose registration status is coded active rather than inactive in the DBD registry.
- Active company
- A registered company whose DBD registration status is currently coded active, as opposed to dissolved, struck off or otherwise inactive.
- Aggregate margin
- Total sector net profit divided by total sector revenue, rather than the average of each company's own margin.
- TSIC section
- The top tier of the Thailand Standard Industrial Classification, one of 21 lettered categories such as mining and quarrying or financial and insurance.
Assumptions
- Only companies that filed a financial statement contribute to the net margin figures.
- Survival rate reflects registration status in the DBD registry, not proof that a company is still trading day to day.
- Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations are excluded from the ranking for having well under 40 registered companies each, too few for a stable ratio.
- Section level survival rate is a company weighted roll up of the underlying 5 digit TSIC codes, not a simple average of those codes.
Methodology
Net margin is aggregate net profit divided by aggregate revenue for all companies in a section that filed a financial statement, drawn from the DBD registry as of 17 July 2026. Survival rate is the share of a section's registered companies still coded active rather than inactive, built by summing active and inactive counts across every 5 digit TSIC code inside that section, since the section level table itself carries no survival column. Both figures are section wide aggregates, not averages of individual company ratios. Coverage is limited to the 18 major sections with a meaningful number of registered companies, excluding public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations, which have well under 40 registered companies each and produce unstable ratios.
How we verified this
- Sections were ranked by net margin from the section level query. Financial and insurance led at 25.40 percent and mining and quarrying followed at 14.03 percent, the second highest of the 18 major sections.
- Survival rate was recomputed by hand as active divided by active plus inactive per section, summed from 5 digit TSIC rows grouped by section. Mining and quarrying computed to 2,540 active of 8,231 total companies, which is 30.86 percent, the lowest of the 18 sections.
- The 18 section average survival rate was recomputed as the simple mean of the 18 individual survival rates, summing to 987.99 and dividing by 18 for 54.89 percent. Mining and quarrying's 30.86 percent sits 24.03 points below that average.
- Company counts across the 18 major sections were summed to 1,986,415, which matches the registry's 1,986,489 companies with a classified section once the 74 companies in the excluded public administration, household and extraterritorial sections are subtracted.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Nation Thailand. (2026). Thailand factory closures outpace openings as SME strain deepens, citing NESDC data. https://www.nationthailand.com/business/economy/40066477
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry has a high profit margin but low business survival?
Mining and quarrying. It earns a 14.03 percent net margin, the second highest of Thailand's 18 major industry sections, yet only 30.86 percent of its registered companies remain active, the lowest survival rate of any section.
Does a high profit margin usually mean a Thai industry survives longer?
Usually yes. Financial and insurance, professional services, education, electricity and human health all rank among the six highest margin sections and each keeps more than 57 percent of its companies active. Mining and quarrying is the exception.
Which Thai industry section has the highest business survival rate?
Human health and social work, at 73.89 percent, paired with an 11.07 percent net margin, the sixth highest margin among the 18 major sections.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). High Margins, Low Survival: Thai Industry Sections, 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thai-industry-sections-where-high-margins-dont-mean-high-survival-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.