Thai Industries Where the Average Firm Shrank, 2015 to 2025
In short
Eight Thai industry sections filed more total revenue in 2025 than in 2015, but the average company inside them earned less. Human health had the steepest fall, with the typical filer's revenue down 36.4 percent, from 80.8 million to 51.4 million baht. Financial and insurance fell 35.8 percent. Agriculture's total revenue more than doubled, up 111.7 percent, yet its filing base nearly tripled, so the average agriculture company's revenue dropped 30.1 percent, from about 70 million to 49 million baht. The cause is dilution, not decline. New, smaller filers joined faster than each sector's revenue grew.
Where did the average company shrink while its sector grew?
Eight of the eighteen Thai industry sections with usable data in both years grew their total filed revenue from 2015 to 2025 while the average company inside them earned less by the end. Human health and social work leads the list. Its filers reported 219.5 billion baht combined in 2015 and 475.3 billion baht in 2025, a total gain of 116.5 percent, yet the typical filer's own revenue fell 36.4 percent, from 80.8 million to 51.4 million baht. Financial and insurance shows the same pattern with a smaller total gain of just 6.8 percent against an average decline of 35.8 percent. Real estate, agriculture, information and communication, professional services, other service activities, and education complete the list. Education's decline is the smallest of the eight, just 0.4 percent. Its total revenue still rose 93.0 percent over the same decade. In every one of these eight, the count of filing companies grew faster than the revenue did, so each new entrant diluted the average.
Change in average revenue per company, 2015 to 2025
- Human health and social work-36
- Financial and insurance-36
- Real estate-32
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing-30
- Information and communication-22
- Professional, scientific and technical-18
- Other service activities-7
- Education-0
- Construction2
- Accommodation and food service3
- Manufacturing3
- Electricity and gas8
- Transportation and storage13
- Administrative and support15
- Arts, entertainment and recreation29
- Water supply and waste31
- Mining and quarrying37
- Wholesale and retail trade58
Figures in percent change in average revenue per company.
Bars below zero are sections where the sector grew but the typical company earned less by 2025.
The eight sections where the average company earned less in 2025 than in 2015
| Industry section | Avg revenue 2015, baht | Avg revenue 2025, baht | Avg revenue change | Total revenue growth | Filer count growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human health and social work | 80,788,072 | 51,422,868 | -36.4% | +116.5% | +240.2% |
| Financial and insurance | 257,688,531 | 165,343,621 | -35.8% | +6.8% | +66.5% |
| Real estate | 20,944,708 | 14,339,202 | -31.5% | +9.5% | +59.9% |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 69,637,473 | 48,694,152 | -30.1% | +111.7% | +202.7% |
| Information and communication | 58,055,517 | 45,113,661 | -22.3% | +11.8% | +43.8% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 18,023,625 | 14,695,791 | -18.5% | +33.7% | +63.9% |
| Other service activities | 8,652,119 | 8,072,705 | -6.7% | +123.7% | +139.8% |
| Education | 9,230,299 | 9,195,037 | -0.4% | +93.0% | +93.7% |
Average revenue per filing company, 2558 and 2568 in the Buddhist calendar, equal to 2015 and 2025. Ranked by size of the decline.
Why this matters
A rising sector total is the number most people quote, and it flatters every one of these eight sections. Agriculture's headline growth of 111.7 percent sounds like a boom, and by total revenue it is one. But a filer joining agriculture in 2025 stood a good chance of earning less than a filer already there in 2015 did, because the base of companies nearly tripled while revenue only a little more than doubled. The same math plays out harder in human health, where a decade of new clinics, labs and care operators added far more filers than the sector's revenue could support per company, and in financial services, where the filing base grew by two thirds while total revenue barely moved. For a founder, a lender or a buyer sizing up one of these sectors, the total growth figure alone is misleading. The number that describes what a typical new entrant can expect to earn is the average, and in these eight sections that number went down, not up. Dilution from a fast-growing filing base, not a shrinking market, is the mechanism, and it is a different risk to underwrite than an outright sector decline.
Definitions
- Average revenue per company
- A section's total filed revenue for a statement year divided by the number of companies that filed a financial statement that year. It describes the typical filer, not any single company.
- Dilution effect
- A fall in average revenue per company caused by the count of companies growing faster than total revenue, so each company's average share shrinks even while the sector total rises.
- TSIC section
- One of the 21 lettered top-level categories in Thailand's Standard Industrial Classification, such as agriculture, manufacturing, or financial and insurance, each built from many five-digit industry codes.
- Statement year
- The fiscal year a filed financial statement covers. The source registry records this in the Thai Buddhist calendar, so year 2558 equals calendar 2015 and year 2568 equals calendar 2025.
- Filing company
- A registered company that submitted a financial statement for the given year. Companies that registered but never filed are not counted in these averages.
Assumptions
- Figures cover only companies that filed a financial statement for statement years 2558 and 2568 in the Buddhist calendar, equal to 2015 and 2025. Registered but non filing companies are excluded from both years.
- Public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial bodies are excluded because they had no recorded filings in one or both of the two years.
- Average revenue per company is a section wide mean, total revenue divided by filer count. It is not the median, so a handful of very large or very small filers can move it.
- The comparison uses only the two endpoint years, 2015 and 2025, rather than a full 20 year trend line, so a single unusual year at either endpoint could affect a given section's figure.
Methodology
Average revenue per company is a section's total filed revenue divided by its count of filing companies for a given statement year, computed from Department of Business Development registry aggregates as of 14 August 2026. Statement years follow the Thai Buddhist calendar in the source tables, so year 2558 is matched to calendar 2015 and year 2568 to calendar 2025. Five-digit industry codes were grouped into their parent industry section before totals were summed. Sections with no filings recorded in one of the two years, namely public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial bodies, are excluded. A section counts as a decline only when its average revenue per company fell from 2015 to 2025 while its total revenue rose over the same span.
How we verified this
- Agriculture: total revenue rose from 173,466,944,074.15 baht in 2015 to 367,202,601,779.80 baht in 2025, a recomputed gain of 367,202,601,779.80 divided by 173,466,944,074.15, minus 1, times 100, which equals 111.68 percent.
- Agriculture: the filing count rose from 2,491 to 7,541 companies, a recomputed gain of 7,541 divided by 2,491, minus 1, times 100, which equals 202.73 percent, confirming the base grew faster than revenue.
- Agriculture average revenue per company was recomputed directly as total revenue divided by filing count for each year: 173466944074.15 divided by 2491 equals 69,637,473 baht in 2015, and 367202601779.80 divided by 7541 equals 48,694,152 baht in 2025, a decline of 30.07 percent, matching the brief's approximate figures of 70 million and 49 million baht.
- Human health and social work was recomputed the same way: 219,501,190,786.15 baht over 2,717 filers gives 80,788,072 baht average in 2015, and 475,301,566,787.27 baht over 9,243 filers gives 51,422,868 baht average in 2025, a decline of 36.35 percent, the steepest of the eighteen sections checked.
- Financial and insurance was recomputed as 2,527,924,490,965.76 baht over 9,810 filers, 257,688,531 baht average in 2015, against 2,700,392,016,056.07 baht over 16,332 filers, 165,343,621 baht average in 2025, a decline of 35.84 percent.
- All eighteen industry sections with revenue and filer counts recorded in both 2015 and 2025 were ranked by percent change in average revenue per company. Eight showed a decline alongside positive total revenue growth, confirming dilution rather than sector contraction in every one of the eight.
- Education was recomputed as well: 27,967,806,955.85 baht over 3,030 filers gives 9,230,299 baht average in 2015, and 53,974,864,368.97 baht over 5,870 filers gives 9,195,037 baht average in 2025, a decline of 0.38 percent even though Education's own total revenue rose 92.99 percent. This is the eighth and smallest section in the pattern, missed if a reader rounds its decline down to zero.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- World Bank. (2025). Thailand economic monitor, February 2025: Unleashing growth, innovation, SMEs and startups. World Bank Group. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/thailand/publication/thailand-economic-monitor-february-2025-unleashing-growth-innovation-smes-and-startups
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry had the biggest fall in average company revenue since 2015?
Human health and social work, where the average filing company's revenue fell 36.4 percent, from about 80.8 million baht in 2015 to 51.4 million baht in 2025, even as the sector's total revenue grew 116.5 percent.
Did Thailand's agriculture sector actually shrink since 2015?
No. Total filed agriculture revenue more than doubled, up 111.7 percent. But the number of filing companies nearly tripled, up 202.7 percent, so the average company's revenue fell from about 70 million to 49 million baht, a drop of 30.1 percent.
Why can a sector's total revenue rise while the average company earns less?
When the count of filing companies grows faster than total revenue, each company's share of that revenue shrinks even though the total pie is bigger. This is a compositional or dilution effect from new entrants, not evidence that existing businesses are failing.
How many Thai industry sections showed this dilution pattern?
Eight of the eighteen sections with usable data in both years: human health, financial and insurance, real estate, agriculture, information and communication, professional and scientific services, other service activities, and education. Education's decline was the smallest, just 0.4 percent.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thai Industries Where the Average Firm Shrank, 2015 to 2025. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thai-industry-sections-where-the-average-company-shrank-2015-2025
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.