Thai Register vs Active Register by Industry 2026
In short
Thailand's register shrinks by 50.0 percent when only active companies count, as of 17 July 2026. The UK register shrinks by about 10 percent, from 5.48 million to 4.93 million. Mining and quarrying is the most inflated Thai section, with 69.1 percent of its companies inactive. Construction follows at 57.5 percent, and wholesale and retail at 54.5 percent. Human health is the cleanest section at 26.1 percent, still well above the UK gap.
How much smaller is each section if only active companies count?
Thailand has 1,986,709 companies with a size band and 993,373 of them are active, so the effective register is 50.0 percent smaller than the registered one (DBD, 2026). The UK register of 5.48 million has an effective register of 4.93 million, a gap of about 10 percent. Thailand's gap is five times larger. No Thai section comes close to the UK figure. The cleanest, human health and social work, still loses 26.1 percent. The worst, mining and quarrying, loses 69.1 percent. Five sections sit above the national 50 percent line: mining, construction, wholesale and retail, manufacturing and arts and entertainment.
Share of registered companies that are inactive, by industry section
- Mining and quarrying69
- Construction58
- Wholesale and retail trade55
- Manufacturing53
- Arts and entertainment51
- Transportation and storage48
- Information and communication45
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing44
- Administrative and support43
- Education42
- Accommodation and food service42
- Financial and insurance42
- Professional, scientific and technical42
- Electricity and gas40
- Other services38
- Water and waste38
- Real estate38
- Human health and social work26
Figures in percent of registered companies that are inactive.
The UK gap is about 10 percent. Every Thai section is above 26 percent.
Registered and active companies by industry section
| Industry section | Registered | Active | Inactive | Inactive share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining and quarrying | 8,231 | 2,540 | 5,691 | 69.1% |
| Construction | 283,564 | 120,488 | 163,076 | 57.5% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 716,066 | 326,070 | 389,996 | 54.5% |
| Manufacturing | 230,396 | 109,063 | 121,333 | 52.7% |
| Arts and entertainment | 18,486 | 9,072 | 9,414 | 50.9% |
| Transportation and storage | 85,303 | 44,190 | 41,113 | 48.2% |
| Information and communication | 52,537 | 29,027 | 23,510 | 44.7% |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 19,259 | 10,729 | 8,530 | 44.3% |
| Administrative and support | 100,711 | 57,034 | 43,677 | 43.4% |
| Education | 13,897 | 8,018 | 5,879 | 42.3% |
| Accommodation and food service | 83,608 | 48,564 | 35,044 | 41.9% |
| Financial and insurance | 35,577 | 20,710 | 14,867 | 41.8% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 138,982 | 81,315 | 57,667 | 41.5% |
| Electricity and gas | 7,833 | 4,721 | 3,112 | 39.7% |
| Other services | 20,455 | 12,642 | 7,813 | 38.2% |
| Water and waste | 4,818 | 3,007 | 1,811 | 37.6% |
| Real estate | 149,618 | 93,390 | 56,228 | 37.6% |
| Human health and social work | 17,294 | 12,778 | 4,516 | 26.1% |
Registered, active and inactive companies by TSIC section, sorted by inactive share, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Where the inflation sits
Wholesale and retail trade holds 389,996 inactive companies and construction holds 163,076. Together that is 553,072 inactive companies, which is 55.7 percent of the inactive total across the 18 sections shown. Add manufacturing at 121,333 and three sections carry 67.9 percent of all inactive companies. These are sections with low barriers to entry, where a registration costs little and a dormant shell costs less. Mining is a different story. Only 8,231 companies are registered there, yet 5,691 are inactive. A small, licence-heavy section with so high an inactive share suggests many registrations that never began or no longer operate. The data cannot say which.
Why this matters
Anyone sizing a Thai market from raw registrations overcounts it by a wide margin. A count of 716,066 trading companies sounds like a huge field of competitors. The active count is 326,070. A supplier list, a lender screen or a market model built on the registered figure carries the same distortion. The fix is cheap: filter to active companies first, then choose the section. The gap runs from 26.1 percent in health to 69.1 percent in mining, so one national haircut of 50 percent would understate mining and overstate health. Section-level activity is the correction worth using.
Definitions
- Registered company
- A company listed in the DBD registry, whether or not it still trades.
- Active company
- A registered company that the registry flags as active.
- Inactive share
- Inactive companies divided by registered companies in the same section.
- Effective register
- The register after removing companies that are not active.
- TSIC section
- One of the lettered top-level industry groups in the Thai Standard Industrial Classification, based on the international ISIC letters.
Assumptions
- Inactive in the registry does not prove a company never traded, only that it is not flagged active.
- The UK comparison uses supplied figures and the definitions of effective register may differ from the Thai active flag.
- Section totals built from five-digit rows differ from the section table by a few companies in some sections, and the five-digit rows are used throughout.
- Row computed_at is 17 July 2026, newer than the 7 July anchors in the data guide.
Methodology
Counts come from the Department of Business Development registry as of 17 July 2026, aggregated by TSIC industry section from five-digit industry code rows. Active and inactive follow the registry status flags. Inactive share is inactive companies divided by registered companies in the section. Sections O, T and U hold 74 companies in total and are left out of the chart and table, though they are in the national totals. The UK figures of 5.48 million registered and 4.93 million effective are supplied reference values and were not recomputed here.
How we verified this
- National gap: 993,373 active of 1,986,709 is 50.0 percent, so 50.0 percent are inactive.
- UK gap: 4.93 divided by 5.48 is 89.96 percent, so the gap is 10.04 percent, about 10 percent.
- Thai gap over UK gap: 50.0 divided by 10.04 is 4.98, about five times.
- Sum of registered across 18 sections is 1,986,635 and adding sections O, T and U at 74 gives 1,986,709.
- Sum of active across 18 sections is 993,358 and adding 15 from O, T and U gives 993,373.
- Mining: 1 minus 2,540 over 8,231 is 69.1 percent. Health: 1 minus 12,778 over 17,294 is 26.1 percent.
- Wholesale plus construction inactive: 389,996 plus 163,076 is 553,072, divided by 993,277 is 55.7 percent. Adding manufacturing 121,333 gives 674,405, or 67.9 percent.
- Five sections above 50 percent: mining 69.1, construction 57.5, wholesale and retail 54.5, manufacturing 52.7, arts 50.9.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and status aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Companies House. (2026). Companies House official statistics. UK Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house
Frequently asked questions
How much smaller is the Thai register if only active companies count?
It is 50.0 percent smaller, with 993,373 active of 1,986,709 companies with a size band, as of 17 July 2026.
How does that compare with the UK?
The UK register of 5.48 million has an effective register of 4.93 million, a gap of about 10 percent, so the Thai gap is roughly five times larger.
Which Thai industry section is the most inflated?
Mining and quarrying, where 5,691 of 8,231 registered companies, or 69.1 percent, are inactive.
Which section is the cleanest?
Human health and social work, with 4,516 inactive of 17,294 companies, or 26.1 percent.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thai Register vs Active Register by Industry 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thai-register-vs-effective-register-by-industry-section-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.