Thailand vs Vietnam: New Company Registration Pace 2026
In short
Thailand added 128,617 new companies in 2025, as of 17 July 2026. Vietnam added 195,100 over the same year. That raw count runs 52 percent higher than Thailand's. Adjust for population and the gap nearly closes. Vietnam runs about 6 percent ahead of Thailand per resident. The real divergence is speed, not size. Vietnam's registrations grew 24.11 percent year over year. Thailand's grew 5.72 percent. That pace is more than four times faster. Thailand keeps adding companies in 2026, already 110,866 by mid July. That is 86 percent of last year's full total.
How does Thailand's pace of new company registration compare with Vietnam's?
Thailand's Department of Business Development recorded 128,617 new company registrations across 2025, drawn from founding year records in the registry as of 17 July 2026 (DBD, 2026). Vietnam's National Statistics Office logged 195,100 newly established enterprises over the same twelve months, reported through the government's national business registration data system (NSO Vietnam, 2026). Divide one figure by the other and Vietnam's tally runs 1.52 times Thailand's. That gap looks large until population enters the picture. Vietnam counts about 102.3 million residents. Thailand counts about 71.67 million. That gap in population alone runs about 43 percent, so a larger country would be expected to register noticeably more companies on raw volume, with no difference in underlying business dynamism required.
New company registrations, 2025
- Thailand128,617
- Vietnam195,100
Figures in new companies registered.
Vietnam's national count ran well ahead of Thailand's DBD total across the same twelve months.
Does the population adjusted picture change the story?
Population changes the comparison without erasing it. Thailand forms about 4.92 new companies a day for every million residents. Vietnam forms about 5.22. That works out to Vietnam running just 6 percent ahead of Thailand on a per capita basis. The raw totals alone suggested a 52 percent gap. Most of the headline difference between the two registries comes down to Vietnam simply having more people, not a dramatically higher rate of business formation per resident.
Year over year growth in new registrations, 2024 to 2025
- Thailand6
- Vietnam24
Figures in percent growth versus prior year.
The real gap between the two registries is not the level. It is the speed each one is picking up.
Thailand and Vietnam side by side, 2025
| Metric | Thailand | Vietnam |
|---|---|---|
| New companies registered, 2025 | 128,617 | 195,100 |
| Growth versus 2024 | 5.72% | 24.11% |
| Population, millions | 71.67 | 102.3 |
| Daily formation pace | 352.4 | 534.5 |
| Pace per million residents per day | 4.92 | 5.22 |
New company formation, growth and population, Thailand as of 17 Jul 2026, Vietnam figures for calendar year 2025.
Why the speed gap matters more than the size gap
Thailand is not standing still. It had already logged 110,866 new companies by 17 July 2026. That is 86 percent of the entire 2025 total in just over six months. That is real momentum, and it means the registry is not shrinking. What it is not doing is closing the gap with Vietnam's rate of acceleration. Vietnam's registry is growing 24 percent a year. Thailand's is growing 6 percent. Compounded over a decade, that difference in speed produces two very different registries, even from a similar population adjusted base today. Investors and founders comparing Southeast Asian markets on the raw headcount of new firms are asking the wrong question. The more useful one is which registry is gaining speed, and on that measure Vietnam is currently pulling away from Thailand, not catching up to it.
Definitions
- Founding year
- The calendar year in which a company was registered with Thailand's Department of Business Development, used to group new registrations by year.
- Newly established enterprise
- Vietnam's National Statistics Office term for a new business registration recorded in a given period, broadly comparable to Thailand's new registered juristic person count though the two countries define and report the underlying legal entity types differently.
- Daily formation pace
- The total count of new companies registered in a calendar year divided by 365 days, expressing formation volume as an average daily rate.
- Population adjusted pace
- The daily formation pace divided by a country's population in millions, allowing formation intensity to be compared across countries of different size.
- Year over year growth
- The percentage change in a full calendar year's new registration count against the prior full calendar year.
Assumptions
- Vietnam's 195,100 figure counts newly established enterprises only, as reported by the National Statistics Office, and excludes the 102,300 enterprises the same report shows resuming operations after a dormant period.
- Thailand's 2025 total of 128,617 comes from DBD founding year records as captured by the market_new_companies_insight table on 17 July 2026. A registration filed later for a 2025 founding year would still be missing from this count.
- Thailand's 2026 count of 110,866 is a partial year figure covering registrations through 17 July 2026 and will keep rising as the year continues, so it is reported here for context and not used in the annual growth comparison.
- Population figures mix two reference years, Thailand's 71.67 million for 2024 and Vietnam's 102.3 million for 2025, so the per capita comparison carries a one year lag on the Thailand side.
- Vietnam's enterprise registration categories and Thailand's juristic person categories are not defined identically, so the comparison measures registry activity rather than a perfectly matched legal entity type.
Methodology
Thailand's figures come from the market_new_companies_insight aggregate in the Department of Business Development registry, filtered to founding_year 2025 and founding_year 2026, computed_at 17 July 2026. The daily pace divides the 128,617 annual total by 365 calendar days. Vietnam's 195,100 figure is the newly established enterprise count published by the National Statistics Office of Vietnam in its press release on the socio economic situation in the fourth quarter and full year 2025, and its 2024 comparison figure of 157,200 comes from the equivalent fourth quarter and full year 2024 release. Population figures are official national estimates, Thailand for 2024 from the World Bank and Vietnam for 2025 from the National Statistics Office of Vietnam, the latest year each source publishes. Growth rates compare full calendar year totals only. Thailand's 2026 founding year count is explicitly labeled partial and excluded from the annual comparison because the year is still in progress.
How we verified this
- Vietnam to Thailand annual ratio recomputed as 195,100 divided by 128,617 equals 1.52.
- Thailand's growth recomputed as 128,617 minus 121,657, divided by 121,657, equals 5.72 percent.
- Vietnam's growth recomputed as 195,100 minus 157,200, divided by 157,200, equals 24.11 percent.
- Growth rate ratio recomputed as 24.11 divided by 5.72 equals about 4.2, confirming Vietnam's pace of acceleration ran more than four times Thailand's.
- Daily formation pace recomputed as 128,617 divided by 365 equals 352.4 for Thailand and 195,100 divided by 365 equals 534.5 for Vietnam.
- Population adjusted pace recomputed as 352.4 divided by 71.67 equals 4.92 for Thailand and 534.5 divided by 102.3 equals 5.22 for Vietnam, a ratio of 1.06.
- Thailand's 2026 share of the 2025 total recomputed as 110,866 divided by 128,617 equals 86.20 percent.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons by year of founding. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- National Statistics Office of Vietnam. (2026). Press release on the socio economic situation in the fourth quarter and 2025. https://www.nso.gov.vn/en/data-and-statistics/2026/01/press-release-social-economic-situation-in-the-fourth-quarter-and-2025/
- National Statistics Office of Vietnam. (2025). Socio economic situation in the fourth quarter and 2024. https://www.nso.gov.vn/en/highlight/2025/02/socio-economic-situation-in-the-fourth-quarter-and-2024/
Frequently asked questions
How many new companies did Thailand register in 2025?
128,617, according to Department of Business Development founding year records as of 17 July 2026.
How many new companies did Vietnam register in 2025?
195,100 newly established enterprises, according to the National Statistics Office of Vietnam's report on the fourth quarter and full year 2025.
Is Vietnam's company registration pace really faster than Thailand's?
On raw totals yes, Vietnam recorded 52 percent more new companies. Adjusted for population the gap narrows to about 6 percent. The bigger difference is growth rate. Vietnam's new registrations rose 24.11 percent year over year. Thailand's rose 5.72 percent.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thailand vs Vietnam: New Company Registration Pace 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thailand-vs-vietnam-new-business-registration-pace-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.
Related insights
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.