Thailand's Average Company Debt Is 464 Times the Median, 2026
In short
The average Thai company with recorded liabilities owes 61.3 million baht, but that figure describes almost no one. The median indebted company, the one sitting exactly in the middle of the ranking, owes just 132,000 baht. Divide one number by the other and the average comes out about 464 times the median. Only 4.3 percent of indebted companies actually owe more than that average. Two out of three, 65.7 percent, owe less than 1 million baht. A small cluster of large borrowers is doing almost all of the work in that 61.3 million baht figure.
Does the average Thai company's debt describe a real business?
The average Thai company with a recorded debt load owes 61.3 million baht (DBD, 2026). Almost no company actually owes that amount. The median company in the same group, the one sitting exactly in the middle of the ranking, owes just 132,000 baht. Divide one figure by the other and the average comes out at about 464 times the median. Only 4.3 percent of indebted Thai companies carry more debt than that average. The other 95.7 percent owe less, often far less, than the number that gets quoted as typical. A full 65.7 percent of indebted companies carry less than 1 million baht in total liabilities. A small cluster of very large borrowers is pulling the average far above where the bulk of the corporate register actually sits.
Total liabilities at each point in the distribution
- 10th percentile0
- 25th percentile0
- Median, 50th percentile0
- 75th percentile3
- 90th percentile18
- Average, the mean61
- 99th percentile375
Figures in million baht.
Bars are ordered by value, not by percentile rank. The average sits between the 90th and 99th percentile, closer to the extreme end of the distribution than to the middle.
Where the average lands against the actual distribution
| Statistic | Total liabilities | Companies at or below this level |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | 6,210 baht | 10% |
| 25th percentile | 13,300 baht | 25% |
| Median, 50th percentile | 132,000 baht | 50% |
| 75th percentile | 2,723,603 baht | 75% |
| 90th percentile | 17,954,640 baht | 90% |
| Average, the mean | 61,272,424 baht | 95.7% |
| 99th percentile | 375,023,001 baht | 99% |
Total liabilities among the 1,235,791 Thai companies with a positive recorded figure, ranked lowest to highest, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
A single average is a poor shorthand for what an ordinary Thai company owes. Treat 61.3 million baht as the profile of a typical debtor and every model built on it will overshoot reality for almost the entire register. Roughly 1.2 million companies sit below that line. Banks setting credit limits, tax officials projecting collection risk, and suppliers extending payment terms all reason from averages unless the shape of the underlying distribution corrects them. The corporate register is stacked with small operators carrying small, manageable sums, and a thin slice at the top carries the debt that dominates every national total. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has found that Thailand's smaller unlisted firms carried higher debt relative to their own assets than large unlisted firms did over the decade to 2023, even though the big borrowers' absolute baht totals dwarf theirs (OECD, 2025). Both patterns hold at once. Most Thai companies owe modest sums against a modest asset base, and a narrow band of large borrowers sets the average that headlines like to quote.
Definitions
- Total liabilities
- Everything a company owes, including bank loans, bonds, trade payables and other operating obligations, as reported on its balance sheet. Called corporate debt in this analysis.
- Mean
- The average, found by summing total liabilities across every company in the group and dividing by the number of companies. A small number of very large values can pull the mean far above where most companies sit.
- Median
- The value at the exact midpoint of a ranked list, where half of the companies owe less and half owe more. The median is not pulled upward by a few extreme values the way the mean is.
- Percentile
- The value below which a given share of the ranked population falls. The 90th percentile is the value that 90 percent of companies fall at or below.
Assumptions
- Only companies with a positive recorded total liabilities figure are included, 1,235,791 out of 1,237,910 companies that reported any liabilities value.
- Companies reporting exactly zero liabilities, 2,105 of them, and companies reporting a negative figure, 14 of them, are excluded from the mean, median and percentile calculations.
- Total liabilities is used as the measure of debt, which includes trade payables and other operating obligations alongside loans and borrowings, not only financial debt.
- Figures are a single snapshot as of 17 July 2026 and will shift as later financial statements are filed.
Methodology
Total liabilities per company was pulled from the DBD registry's filed financial statements, refreshed as of 17 July 2026. The analysis covers the 1,235,791 companies, out of 1,237,910 that reported any liabilities figure, whose reported total liabilities is greater than zero. It excludes 2,105 companies that report exactly zero liabilities and 14 that report a negative figure, most likely from accounting adjustments. The mean is the simple average of total liabilities across that population. The median and the other percentiles were computed with continuous percentile interpolation over the same ranked population. Total liabilities, called corporate debt in this analysis, includes trade payables and other operating obligations, not only bank loans and bonds, so it is a balance sheet measure of everything a company owes rather than financial debt alone.
How we verified this
- Mean recomputed directly as 75,719,909,610,327.78 baht of summed total liabilities divided by 1,235,791 companies with a positive figure, equal to 61,272,423.58 baht, rounded to 61.3 million baht.
- Median confirmed by continuous percentile interpolation at the 0.5 fraction, over the same 1,235,791 companies, returning exactly 132,000 baht.
- Average-to-median gap recomputed as 61,272,423.58 baht divided by 132,000 baht, equal to 464.19.
- Share of companies below the average recomputed as 1,182,328 companies with total liabilities at or under 61,272,423.58 baht, divided by 1,235,791 companies, equal to 95.67 percent, leaving 4.33 percent above the average.
- Share owing less than 1,000,000 baht recomputed as 811,286 companies divided by 1,235,791 companies, equal to 65.65 percent.
- Population cross check: 1,235,791 companies with positive liabilities, plus 2,105 with exactly zero, plus 14 with a negative figure, sum to 1,237,910, matching the total count of companies with any reported liabilities value.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2025). OECD capital market review of Thailand 2025: The corporate sector. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-capital-market-review-of-thailand-2025_0a975590-en/full-report/the-corporate-sector_008c96e5.html
Frequently asked questions
What is the average total liabilities of a Thai company with debt?
61.3 million baht, computed across the 1,235,791 companies with a positive recorded liabilities figure as of 17 July 2026.
What does the median indebted Thai company actually owe?
132,000 baht, the exact midpoint of the same 1,235,791 companies when ranked from lowest to highest total liabilities.
Why is the average so much higher than the median?
A small number of very large borrowers pull the average upward. Only 4.33 percent of indebted companies owe more than the average figure, so the average describes a large outlier, not a typical firm.
How many Thai companies report no debt at all?
2,105 companies report exactly zero total liabilities, separate from the 1,235,791 with a positive figure, out of 1,237,910 companies that reported any liabilities value at all.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thailand's Average Company Debt Is 464 Times the Median, 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thailands-average-company-debt-hides-the-typical-firm-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.