Thailand's Industrial Base Widened From 910 to 998 by 2025
In short
Thailand's company register had a real filer in 910 distinct five digit industry codes in 2007, and that count climbed to a peak of 1,000 in 2024. It settled at 998 in 2025, still a net gain of 88 industries over eighteen years. Ninety five codes gained their first working filer over that span, while only seven that were active in 2007 went quiet. The pool of 1,228 registered five digit codes never changed size, so Thailand is filling out more of its own classification system rather than simply growing bigger inside the same trades.
How many industries does Thailand's company register actually run
Ask how many industries Thailand has and most guesses land on a round textbook number. The honest answer sits inside the Department of Business Development's own classification system, which carries 1,228 distinct five digit industry codes for registered companies (DBD, 2026). In 2007, only 910 of those codes had at least one company that had actually filed a financial statement, real economic activity rather than a code left unused on a form. That count climbed almost every year afterward and reached 1,000 in 2024, the highest in the record. It eased to 998 in 2025. Thailand's registered economy has genuinely broadened its footprint, not just piled more companies into the same handful of trades.
Five digit industry codes with a real filer, 2007 to 2025
Figures in count of active TSIC codes.
The climb is not perfectly smooth. It dips in 2018, the same year the data guide flags an unusual revenue spike from expanded registry coverage, before resuming its climb.
Selected years: how many industries carried an active filer
| Year | Active industry codes | Companies that filed |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 910 | 314,793 |
| 2010 | 916 | 351,662 |
| 2013 | 937 | 432,683 |
| 2016 | 980 | 504,015 |
| 2018 | 975 | 569,325 |
| 2021 | 993 | 647,470 |
| 2024 | 1,000 | 729,128 |
| 2025 | 998 | 714,157 |
Count of five digit TSIC codes with at least one company filing that year, and total filings, as of 14 Aug 2026.
Growth, not just relabeling
The widening is not simply a handful of stragglers finally filing late. Between 2007 and 2025, 95 industry codes filed for the first time, while only 7 codes that had a filer in 2007 went quiet by 2025. Run the arithmetic and 910 minus 7 plus 95 lands exactly on 998, so the churn accounts for the whole move. Coverage across the 21 lettered ISIC sections has stayed at 18 through 2007, 2024 and 2025 alike. The three missing sections, public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial bodies, structurally cannot hold a private registered company, so 18 of 21 is close to a ceiling rather than a gap waiting to close. One number needs a caveat rather than a headline. The 2026 statement year, still only 186 active codes and 3,907 filings so far, is not evidence of a reversal. It is an incomplete filing year that the data guide flags for exclusion, and it will keep filling in for months.
Why this matters
A country that adds companies inside the same 900 trades is getting bigger. A country that pushes its active code count toward the edge of its own classification system is getting more varied, and variety is a different kind of resilience. Thailand's own planning body has pointed toward exactly this shift, calling for growth to move away from a narrow production base and toward higher value activity across a wider set of industries (NESDC, 2023). The registry data backs that ambition with a number: eighteen years produced 88 net new working industries, spread across almost every section of the economy rather than concentrated in one boom sector. That is a slower, quieter story than a headline growth rate, and it is arguably a more durable one.
Definitions
- TSIC code
- The Thailand Standard Industrial Classification, a five digit code assigned to a registered company based on its stated business activity. It rolls up into 21 lettered ISIC sections, from A for agriculture to U for extraterritorial organizations.
- Active industry code
- A five digit TSIC code that had at least one company file a financial statement for a given statement year, meaning the industry had real reported activity that year rather than only registered but silent companies.
- Statement year
- The fiscal year a filed financial statement covers. The source table records it in the Buddhist calendar, so 543 is subtracted to get the Gregorian year used in this article.
- Filing lag
- The normal delay between the end of a fiscal year and when a company's financial statement is actually filed and recorded, which makes the most recent one or two years in any registry dataset look artificially small.
Assumptions
- A code is treated as active in a year based on having at least one filer, so a single small company can keep an entire industry code counted as active.
- The 2026 statement year is excluded from all trend and growth figures because its filings are still arriving and its true count will only be known after the filing window closes.
- The 1,228 figure counts every five digit code that has ever been used to classify a company, including codes with a filer in only one or two isolated years.
Methodology
An industry code is counted as active in a given year if at least one company classified under that five digit TSIC code filed a financial statement for that statement year in the Department of Business Development registry, as of 14 August 2026. Statement years in the source data are recorded in the Buddhist calendar and were converted to Gregorian years by subtracting 543. The 2026 statement year is excluded from the trend because filings for it are still arriving. Section coverage is derived by joining each active code to its one letter ISIC section.
How we verified this
- 1,000 minus 910 equals 90, a 9.89 percent rise in active industry codes between 2007 and 2024, the peak year.
- 998 minus 910 equals 88, a 9.67 percent net rise in active industry codes between 2007 and 2025.
- 910 divided by the 1,228 classified codes equals 74.10 percent for 2007, and 998 divided by 1,228 equals 81.27 percent for 2025, a gain of 7.17 percentage points.
- 910 minus the 7 codes that lost their only filer, plus the 95 codes that gained a first filer, equals 998, reconciling the full 2007 to 2025 move.
- A section level join confirmed exactly 18 of the 21 ISIC sections held at least one active code in 2007, in 2024, and in 2025, with public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial bodies never appearing in any of the three years.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates by industry classification. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council. (2023). The Thirteenth National Economic and Social Development Plan (2023 to 2027). https://www.nesdc.go.th/wp-content/themes/plant3-child/assets/pdf/13/article_file_20230615134223.pdf
Frequently asked questions
How many industries does Thailand's company register actually support?
The registry classifies companies into 1,228 distinct five digit TSIC codes. In 2025, 998 of those codes had at least one company that actually filed a financial statement, up from 910 in 2007.
Is Thailand's industrial base still broadening or has it plateaued?
It broadened almost every year from 2007 to 2024, when active codes peaked at 1,000. The small dip to 998 in 2025 sits within normal year to year movement, and 2026 is too early to read since its filings are still coming in.
Why did the number of active industries dip in 2018?
2018 saw an unusual jump in reported revenue as registry coverage expanded that year, which appears to have temporarily disturbed which small codes had a qualifying filer before the count resumed climbing.
Does every ISIC section have registered Thai companies?
Eighteen of the 21 lettered sections do. Public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial bodies are structurally reserved for entities other than private registered companies, so they never carry an active filer.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thailand's Industrial Base Widened From 910 to 998 by 2025. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thailands-industrial-base-broadened-over-two-decades-2007-2025
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.