Thailand's Least Efficient Provinces by Revenue per Company (2026)
In short
Mae Hong Son's average registered company reports 3.86 million baht in revenue a year, the thinnest of Thailand's 77 provinces. Phayao follows at 6.26 million and Lampang at 7.38 million. The national average sits near 40.31 million baht per company, so Mae Hong Son runs at less than a tenth of that figure. Two tourism giants, Phuket and Chiang Mai, also land in the bottom ten despite ranking among the seven largest provinces by company count. Scale and revenue efficiency are separate questions in Thailand's business register.
Which province gets the least revenue per registered company?
Rank all 77 classified Thai provinces by revenue per registered company and Mae Hong Son sits alone at the bottom. Its 1,569 companies produced a combined 6.06 billion baht in revenue as of 17 July 2026, an average of 3.86 million baht each. Phayao is next lowest at 6.26 million baht per company, then Lampang at 7.38 million, Nan at 7.53 million and Bueng Kan at 7.59 million. All five sit in the upper north or the northeast, far from the eastern seaboard's factories and ports. The national average across the register is 40.31 million baht per company, so Mae Hong Son runs at about 9.6 percent of that figure, roughly a tenth of the typical province. Rayong, the most efficient province by this measure, earns about 25 times more revenue per company than Mae Hong Son does.
Revenue per registered company, ten lowest provinces
- Mae Hong Son4
- Phayao6
- Lampang7
- Nan8
- Bueng Kan8
- Phuket8
- Nong Khai8
- Trat8
- Chiang Mai8
- Maha Sarakham8
Figures in million baht per company.
Mae Hong Son stands apart even from the rest of the bottom ten. Phuket and Chiang Mai make the list too, not for poverty but for sheer volume of small firms on the register.
The ten provinces with the least revenue per company
| Province | Registered companies | Total revenue, billion baht | Revenue per company, million baht |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mae Hong Son | 1,569 | 6.06 | 3.86 |
| Phayao | 4,408 | 27.57 | 6.26 |
| Lampang | 10,371 | 76.51 | 7.38 |
| Nan | 3,928 | 29.56 | 7.53 |
| Bueng Kan | 2,326 | 17.66 | 7.59 |
| Phuket | 52,557 | 404.45 | 7.70 |
| Nong Khai | 5,715 | 44.77 | 7.83 |
| Trat | 3,331 | 26.14 | 7.85 |
| Chiang Mai | 65,164 | 528.72 | 8.11 |
| Maha Sarakham | 6,897 | 56.30 | 8.16 |
Ranked ascending by revenue per registered company, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
This is not simply a map of Thailand's poorest provinces. Mae Hong Son, Nan and Bueng Kan are thinly populated, mountainous or border provinces with little heavy industry, so small trading and service firms dominate the register and pull the average down. Phuket and Chiang Mai tell a different story. Both rank among Thailand's seven largest provinces by company count, with 52,557 and 65,164 registered companies, yet each averages under 8.2 million baht of revenue per firm. A tourism economy registers enormous numbers of small guesthouses, tour operators and restaurants, and that crowd of small filers dilutes the average even where total revenue runs into the hundreds of billions. The ten lowest provinces together hold 156,266 companies, about 7.9 percent of the national register, yet generate only 1.5 percent of national revenue. Worth separating this from income per person too. Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Council has reported Narathiwat, not Mae Hong Son, as the province with the lowest gross regional product per person, with Mae Hong Son close behind (Nation Thailand, 2025). Revenue per registered company and income per resident measure different economies. One counts firms, the other counts people, and a province can rank last on one scale without ranking last on the other.
Definitions
- Revenue per company
- A province's total reported revenue divided by its number of registered companies. It is an aggregate ratio, not the median or typical individual company's revenue.
- Registered company
- A juristic person recorded in the Department of Business Development registry for that province, whether or not it has since filed a financial statement or remains operating.
- Classified province
- A province with a valid province code in the registry. Companies with no assigned province code are counted nationally but excluded from every province-level figure.
- Gross regional product per capita
- A separate measure, published by Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Council, of a province's total economic output divided by its resident population rather than its company count.
Assumptions
- Revenue per company uses each province's full registered company count as the denominator, including companies that never filed a financial statement, so provinces with weaker filing habits can show a lower ratio for that reason alone.
- Revenue per company is an aggregate measure. A handful of large filers can lift a province's average even where most companies are small, and the reverse can pull an average down.
- A company is counted in the province where it is registered, which is not always where its revenue-generating activity takes place.
Methodology
Revenue per company is total reported revenue divided by the count of registered companies in each province, drawn from Department of Business Development registry aggregates as of 17 July 2026. All 77 classified provinces, Bangkok included, carry more than 1,000 registered companies, so none was excluded on that basis. Two additional rows with no assigned province code, together holding 572 companies, are outside the classified total and outside every figure in this piece. Rankings use each province's full registered company count as the denominator, not only companies that filed a financial statement, so a low ratio can reflect either weak revenue or a large body of small, low-filing firms.
How we verified this
- Recomputed Mae Hong Son's revenue per company as 6,058,057,941.45 baht divided by 1,569 companies, giving 3,861,094.93 baht, and confirmed it is the minimum across all 77 provinces with at least 1,000 companies.
- Recomputed the national average as total classified revenue of 80,081,498,171,717.56 baht divided by 1,986,709 companies, giving 40,308,620.02 baht, then confirmed Mae Hong Son sits at 3,861,094.93 divided by 40,308,620.02, or 9.58 percent of that average.
- Recomputed the bottom ten provinces' combined revenue per company as 1,217,731,521,661.25 baht divided by 156,266 companies, giving 7,792,683.77 baht, or 19.33 percent of the national average.
- Recomputed the bottom ten provinces' share of the national register as 156,266 divided by 1,986,709 companies, or 7.87 percent, against their revenue share of 1,217,731,521,661.25 divided by 80,081,498,171,717.56, or 1.52 percent of national revenue.
- Recomputed the gap between the top province, Rayong at 96,740,533.40 baht per company, and Mae Hong Son at 3,861,094.93, giving a ratio of 25.06.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Nation Thailand. (2025, March 8). Rayong tops Thailand's highest per capita gross regional product rankings. https://www.nationthailand.com/business/economy/40047159 https://www.nationthailand.com/business/economy/40047159
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai province has the lowest revenue per registered company?
Mae Hong Son, at 3.86 million baht per company as of 17 July 2026, the lowest of Thailand's 77 classified provinces.
Why do Phuket and Chiang Mai rank near the bottom despite being major economies?
Both carry huge numbers of small tourism and service firms on the register, over 52,000 and 65,000 companies respectively, and that volume of small filers pulls the average revenue per company down even though total provincial revenue is large.
Is this the same ranking as the province with the lowest income per person?
No. This measure divides company revenue by company count. Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Council ranks provinces by gross regional product per resident instead, and names Narathiwat, not Mae Hong Son, as the lowest on that separate scale.
How much lower is Mae Hong Son than the national average?
The national average is 40.31 million baht of revenue per company. Mae Hong Son's 3.86 million baht is about 9.6 percent of that, so the average province earns roughly ten times more per company.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thailand's Least Efficient Provinces by Revenue per Company (2026). Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thailands-least-efficient-provinces-by-revenue-per-company-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.