Thailand's Median Industry Code by Company Count, 2026
In short
194 is the number of registered companies sitting at the exact middle of Thailand's 1,228 five-digit industry codes, as of 17 July 2026. That median seat is shared by two tied codes: mushroom growing, TSIC 01136, and a machinery manufacturing code, TSIC 28250. The largest single code, building construction, holds 165,550 companies, more than 853 times the median. Half of all 1,228 codes sit below 194 companies, and half sit above. The average code holds 1,618 companies, over eight times the median, because a handful of huge codes pull the mean far above where most codes sit.
What sits at the exact middle of Thailand's industry map?
Line up all 1,228 five digit TSIC codes in the DBD registry from smallest to largest by company count and the middle two, ranked 614th and 615th, both land on exactly 194 companies (DBD, 2026). One is TSIC 01136, growing of mushrooms and truffles, with 82 active firms and 112 inactive ones. That split gives it a 42.27 percent survival rate. The other is TSIC 28250, a machinery manufacturing code, with 128 active firms out of the same 194 total. Its survival rate is a stronger 65.98 percent. Both sit in the exact center of Thailand's industry register, not a rounded estimate but a literal tie. That median tells a different story than the section level averages most reports quote. Wholesale and retail trade as a whole carries 715,976 companies across dozens of codes, but no single code in that section comes close to matching the country's largest code, building construction, which alone holds 165,550 companies. The middle of the distribution is a niche crop and a niche machine shop, not a shop on every street corner.
How Thailand's 1,228 industry codes are distributed by company count
- 10 or fewer companies202
- 11 to 193 companies411
- Exactly 194 companies, the median2
- 195 to 9,999 companies566
- 10,000 or more companies47
Figures in number of TSIC codes.
Most codes cluster in the low hundreds. A thin top tier of 47 codes, under 4 percent of all codes, carries over half the entire company register.
Five codes across the full spread, from one company to 165,550
| TSIC code | Industry | Section | Companies | Where it ranks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01227 | Agriculture, forestry and fishing | A | 1 | Tied for the register wide minimum |
| 01136 | Growing of mushrooms and truffles | A | 194 | Ranked 614th of 1,228, tied at the median |
| 28250 | Machinery manufacturing | C | 194 | Ranked 615th of 1,228, tied at the median |
| 46599 | Wholesale trade | G | 36,728 | Largest single code in wholesale and retail trade |
| 41002 | Building construction | F | 165,550 | Largest of all 1,228 codes |
Selected five digit TSIC codes ranked by registered company count, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why the median matters more than the section average
Thailand's business register gets described most often at the level of 21 lettered sections, agriculture, manufacturing, construction and so on. That view flattens a much rougher terrain underneath. Within those 21 sections sit 1,228 separate five digit codes, and the gap between the busiest and the quietest of them is enormous. Building construction alone holds 165,550 companies. Combining the smallest 915 of the other 1,227 codes barely matches that single total. Building construction also dwarfs the 194 company median by a factor of more than 853. A code sitting at the median, like mushroom growing, is not a failing industry. It is simply one of hundreds of narrow, specific activities that make up the long tail of a national economy, each with a few hundred registered firms rather than a few thousand. The National Statistical Office also measures Thailand's establishment counts by industry through its own census work (NSO, 2024), and that structural pattern, a few giant codes and a long tail of small ones, shows up whenever anyone counts firms this precisely. Policy built only on section averages will miss that the typical unit of Thai industry is closer to 194 companies than to the hundreds of thousands sitting in construction or wholesale trade.
Definitions
- Five digit TSIC code
- The most granular level of Thailand's Standard Industrial Classification, the specific business activity a company declares at registration, such as mushroom growing or building construction.
- Median
- The middle value of a ranked list. With 1,228 codes, the median is the average of the 614th and 615th ranked values, here both equal to 194.
- Mean
- The simple average, total companies divided by number of codes. It sits far above the median here because a handful of very large codes pull it upward.
- Entity count
- The total number of companies ever registered under a code, combining currently active and inactive or dissolved firms.
- Survival rate
- The share of companies registered under a code that remain active today, calculated as active companies divided by entity count.
- Right skewed distribution
- A pattern where most values cluster at the low end while a small number of very large values stretch the average upward, which is what separates the mean of 1,618 from the median of 194 here.
Assumptions
- Entity count includes every company ever registered under a code, active and inactive together, so it measures registration history rather than firms currently trading.
- The median is a count based measure and takes no account of revenue, employment or company size within each code.
- A company's TSIC code is self declared at registration and may not match its current line of business.
- The two codes tied at the median were confirmed as an exact tie in the underlying data, not a coincidence of rounding.
Methodology
Every five digit TSIC industry code in the DBD registry with at least one entry in the market_tsic_insight aggregate table was ranked in ascending order by entity_count, the total number of companies ever registered under that code, active and inactive combined, as of 17 July 2026. With 1,228 ranked codes, the statistical median is the average of the 614th and 615th ranked values. Both values were 194, so the median is exactly 194 with no rounding. Entity_count includes every company ever registered under a code, not only currently active ones, so a code's median rank reflects registration history rather than present day operating status. Section labels follow the fixed 21 letter ISIC based structure used across the DBD registry.
How we verified this
- Counted all rows in market_tsic_insight and confirmed exactly 1,228 five digit TSIC codes, matching the brief.
- Sorted entity_count ascending and confirmed the 614th and 615th ranked codes, TSIC 01136 and TSIC 28250, both equal 194, so the median of an even numbered list of 1,228 values is 194 with no rounding needed.
- Confirmed the split around the median: 613 codes below 194, 2 codes at exactly 194, and 613 codes above 194, and 613 plus 2 plus 613 equals 1,228.
- Recomputed the mean as total entity_count summed across all codes, 1,986,709, divided by 1,228 codes, giving 1,617.84, then divided that mean by the median of 194 to get a ratio of 8.34, rounded to 8.3 in the text.
- Recomputed the ratio of the largest code to the median as 165,550 divided by 194, equal to 853.4, rounded to 853 in the text.
- Recomputed the share of companies held by the 47 codes with 10,000 or more companies each as 1,018,528 divided by 1,986,709, equal to 51.27 percent.
- Verified that active_count plus inactive_count equals entity_count for both median codes: 82 plus 112 equals 194 for TSIC 01136, and 128 plus 66 equals 194 for TSIC 28250.
- Ranked all codes ascending and summed running totals to confirm the smallest 915 codes combined reach 165,989 companies, just over the 165,550 held by building construction alone, while the smallest 914 combined reach only 165,088, short of that total.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons by five digit TSIC industry classification. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- National Statistical Office of Thailand. (2024). Statistical yearbook Thailand 2024. https://www.nso.go.th/public/e-book/Statistical-Yearbook/SYB-2024_webPage/Page_SYB_EN.html
Frequently asked questions
What is the median number of companies per Thai industry code?
194 companies, the average of the 614th and 615th ranked codes out of 1,228 total five digit TSIC codes, as of 17 July 2026.
Which industry code sits at the exact median?
Two codes tie at 194 companies each: TSIC 01136, growing of mushrooms and truffles, and TSIC 28250, a machinery manufacturing code.
How does the median compare to the largest industry code?
The largest code, building construction under TSIC 41002, holds 165,550 companies, more than 853 times the median of 194.
Why is the average so much higher than the median?
The mean of 1,618 companies per code is pulled far above the median by 47 codes with 10,000 or more companies each, which together hold 51.27 percent of every registered company in Thailand.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thailand's Median Industry Code by Company Count, 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thailands-median-industry-code-by-company-count-2026
Data & corrections
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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.