Thailand's Missing Middle: Medium Companies by Industry 2026
In short
Other services counts medium sized companies at just 0.46 percent of its firms, the thinnest middle market of any major Thai industry as of 7 Jul 2026. Water and waste tops the list at 3.78 percent, with manufacturing close behind at 3.52 percent. That gap means water and waste grows medium firms at more than eight times the rate of other services. Nationally, medium companies make up only 1.96 percent of all size banded firms, so most sectors sit below that line, echoing the missing middle pattern documented in SME finance research worldwide.
Which industries have the thinnest medium tier
Ranked by their share of medium sized companies, other services comes in last among Thailand's 18 major industry sections at 0.46 percent, as of 7 Jul 2026 (DBD, 2026). Education follows at 0.56 percent and professional, scientific and technical services at 0.80 percent. Water and waste management sits at the opposite end with 3.78 percent, the healthiest middle market in the country. Manufacturing follows at 3.52 percent and electricity and gas at 3.37 percent. Water and waste grows medium sized firms at more than eight times the rate of other services. Nationally, medium companies make up just 1.96 percent of all firms with a classified size band, so ten of the eighteen sections sit below that already thin national line.
Medium company share by industry section
- Other services0
- Education1
- Professional, scientific and technical1
- Real estate1
- Arts, entertainment and recreation1
- Construction1
- Administrative and support1
- Information and communication1
- Accommodation and food service1
- Human health and social work2
- Transportation and storage2
- Mining and quarrying2
- Financial and insurance2
- Wholesale and retail trade3
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing3
- Electricity and gas3
- Manufacturing4
- Water and waste4
Figures in percent of firms sized medium.
Other services and education anchor the bottom of the middle market. Water and waste and manufacturing lead the healthiest medium tiers in Thailand.
Medium sized companies as a share of each industry
| Industry section | Total companies | Medium companies | Medium share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other services | 20,455 | 95 | 0.46% |
| Education | 13,897 | 78 | 0.56% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 138,982 | 1,107 | 0.80% |
| Real estate | 149,618 | 1,205 | 0.81% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 18,486 | 167 | 0.90% |
| Construction | 283,564 | 2,704 | 0.95% |
| Administrative and support | 100,711 | 1,118 | 1.11% |
| Information and communication | 52,537 | 592 | 1.13% |
| Accommodation and food service | 83,608 | 986 | 1.18% |
| Human health and social work | 17,294 | 318 | 1.84% |
| Transportation and storage | 85,303 | 1,751 | 2.05% |
| Mining and quarrying | 8,231 | 170 | 2.07% |
| Financial and insurance | 35,577 | 759 | 2.13% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 716,066 | 18,784 | 2.62% |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 19,259 | 534 | 2.77% |
| Electricity and gas | 7,833 | 264 | 3.37% |
| Manufacturing | 230,396 | 8,111 | 3.52% |
| Water and waste | 4,818 | 182 | 3.78% |
Company counts and medium company share by industry section, as of 7 Jul 2026.
Why the missing middle matters
A thin medium tier is not a minor statistic. Medium sized firms are the ones large enough to hire professional managers, win bigger contracts and survive a bad quarter, yet small enough to still move fast. When an industry has almost no medium firms, its micro and small operators have nowhere to grow into, and its large firms face little pressure from an emerging middle tier. Other services, a category that spans a wide mix of personal and repair businesses, shows the starkest version of this pattern in Thailand. Water and waste tells a different story, an industry built around utility contracts, permits and fixed infrastructure that naturally pushes firms past the smallest size bands. The World Bank has documented the same missing middle problem across developing economies for years, tying it to financing gaps that leave firms too big for microfinance and too small for corporate banking, a description that fits Thailand's own numbers closely.
Definitions
- Medium sized company
- A company placed in the medium size band of the DBD registry, larger than a small firm and smaller than a large one, based on the registry's own size classification.
- Missing middle
- A pattern documented in SME research where an economy or industry has far fewer medium sized firms than its number of micro and small firms would predict, leaving a gap between the smallest and largest scales of business.
- Size band
- The micro, small, medium or large classification the registry assigns to each company based on its reported size indicators.
- Medium share
- The count of medium sized companies in a section divided by that section's total company count with a classified size band, expressed as a percentage.
Assumptions
- Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations were dropped from the ranking because each has fewer than 40 total companies, too small a base for a stable share.
- Size band assignment follows the registry's own classification rules, which this analysis did not independently re derive.
- The count of companies with a classified size band, 1986709, is slightly below the 1989709 total registered companies, since not every company has enough reported data to assign a band.
Methodology
Medium share is each industry section's count_medium divided by its entity_count in the DBD linked size band table, aggregated from 5 digit TSIC codes up to the 21 lettered industry sections, as of 7 Jul 2026. Size bands classify each company as micro, small, medium or large following the registry's own thresholds. Public administration, households and extraterritorial organizations were excluded from the ranking because each has fewer than 40 total companies, too small a base for a stable percentage. All other 18 sections are shown in full, sorted from the lowest medium share to the highest.
How we verified this
- Summed count_medium across all 21 TSIC sections in market_tsic_insight: 38926, matching the national medium company count of 38926 in the verified size band totals.
- Summed entity_count across all 21 sections: 1986709, matching the national count of companies with a classified size band.
- Other services share recomputed as 95 divided by 20455, equals 0.46 percent.
- Water and waste share recomputed as 182 divided by 4818, equals 3.78 percent.
- Manufacturing share recomputed as 8111 divided by 230396, equals 3.52 percent.
- National medium share recomputed as 38926 divided by 1986709, equals 1.96 percent.
- Gap ratio recomputed from raw counts as the water and waste share, 182 divided by 4818, divided by the other services share, 95 divided by 20455, equals 8.13.
- Ten of the 18 ranked sections fall below the 1.96 percent national medium share, confirmed by comparing each row in the table against that line.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons by size band and industry section. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- World Bank. (2017). What's happening in the missing middle? Lessons from financing SMEs. World Bank Group. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/financialsector/publication/whats-happening-in-the-missing-middle-lessons-from-financing-smes
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry has the fewest medium sized companies?
Other services, where only 0.46 percent of registered firms fall into the medium size band, the lowest share of any major industry as of 7 Jul 2026.
Which industry has the healthiest medium sized business tier?
Water and waste management, at 3.78 percent medium sized firms, followed closely by manufacturing at 3.52 percent and electricity and gas at 3.37 percent.
What counts as a medium sized company in this data?
A company the DBD registry classifies in the medium size band, sitting between the small and large bands based on its reported size indicators.
Why do some industries have almost no medium sized firms?
Industries built around low fixed costs and many small operators, like other services and education, tend to stay small, while capital heavy or contract driven industries like water and waste push more firms into the larger size bands.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thailand's Missing Middle: Medium Companies by Industry 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thailands-missing-middle-companies-by-industry-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.