Human Health Is Thailand's Most Small Company Sector, 2026
In short
Human health is Thailand's most small company heavy industry section, with 36.4 percent of its companies sitting in the small size band as of 17 July 2026. That share is nearly double the 20.3 percent average across the other seventeen sizable sections. Transportation and storage ranks a distant second at 28.6 percent. Wholesale and retail trade, the largest sector by company count, sits near the middle at 22.6 percent. In health, scale runs through clinics and small labs rather than a handful of giant hospital groups.
Which industry section leans hardest on small companies?
Human health and social work is the answer. Of the 17,294 health sector companies with a classified size, 6,299 fall into the small band, a 36.4 percent share (DBD, 2026). No other sizable section clears one third. Transportation and storage comes second at 28.6 percent, water supply and waste management follows at 27.3 percent, and accommodation and food service sits at 26.1 percent. Manufacturing, despite its scale, is only fifth among the eighteen sections large enough to read a share from. The typical section outside health runs its small share around one fifth, so health stands well apart from the pack.
Small company share by industry section
- Human health36
- Transportation and storage29
- Water supply and waste management27
- Accommodation and food service26
- Manufacturing26
- Administrative and support24
- Wholesale and retail trade23
- Professional, scientific and technical21
- Construction21
- Information and communication19
- Other services19
- Education18
- Arts and entertainment18
- Electricity and gas17
- Financial and insurance16
- Real estate15
- Agriculture14
- Mining and quarrying12
Figures in percent of companies classified small.
Health sits alone above one third. Most sections cluster between 15 and 25 percent.
Small company share, ranked by section
| Industry section | Companies with size data | Small companies | Small share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human health | 17,294 | 6,299 | 36.42% |
| Transportation and storage | 85,303 | 24,384 | 28.59% |
| Water supply and waste management | 4,818 | 1,317 | 27.33% |
| Accommodation and food service | 83,608 | 21,784 | 26.05% |
| Manufacturing | 230,396 | 59,193 | 25.69% |
| Administrative and support | 100,711 | 24,528 | 24.35% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 716,066 | 161,766 | 22.59% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 138,982 | 29,478 | 21.21% |
| Construction | 283,564 | 58,926 | 20.78% |
| Information and communication | 52,537 | 10,138 | 19.30% |
| Other services | 20,455 | 3,871 | 18.92% |
| Education | 13,897 | 2,457 | 17.68% |
| Arts and entertainment | 18,486 | 3,237 | 17.51% |
| Electricity and gas | 7,833 | 1,346 | 17.18% |
| Financial and insurance | 35,577 | 5,619 | 15.79% |
| Real estate | 149,618 | 22,935 | 15.33% |
| Agriculture | 19,259 | 2,736 | 14.21% |
| Mining and quarrying | 8,231 | 988 | 12.00% |
Small companies as a share of all companies with a classified size band, by TSIC section, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this gap matters
Health care in Thailand did not grow the way manufacturing or wholesale trade did, through a small number of large plants or chains feeding a long tail of tiny outlets. It grew through independent clinics, diagnostic labs, physiotherapy practices and specialist centers, each big enough to hire staff and hold real capital, yet none of them approaching hospital group scale. That is a structurally different growth path from wholesale and retail, where a mass of one person shops keeps the micro share high, or from mining, where the capital needed to operate at all pushes most entrants past the small threshold. A policymaker reading company counts alone would miss this. A lender or franchise investor sizing up the health sector should expect a market of many mid sized practices rather than a few dominant chains, and should price risk and opportunity accordingly.
Definitions
- Small company
- A company whose paid up capital and annual revenue place it above Thailand's micro threshold and below its medium threshold, under the official MSME size classification.
- Size band
- One of four categories, micro, small, medium or large, assigned to a company based on its capital and revenue.
- TSIC section
- One of the 21 lettered top level categories in Thailand's Standard Industrial Classification, each grouping many five digit industry codes.
- Small company share
- The count of small sized companies in a section divided by the total number of companies in that section that carry any size classification.
- Sizable section
- In this analysis, a section with at least a few thousand companies carrying a size classification, large enough that a percentage share is meaningful.
Assumptions
- Size band classification is taken as given from the source registry data and is not independently recomputed from raw capital and revenue figures here.
- Public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial bodies are excluded from the ranking because each has fewer than 40 sized companies, too few for a stable percentage.
- A company's size band reflects its most recent classification as of the July 2026 data refresh, not a historical average.
Methodology
Small company share is count_small divided by the sum of count_micro, count_small, count_medium and count_large for each five digit TSIC industry code in the DBD registry, then summed up to the 21 lettered industry sections, as of 17 July 2026. Size bands follow Thailand's official capital and revenue based MSME thresholds, already applied in the source data. Three sections with fewer than 40 companies carrying a size classification, public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial bodies, are excluded from the ranking because a share computed on so few companies is not statistically meaningful.
How we verified this
- Summed count_small across all 21 TSIC sections in market_tsic_insight equals 441,008 and the matching entity total with a size band equals 1,986,709, consistent with the registry wide size band total.
- Human health small share recomputed directly as 6,299 divided by 17,294, giving 36.42 percent, which rounds to the stated 36.4 percent.
- The average small share across the other 17 sizable sections, excluding health and excluding the three sections with fewer than 40 sized companies, recomputed as 20.27 percent, making health's rate 1.80 times that average, consistent with describing it as nearly double.
- Second place, transportation and storage, recomputed as 24,384 divided by 85,303, giving 28.59 percent, which confirms health leads the next section by 7.84 percentage points.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and company size classification by industry. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion. (2020). Definition of MSMEs. Royal Thai Government. https://en.sme.go.th/en/page.php?modulekey=363
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry section has the highest share of small companies?
Human health and social work, where 36.4 percent of companies with a classified size fall into the small band, well ahead of every other sizable section.
How is a small company defined in this data?
Small follows Thailand's official MSME size classification, based on paid up capital and annual revenue, sitting above the micro band and below medium.
Why does health have so many small companies instead of micro or large ones?
Health care grew through independent clinics, labs and specialist practices that are large enough to be classified small, rather than through either one person outlets or big hospital chains.
What is the average small company share across other sectors?
Across the other 17 sections large enough to measure, the average small share is 20.27 percent, compared with 36.4 percent in health.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Human Health Is Thailand's Most Small Company Sector, 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thailands-most-small-company-heavy-industry-section-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.