Simple vs Weighted Average Net Margin in Thailand 2026
In short
No, the two averages do not match. Treat Thailand's 21 industry sections as equals and the average net margin is 6.91 percent, as of 17 July 2026. Weight those same sections by actual revenue and the national figure falls to 4.11 percent, a gap of 2.80 percentage points. Wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing, the two largest sections by revenue, hold 79.76 percent of classified section revenue between them. Wholesale trade alone earns just 1.27 percent net margin, one of the thinnest in the register, and it pulls the whole economy's weighted figure down with it.
Does the weighted average match the simple average?
It does not, and the distance between them tells the real story of the Thai economy. Treat all 21 industry sections as equally important and average their individual net margins, and the result is 6.91 percent, as of 17 July 2026 (DBD, 2026). Weight those same 21 sections by how much revenue each one actually generates, and the figure that comes out is 4.11 percent, the national aggregate net margin for every filed company in the registry. The gap is 2.80 percentage points, larger than the margin most Thai sections earn on their own. The reason is concentration. Wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing, the two largest sections by revenue, together hold 79.76 percent of the revenue captured across all 21 classified sections. Wholesale trade turns over 38.74 trillion baht a year yet keeps only 1.27 percent of it as profit, one of the thinnest margins of any section in the register. Manufacturing turns over 25.13 trillion baht at a 4.38 percent margin, below the simple average and close to the national line. A simple average counts agriculture and wholesale trade as one data point each. The economy does not work that way, and wholesale trade alone generates more revenue than the smallest 15 of Thailand's 21 sections combined.
Net margin by section, ordered from largest to smallest by revenue
- Wholesale and retail trade1
- Manufacturing4
- Financial and insurance25
- Construction2
- Transportation and storage6
- Information and communication6
- Real estate8
- Administrative and support4
- Professional, scientific and technical14
- Accommodation and food service6
- Electricity and gas12
- Human health and social work11
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing3
- Mining and quarrying14
- Water supply and waste management7
- Arts, entertainment and recreation-1
- Other service activities0
- Education13
- Public administration5
- Extraterritorial organizations-10
- Households as employers14
Figures in percent net margin.
The two biggest bars by revenue, wholesale trade and manufacturing, sit near the bottom on margin. Size and profitability move in opposite directions here.
All 21 sections ranked by revenue, with net margin
| Industry section | Revenue rank | Total revenue (THB bn) | Net margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale and retail trade | 1 | 38,739 | 1.27% |
| Manufacturing | 2 | 25,131 | 4.38% |
| Financial and insurance | 3 | 3,304 | 25.40% |
| Construction | 4 | 2,326 | 2.31% |
| Transportation and storage | 5 | 2,154 | 6.27% |
| Information and communication | 6 | 1,332 | 5.81% |
| Real estate | 7 | 1,252 | 7.69% |
| Administrative and support | 8 | 1,108 | 4.33% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 9 | 1,083 | 13.64% |
| Accommodation and food service | 10 | 941 | 5.65% |
| Electricity and gas | 11 | 816 | 11.86% |
| Human health and social work | 12 | 518 | 11.07% |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 13 | 492 | 2.55% |
| Mining and quarrying | 14 | 449 | 14.03% |
| Water supply and waste management | 15 | 147 | 7.31% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 16 | 137 | -1.09% |
| Other service activities | 17 | 86 | 0.37% |
| Education | 18 | 62 | 13.13% |
| Public administration | 19 | 0 | 5.45% |
| Extraterritorial organizations | 20 | 0 | -10.00% |
| Households as employers | 21 | 0 | 13.67% |
Total revenue and net margin by section, ranked from largest to smallest revenue, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
A national margin figure is not a description of a typical business, and readers who treat it that way draw the wrong conclusion. Twelve of Thailand's 21 sections post a net margin below the simple average of 6.91 percent, yet those 12 sections hold 90.47 percent of all revenue captured across the 21 classified sections. That is why the weighted figure of 4.11 percent sits so far under the simple one. A trade association counting sections would say most of the economy clears 6.91 percent with room to spare. An investor counting baht would say the opposite, because the baht overwhelmingly sits inside a few low-margin giants. Anyone comparing a single company's margin against a published national or sector benchmark should ask which average that benchmark used. A small professional services firm sitting at 12 percent margin looks unremarkable against the simple average of its peers, but it looks exceptional against the 4.11 percent figure that actually describes where Thailand's revenue lives. The two numbers answer two different questions, and only one of them describes how big Thailand's low-margin sectors really are.
Definitions
- Net margin
- Net profit as a share of revenue. A margin of 4.11 percent means about four satang of profit for every baht of revenue.
- Simple average
- The mean of the 21 sections' own net margins, each section counted once regardless of how much revenue it generates.
- Revenue-weighted average
- Total net profit for a group divided by total revenue for that group, so a section with more revenue has more influence on the result than a section with less.
- Percentage point
- The plain difference between two percentages. The gap between 6.91 percent and 4.11 percent is 2.80 percentage points, not a 2.80 percent change.
- Industry section
- One of the 21 lettered top-level categories in the Thailand Standard Industrial Classification, such as manufacturing or wholesale and retail trade, each made up of many narrower five-digit industry codes.
Assumptions
- Margins are aggregate figures, total profit over total revenue for each section, not the average of each individual company's own margin.
- The simple average is a deliberate equal-weight construction used here to illustrate the gap, not a standard measure the registry itself publishes.
- Only companies with both a classified industry section and a filed financial statement contribute to any margin shown here.
- Three sections, households as employers, public administration and extraterritorial organizations, carry very few filing companies, so their individual margins are more volatile than the larger sections even though they barely affect the revenue-weighted figure.
Methodology
Net margin for each of the 21 TSIC industry sections is aggregate net profit divided by aggregate revenue for companies with a filed financial statement, drawn from the DBD registry via market_section_insight as of 17 July 2026. The simple average sums the 21 individual section margins and divides by 21, giving every section equal weight regardless of size. The revenue-weighted national average is the whole-economy figure from market_national_insight, total net profit divided by total revenue across every filed company, which naturally weights each section in proportion to the revenue it generates. Three sections, households as employers, public administration and extraterritorial organizations, carry very few filing companies, so their individual margins are volatile even though they barely move the revenue-weighted figure.
How we verified this
- Summed net_margin across all 21 market_section_insight rows: 2.546 plus 14.034 plus 4.376 plus 11.863 plus 7.306 plus 2.314 plus 1.275 plus 6.271 plus 5.654 plus 5.805 plus 25.402 plus 7.693 plus 13.642 plus 4.332 plus 5.454 plus 13.132 plus 11.066 plus minus 1.094 plus 0.375 plus 13.667 plus minus 10.003 equals 145.11. Divided by 21 sections equals 6.91 percent, the simple average.
- Summed total_revenue across the 21 sections equals 80,075.15 billion baht and summed total_net_profit equals 3,291.53 billion baht. Profit over revenue equals 4.11 percent, matching the market_national_insight avg_net_margin of 4.1057 percent within a small rounding gap caused by companies without a classified section.
- 6.91 percent minus 4.11 percent equals 2.80 percentage points, the gap between the simple and weighted averages.
- Wholesale and retail trade revenue of 38,739.27 billion baht plus manufacturing revenue of 25,130.98 billion baht equals 63,870.26 billion baht. Divided by the 80,075.15 billion baht total across all 21 sections equals 79.76 percent.
- Ranking all 21 sections by net margin, 12 of them fall below the 6.91 percent simple average. Summing total_revenue for those 12 sections gives 72,445.99 billion baht, which divided by the 80,075.15 billion baht total equals 90.47 percent.
- Summing total_revenue for the 15 smallest sections by revenue gives 7,089.33 billion baht, confirmed smaller than wholesale and retail trade's own revenue of 38,739.27 billion baht.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council. (2026). Thai economic performance in Q2 of 2026 and outlook for 2026. NESDC, Thailand. https://www.nesdc.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/03-PRESS-EN-Q2-2026-Final.pdf
Frequently asked questions
Does Thailand's weighted average net margin match the simple average of its 21 sections?
No. The simple average across the 21 sections is 6.91 percent, but the revenue-weighted national figure is 4.11 percent, a gap of 2.80 percentage points, as of 17 July 2026.
Why do the simple and weighted averages differ so much?
Because the two largest sections by revenue, wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing, hold 79.76 percent of classified section revenue between them, and both run margins at or below the simple average.
Which section pulls the weighted average down the most?
Wholesale and retail trade. It is the single largest section by revenue at 38.74 trillion baht and earns a net margin of only 1.27 percent.
What does a revenue-weighted average net margin actually mean?
It is total net profit divided by total revenue across every company, so sections that generate more revenue count for more of the result. Thailand's revenue-weighted figure is 4.11 percent as of 17 July 2026.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Simple vs Weighted Average Net Margin in Thailand 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thailands-simple-vs-weighted-average-net-margin-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.