Thailand's 220-Company Gap Between TSIC and Sector Totals 2026
In short
Thailand's company registry disagrees with itself by 220 companies. Summing every 5-digit TSIC code gives 1,986,709 companies as of 17 July 2026. Summing the 21 lettered industry sections gives 1,986,489. Thirteen sections match exactly. Eight do not, and wholesale and retail trade alone carries 90 of the 220 missing companies, 40.9 percent of the gap. The mismatch is tiny against the total, just 0.011 percent, but it never fully closes.
Why do the two totals disagree by 220 companies?
Ask the registry how many companies exist in Thailand and the answer depends on which table you sum. Add up entity_count across every 5-digit TSIC code and the figure is 1,986,709 as of 17 July 2026 (DBD, 2026). Add up entity_count across the 21 lettered industry sections instead and the figure drops to 1,986,489. Subtract one from the other and 220 companies are missing from the section-level view. Thirteen of the 21 sections reconcile to the exact company, TSIC codes and section both report the same count. Eight sections carry the entire discrepancy, and every one of those eight runs the same direction, the TSIC sum is always higher than the section sum, never lower. Wholesale and retail trade, already the largest sector in the country by company count, drives 90 of the 220, close to 41 percent of the gap on its own. Construction and transportation and storage each add 30. Professional, scientific and technical services and administrative and support each add 20. Financial and insurance, real estate, and accommodation and food service each add 10. No duplicate TSIC code rows show up in the underlying table, so a simple double counted row is not the explanation. The more likely story is that some companies carry more than one 5-digit TSIC code inside the same lettered section, so the code-level table counts them twice while the section-level table counts each company once.
Where the 220-company gap sits, by industry section
- Wholesale and retail trade90
- Construction30
- Transportation and storage30
- Professional, scientific and technical20
- Administrative and support20
- Financial and insurance10
- Real estate10
- Accommodation and food service10
Figures in companies missing from the section total.
Wholesale and retail trade alone accounts for 90 of the 220, and three sections together hold more than two thirds of it.
Section totals versus TSIC totals, the eight sections that disagree
| Industry section | Section-level total | TSIC-level total | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale and retail trade | 715,976 | 716,066 | 90 |
| Construction | 283,534 | 283,564 | 30 |
| Transportation and storage | 85,273 | 85,303 | 30 |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 138,962 | 138,982 | 20 |
| Administrative and support | 100,691 | 100,711 | 20 |
| Financial and insurance | 35,567 | 35,577 | 10 |
| Real estate | 149,608 | 149,618 | 10 |
| Accommodation and food service | 83,598 | 83,608 | 10 |
| All 21 sections combined | 1,986,489 | 1,986,709 | 220 |
Entity counts by industry section, TSIC-level sum, and the gap between them, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why a 220-company gap is worth publishing
Two hundred and twenty companies sound like a rounding error next to a registry of nearly two million, and by share they are, just 0.011 percent of the TSIC-level total. The point is not the size of the gap. The point is that it never closes, and that it clusters in exactly the sectors where a single company is most likely to hold more than one business line. A trading company that both wholesales and retails, a builder that both erects buildings and installs plumbing, a logistics firm that both warehouses and transports, each can carry two 5-digit TSIC codes inside the same lettered section. Sum at the code level and that company is counted twice. Sum at the section level and it is counted once. That single structural choice, buried in how two aggregate tables were built rather than in how companies were registered, is enough to keep the gap standing at 220 no matter how many times the totals are recomputed. Anyone building a market size estimate from this registry needs to know which of the two totals they are quoting, because the two answers are not interchangeable, and the eight sections that split give the clearest warning of where the seam sits.
Definitions
- TSIC
- Thailand Standard Industrial Classification, the 5-digit code system the Department of Business Development assigns to every registered company's business activity.
- Section
- The highest level of the TSIC hierarchy, one of 21 lettered groupings, A through U, that each roll up many 5-digit TSIC codes into one broad industry.
- Entity count
- The number of registered companies attributed to a given code or section in the registry's aggregate tables.
- Reconciliation gap
- The difference between two totals that should, in principle, describe the same population of companies but are built from different levels of the same classification.
Assumptions
- Both aggregate tables were computed from the same registry snapshot, refreshed 17 July 2026, so the gap is not an artifact of comparing two different dates.
- The most likely explanation for the gap is that some companies hold more than one 5-digit TSIC code within the same lettered section, so a code-level sum counts them more than once while a section-level sum counts them once. This is inferred from the pattern of the gap and is not confirmed against individual company records, since person and company-level detail sits outside the aggregate tables used here.
- The 220-company gap is treated as a structural feature of how the aggregate tables were built, not as evidence of an error in any individual company's registration.
Methodology
Entity counts are drawn from two aggregate tables built off the Department of Business Development registry, both refreshed 17 July 2026. The TSIC-level total sums the entity_count field across every 5-digit Thailand Standard Industrial Classification code in market_tsic_insight. The section-level total sums entity_count across the 21 lettered sections in market_section_insight, where each section groups a set of 5-digit codes under one ISIC-style letter. Both figures are company counts as filed with the registry, not an independent audit of each juristic person, so the 220-company gap reflects how the two tables were aggregated rather than a fresh check against source registrations. No duplicate 5-digit code rows were found in the TSIC-level table, which rules out simple row duplication as the cause.
How we verified this
- 1,986,709 minus 1,986,489 was recomputed directly and equals 220, matching the headline gap.
- The eight nonzero section gaps, 90, 30, 30, 20, 20, 10, 10 and 10, were summed independently and total 220, matching the topline figure exactly.
- Wholesale and retail's share of the gap was recomputed as 90 divided by 220, which equals 40.9 percent.
- The gap as a share of the TSIC-level total was recomputed as 220 divided by 1,986,709, which equals 0.011 percent.
- A query for duplicate tsic_code rows in market_tsic_insight returned zero rows, ruling out double counted rows as the cause.
- Thirteen of the 21 sections were confirmed to have a gap of exactly zero between their section-level and TSIC-level totals.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and industry classification aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- National Economic and Social Development Council. (2019). Exposition of the transition from the Thailand Standard Industrial Classification. https://www.nesdc.go.th/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/04-article_file_20190521111537.pdf
Frequently asked questions
Which two totals disagree, and by how much?
Summing entity counts across every 5-digit TSIC code gives 1,986,709 companies. Summing the same registry across the 21 lettered industry sections gives 1,986,489. The gap is 220 companies, as of 17 July 2026.
Which industry section drives most of the 220-company gap?
Wholesale and retail trade, which carries 90 of the 220 missing companies, close to 41 percent of the total gap. Construction and transportation and storage each carry another 30.
Does the 220-company gap mean the registry data is wrong?
No. The gap is 0.011 percent of the TSIC-level total, and it likely reflects companies holding more than one 5-digit code inside the same section rather than an error in any single registration.
How many of the 21 sections reconcile exactly?
Thirteen of the 21 sections show zero gap between their section-level and TSIC-level totals. Only eight sections, all in services, trade, construction and logistics, carry any discrepancy at all.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thailand's 220-Company Gap Between TSIC and Sector Totals 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/the-220-company-gap-between-thailands-tsic-and-section-tables-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.