Thai Company Survival Rates by Industry in 2026
In short
Half of Thailand's registered companies are still alive, a national survival rate of 50.0 percent as of 2 July 2026. Survival splits hard by sector. Human health and social work keeps 73.9 percent of its firms active, the best of any section. Mining and quarrying keeps only 30.9 percent, the worst. The three largest sectors by count, trade, construction and manufacturing, all sit below the national line.
Which industries survive, and which fail?
As of 2 July 2026, exactly half of Thailand's registered companies were still active, a survival rate of 50.0 percent across 1,986,709 classified firms (DBD, 2026). That midpoint hides a wide spread. Human health and social work leads every sector at 73.9 percent, close to three in four firms still trading. Mining and quarrying sits at the bottom at 30.9 percent, barely one in three. Real estate, water and waste services, and other services all clear 61 percent. The pattern is readable: sectors built on steady demand and licensing hold on, while capital heavy and cyclical sectors shed firms fast.
Company survival rate by industry section
- Human health and social work74
- Real estate62
- Water and waste62
- Other services62
- Electricity and gas60
- Professional, scientific and technical59
- Financial and insurance58
- Accommodation and food service58
- Education58
- Administrative and support57
- Agriculture56
- Information and communication55
- Transportation and storage52
- Arts and entertainment49
- Manufacturing47
- Wholesale and retail trade46
- Construction43
- Mining and quarrying31
Figures in percent of firms still active.
Health and real estate anchor the top. Five sections fall below half, and mining is the weakest at 30.9 percent.
Survival rate and firm count by industry
| Industry section | Survival rate | Firms |
|---|---|---|
| Human health and social work | 73.9% | 17,294 |
| Real estate | 62.4% | 149,608 |
| Water and waste | 62.4% | 4,818 |
| Other services | 61.8% | 20,455 |
| Electricity and gas | 60.3% | 7,833 |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 58.5% | 138,962 |
| Financial and insurance | 58.2% | 35,567 |
| Accommodation and food service | 58.1% | 83,598 |
| Education | 57.7% | 13,897 |
| Administrative and support | 56.6% | 100,691 |
| Agriculture | 55.7% | 19,259 |
| Information and communication | 55.3% | 52,537 |
| Transportation and storage | 51.8% | 85,273 |
| Arts and entertainment | 49.1% | 18,486 |
| Manufacturing | 47.3% | 230,396 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 45.5% | 715,976 |
| Construction | 42.5% | 283,534 |
| Mining and quarrying | 30.9% | 8,231 |
Active firms as a share of active plus dormant, by TSIC section, as of 2 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
Survival is not spread evenly, and that changes how you read any single company. A firm in mining starts inside a sector where 69.1 percent of its peers have already gone dormant. A firm in health sits in a section where dormancy is the exception. For anyone screening suppliers, lending, or buying, the base rate matters before the balance sheet does. The three heaviest sectors by company count all sit below the national line. Wholesale and retail trade, the biggest of all, survives at just 45.5 percent. Construction is worse at 42.5 percent. Manufacturing manages 47.3 percent. That is why the country average lands exactly at half even though 13 of the 18 sections beat it. Weight, not breadth, sets the national number. The World Bank has tied weak firm survival in Thailand to thin innovation adoption, with only 11.9 percent of Thai firms embedding innovation in production (World Bank, 2025).
Definitions
- Survival rate
- Active companies as a share of active plus dormant companies. A 60 percent survival rate means six of every ten firms in that group remain active.
- Dormant
- A registered company that is no longer trading, whether marked inactive, defunct, or struck off the register, but not yet removed from history.
- Industry section
- A top-level grouping in the Thailand Standard Industrial Classification, such as manufacturing or construction, used to sort every registered company.
- Percentage points
- The plain arithmetic difference between two percentages. The gap from 73.9 percent to 30.9 percent is 43.0 points.
Assumptions
- Survival is measured by registration status, not by revenue or employment, so a technically active but idle firm still counts as surviving.
- Companies never assigned to an industry section are excluded from the section rates but remain in the national total.
- Section survival is a point in time snapshot as of 2 July 2026 and does not track the age at which firms went dormant.
Methodology
Survival rate is the number of active companies in an industry section divided by active plus dormant companies in that section, drawn from the DBD registry as of 2 July 2026. Sections follow the Thailand Standard Industrial Classification. A company counts as active if it remains registered and has not been marked dormant or struck off. Firms never classified into a section are excluded from section rates but included in the national total of 1,986,709.
How we verified this
- Recomputed national survival as 993,373 active divided by 1,986,709 classified, which returns 50.0 percent.
- Confirmed active plus dormant sums to the classified total: 993,373 plus 993,336 equals 1,986,709.
- Confirmed human health and social work is the maximum section rate at 73.9 percent and mining and quarrying is the minimum at 30.9 percent.
- Counted 13 of the 18 industry sections above the 50.0 percent national line and 5 below it.
- Derived mining dormancy as 100 minus 30.9 equals 69.1 percent, and the health minus mining gap as 73.9 minus 30.9 equals 43.0 points.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons by status and industry section. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- World Bank. (2025). Thailand economic monitor: Unlocking the growth potential of firms. World Bank Group. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/thailand/publication/thailand-economic-monitor-reports
Frequently asked questions
Which industry has the highest company survival rate in Thailand?
Human health and social work, at 73.9 percent as of 2 July 2026, close to three in four firms still active.
Which industry has the lowest survival rate?
Mining and quarrying, at 30.9 percent, the only section where fewer than one in three firms remains active.
What is the national company survival rate?
50.0 percent, with 993,373 active companies out of 1,986,709 classified firms.
Why is the national rate only 50 percent when most sections beat it?
The largest sectors by count, trade at 45.5 percent, construction at 42.5 percent and manufacturing at 47.3 percent, all sit below half and pull the weighted national average down.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thai Company Survival Rates by Industry in 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/which-industries-survive-and-which-fail-in-thailand-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.