Which Thai Industries Hold More Assets Than Companies in 2026
In short
Financial and insurance holds 1.8 percent of Thailand's classified companies but an estimated 33.4 percent of national corporate assets, an 18.7 fold overweight. Manufacturing is a smaller version of the same story, at 11.6 percent of companies and 19.5 percent of assets. Wholesale and retail sits closest to proportional, with 36 percent of companies against 20.9 percent of assets. Construction is the mirror image of finance, holding 14.3 percent of companies but only 3.4 percent of assets.
Which industries hold more assets than their company count would predict
Financial and insurance is Thailand's clearest case of an industry punching far above its size (DBD, 2026). The sector accounts for just 1.79 percent of the 1,986,489 companies with a classified industry section, yet an estimated 33.42 percent of national corporate assets sit inside it. That is an 18.67 fold gap between its share of the register and its share of the balance sheet. Manufacturing shows the same pattern at a gentler scale, holding 11.60 percent of companies and 19.54 percent of estimated assets, a 1.68 fold overweight. Electricity and gas and mining and quarrying are overweight too, at 4.04 and 3.47 times their expected share of assets respectively, though both are small sectors in absolute company count. Wholesale and retail, Thailand's largest sector by a wide margin, comes closest to proportional. It holds 36.04 percent of companies against 20.92 percent of assets, a 0.58 multiple that looks tame next to finance. Construction is the sharper mismatch on the other side of the ledger. It holds 14.27 percent of companies but only 3.40 percent of estimated assets, a 0.24 multiple, meaning construction firms are typically thin on the balance sheet relative to how common they are.
Asset share as a multiple of company share, by industry section
- Financial and insurance19
- Electricity and gas4
- Mining and quarrying3
- Manufacturing2
- Education1
- Information and communication1
- Real estate1
- Water supply and waste1
- Agriculture forestry and fishing1
- Human health and social work1
- Transportation and storage1
- Wholesale and retail trade1
- Accommodation and food service0
- Administrative and support0
- Professional scientific and technical0
- Arts and entertainment0
- Construction0
- Other services0
Figures in multiple, 1.0 equals proportional weight.
Financial and insurance is the outlier. Most other sectors sit between roughly 0.1 and 1.7 times their expected weight.
Company share versus estimated asset share, by industry section
| Industry section | Companies | Share of companies | Share of estimated assets | Overweight multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial and insurance | 35,567 | 1.79% | 33.42% | 18.67x |
| Electricity and gas | 7,833 | 0.39% | 1.59% | 4.04x |
| Mining and quarrying | 8,231 | 0.41% | 1.44% | 3.47x |
| Manufacturing | 230,396 | 11.60% | 19.54% | 1.68x |
| Education | 13,897 | 0.70% | 0.82% | 1.18x |
| Information and communication | 52,537 | 2.64% | 2.30% | 0.87x |
| Real estate | 149,608 | 7.53% | 6.54% | 0.87x |
| Water supply and waste | 4,818 | 0.24% | 0.18% | 0.76x |
| Agriculture forestry and fishing | 19,259 | 0.97% | 0.72% | 0.74x |
| Human health and social work | 17,294 | 0.87% | 0.58% | 0.67x |
| Transportation and storage | 85,273 | 4.29% | 2.55% | 0.59x |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 715,976 | 36.04% | 20.92% | 0.58x |
| Accommodation and food service | 83,598 | 4.21% | 1.74% | 0.41x |
| Administrative and support | 100,691 | 5.07% | 1.90% | 0.38x |
| Professional scientific and technical | 138,962 | 7.00% | 2.02% | 0.29x |
| Arts and entertainment | 18,486 | 0.93% | 0.22% | 0.24x |
| Construction | 283,534 | 14.27% | 3.40% | 0.24x |
| Other services | 20,455 | 1.03% | 0.09% | 0.09x |
| Public administration | 38 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.16x |
| Extraterritorial | 4 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.09x |
| Households | 32 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.01x |
Ranked by overweight multiple, share of estimated national assets divided by share of classified companies, as of 7 Jul 2026. Public administration, households and extraterritorial bodies are shown last because each has fewer than 40 companies and the ratio is not meaningful at that scale.
Why this matters
A share of companies is a headcount. A share of assets is a claim on the country's balance sheet, and the two rarely move together. Financial and insurance can shape credit conditions, deposit flows and systemic risk for the whole economy while representing barely one in fifty registered companies. That imbalance is exactly why regulators watch bank and insurer balance sheets so closely even though the sector barely registers in raw company counts. Wholesale and retail sits at the other end of the same lesson. It employs the registry's largest single bloc of companies, yet its footprint on national assets is proportionally smaller, closer to what a headcount would suggest. Construction tells a third version of the story: common on the register, light on the balance sheet, which fits an industry built around thin capital bases, subcontracting and project based revenue rather than owned physical assets. For anyone reading Thailand's company statistics as a proxy for economic weight, counting firms and counting assets can point to different industries entirely.
Definitions
- Classified company
- A registered company that has been assigned one of the 21 TSIC letter industry sections in the DBD registry. There are 1,986,489 such companies.
- Estimated section assets
- A section's average total assets per company, drawn from companies that filed a financial statement, multiplied by that section's full entity count. This is an estimate, not a directly reported total.
- Overweight multiple
- A section's share of estimated national assets divided by its share of classified companies. A value above 1.0 means the section holds more of the asset base than its company count alone would predict. A value below 1.0 means the opposite.
- TSIC section
- One of 21 broad industry letters in the Thailand Standard Industrial Classification, such as G for wholesale and retail trade or K for financial and insurance activities.
Assumptions
- Average total assets per section is computed only from companies that filed a financial statement, then applied to every company in that section including those that never filed, so the estimate assumes non filing companies have asset levels similar to filing companies in the same section.
- The 193.08 trillion baht national estimate is a rollup built for this analysis, not a single confirmed figure published by the registry, so it should be read as an informed estimate rather than an official total.
- Public administration, households and extraterritorial bodies each contain fewer than 40 companies and are excluded from the main narrative because their shares and multiples are not statistically meaningful at that scale.
- Shares are based on companies with a classified industry section, which excludes a small number of registered companies that have no section assigned.
Methodology
Section level asset totals are an estimate, not a directly reported national figure. The DBD registry aggregates in market_section_insight give an average total asset value per company that filed a financial statement, computed_at 2026-07-07. This average was multiplied by each section's full entity count, meaning every company classified into that industry section regardless of whether it filed, then summed across all 21 TSIC letter sections to produce an estimated national total of 193.08 trillion baht. Each section's estimated asset share is that section's rolled up total divided by the 193.08 trillion baht national estimate. Each section's company share is its entity count divided by 1,986,489, the total number of companies with a classified industry section. The overweight multiple is the asset share divided by the company share. A multiple of 1.0 means a sector's balance sheet weight matches its headcount weight exactly.
How we verified this
- Sum of entity_count across all 21 sections equals 1,986,489, matching the registry's total count of companies with a classified industry section.
- Financial and insurance share of companies recomputed as 35,567 divided by 1,986,489 equals 1.79 percent.
- Section level estimated assets recomputed as avg_total_asset multiplied by entity_count for each of the 21 sections, then summed, equals 193,084,447,982,881 baht.
- Financial and insurance share of estimated assets recomputed as 64,533,909,787,999 baht divided by 193,084,447,982,881 baht equals 33.42 percent.
- The overweight multiple for financial and insurance recomputed as 33.42 divided by 1.79 equals 18.67, confirming the 18 fold gap in the brief.
- Wholesale and retail share of companies recomputed as 715,976 divided by 1,986,489 equals 36.04 percent, and its share of estimated assets recomputed as 40,400,232,099,196 baht divided by 193,084,447,982,881 baht equals 20.92 percent.
- Company share percentages across all 21 sections sum to 100.00 percent and estimated asset share percentages sum to 100.00 percent, confirming no section was dropped or double counted.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Bank of Thailand. (2026). Summary statement of assets and liabilities of financial institutions. https://www.bot.or.th/en/statistics/financial-institutions/summary-statement-of-assets-and-liabilities.html
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry holds the most assets relative to its number of companies?
Financial and insurance, holding an estimated 33.42 percent of national corporate assets while accounting for only 1.79 percent of classified companies, an 18.67 fold overweight.
Does wholesale and retail's size on the register match its share of assets?
Roughly. Wholesale and retail holds 36.04 percent of companies and 20.92 percent of estimated assets, a 0.58 multiple, closer to proportional than most other large sectors.
Why is finance so much heavier on assets than on company count?
Banks, insurers and other financial firms carry large balance sheets, such as loan books, investment portfolios and reserves, relative to their headcount as registered entities, so a small number of financial companies can control a large share of total assets.
Is the national asset total a directly reported figure?
No. It is an estimate built by multiplying each section's average total assets per company by that section's full entity count and summing across all 21 sections, since the registry publishes company counts and average assets by section rather than one confirmed national total assets figure.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Which Thai Industries Hold More Assets Than Companies in 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/which-thai-industries-hold-more-assets-than-their-company-count-suggests-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.