Fast Growth Versus Company Survival by Thai Section 2026
In short
Thailand's fastest-growing industry sections do not reliably survive longer. Human health grows revenue 11.5 percent a year over five years while keeping 73.9 percent of its companies active, the best combination of the two measures. Mining and quarrying grows even faster, at 11.8 percent, yet only 30.9 percent of its companies remain active, the weakest survival rate of any section. Across all 18 sections the correlation between growth and survival works out to roughly negative 0.10. The nine fastest-growing sections average 54.6 percent survival, barely below the 55.2 percent averaged by the nine slowest.
Does faster growth mean stronger survival for a Thai industry section?
No section-wide pattern connects the two, based on all 18 industry sections tracked as of 17 July 2026 (DBD, 2026). Human health and social work sits at the strong end of both measures. It grew revenue at an 11.5 percent five-year compound annual rate while keeping 73.9 percent of its registered companies active, the highest survival rate of any section. Mining and quarrying grew faster still, at 11.8 percent, yet only 30.9 percent of its companies are still active, the lowest survival rate on the list. Accommodation and food service posted the fastest growth of all at 19.2 percent a year, with a middling 58.1 percent survival rate. Real estate sits at the opposite growth extreme, up just 0.8 percent a year, yet survives at 62.4 percent, among the steadiest of any section. Recomputing the correlation between five-year growth and survival across all 18 sections gives roughly negative 0.10, a relationship too weak to call a trend either way. A hot growth number tells you almost nothing about whether a section's companies are built to last.
Five-year revenue growth by industry section
- Accommodation and food service19
- Arts entertainment and recreation19
- Wholesale and retail trade14
- Other service activities13
- Mining and quarrying12
- Human health and social work11
- Water supply and waste management11
- Transportation and storage11
- Education10
- Administrative and support8
- Agriculture forestry and fishing7
- Professional scientific and technical7
- Manufacturing5
- Construction4
- Electricity gas and air conditioning4
- Information and communication3
- Financial and insurance1
- Real estate1
Figures in percent 5-year revenue CAGR.
Ranked by growth. Survival rates for the same 18 sections sit in the table below and do not follow this order.
Growth and survival side by side, all 18 sections
| Industry section | 5-year revenue CAGR | Survival rate | Registered companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation and food service | 19.2% | 58.1% | 83,608 |
| Arts entertainment and recreation | 19.2% | 49.1% | 18,486 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 13.7% | 45.5% | 716,066 |
| Other service activities | 13.1% | 61.8% | 20,455 |
| Mining and quarrying | 11.8% | 30.9% | 8,231 |
| Human health and social work | 11.5% | 73.9% | 17,294 |
| Water supply and waste management | 11.2% | 62.4% | 4,818 |
| Transportation and storage | 10.7% | 51.8% | 85,303 |
| Education | 10.2% | 57.7% | 13,897 |
| Administrative and support | 8.0% | 56.6% | 100,711 |
| Agriculture forestry and fishing | 7.2% | 55.7% | 19,259 |
| Professional scientific and technical | 7.2% | 58.5% | 138,982 |
| Manufacturing | 5.4% | 47.3% | 230,396 |
| Construction | 4.0% | 42.5% | 283,564 |
| Electricity gas and air conditioning | 3.9% | 60.3% | 7,833 |
| Information and communication | 3.4% | 55.3% | 52,537 |
| Financial and insurance | 0.9% | 58.2% | 35,577 |
| Real estate | 0.8% | 62.4% | 149,618 |
Five-year revenue CAGR and survival rate by industry section, as of 17 Jul 2026. Ranked by growth.
Why the growth and survival split matters
A revenue growth headline is often read as a proxy for how safe a sector is to build a business in. This table says that read is wrong. Mining and quarrying carries a growth rate ahead of most of the economy, yet two out of every three of its companies have already dropped out of the register. That gap likely tracks commodity price swings and licensing cycles that push smaller operators out even as reported revenue at the surviving firms climbs. Human health runs the opposite way. Its growth is nearly identical to mining's, but its survival rate is more than double, consistent with steady demand for clinics and care providers plus licensing that keeps casual entrants out. For a lender or an investor scanning Thailand by sector, the practical lesson is to price growth and durability as two separate risks. A section can hand you both, as human health does, or hand you one while quietly taking the other away, as mining does.
Definitions
- 5-year revenue CAGR
- The compound annual growth rate of a section's aggregate reported revenue over the trailing five years. A rate of 10 percent means revenue would double in about seven years if that pace held.
- Survival rate
- The share of a section's registered companies that are still marked active in the registry, rather than dissolved or struck off. A 50 percent survival rate means half of the companies ever registered in that section are gone.
- Industry section
- One of the 21 letter-coded top-level groups in the TSIC industry classification, such as manufacturing or human health. This page covers the 18 sections that hold a meaningful base of registered commercial companies.
- Correlation coefficient
- A number between negative 1 and positive 1 that measures how closely two variables move together. Near zero means the two measures are effectively unrelated across the group studied.
- Aggregate
- A figure summed or combined across every company in a section, rather than an average of individual company figures.
Assumptions
- Survival rate reflects companies still active in the registry regardless of whether they filed a recent financial statement, so a dormant but not dissolved company still counts as active.
- 5-year CAGR is computed on aggregate section revenue, so a handful of very large companies can move a section's growth rate even when most of its companies are small.
- The registry's section trend aggregates refreshed on 17 July 2026, after this routine's internal 7 July reference date, so this page uses the newer, live figures.
- Correlation across only 18 section-level data points is a small sample. It is enough to show the absence of a strong relationship but not enough to rule out a modest one.
- Sections with small company bases, such as water supply and waste management at 4,818 companies, can show more volatile growth and survival figures than sections with tens of thousands of companies.
Methodology
Five-year revenue CAGR and survival rate are drawn from the DBD-based registry's per-section trend table as of 17 July 2026 (DBD, 2026). CAGR is the compound annual growth rate of aggregate section revenue over the trailing five years ending at the latest complete statement year. Survival rate is each section's active company count divided by its total registered company count. The correlation between the two measures across the 18 sections was computed by hand from the raw pairs, not pulled from any pre-built statistic. Sections cover the 18 lettered TSIC sections with registered commercial entities. Public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial organizations are excluded because they are not standard registered commercial entities.
How we verified this
- Recomputed the average survival rate of the 9 fastest-growing sections by hand, summing all nine survival rates and dividing by 9, which equals 54.6 percent.
- Recomputed the average survival rate of the 9 slowest-growing sections by hand, summing all nine survival rates and dividing by 9, which equals 55.2 percent, confirming the two halves differ by well under 1 point.
- Computed the Pearson correlation between 5-year CAGR and survival rate across all 18 sections by hand from the raw pairs, using sums of deviations from each mean: r is approximately negative 0.10.
- Confirmed 18 is the full count of rows in the section trend table and that it equals the 21 lettered TSIC sections minus public administration, households, and extraterritorial organizations, which carry no meaningful registered-company base.
- Cross-checked human health at 73.9 percent survival and mining and quarrying at 30.9 percent survival against this site's own section survival-rate page, which independently reports the identical two figures as the sector-wide best and worst.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- OECD and Eurostat. (2007). Eurostat-OECD manual on business demography statistics. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/eurostat-oecd-manual-on-business-demography-statistics_9789264041882-en.html
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry section pairs the fastest growth with the strongest survival?
Human health and social work. It grew revenue 11.5 percent a year over five years while keeping 73.9 percent of its companies active, the best combination of growth and durability of any section.
Does fast revenue growth predict which Thai industries survive?
No. The correlation between 5-year revenue growth and survival rate across the 18 sections is a weak negative 0.10, so a section's growth rate says almost nothing about how durable its companies are.
Which fast-growing Thai section has the weakest survival rate?
Mining and quarrying. It grew revenue 11.8 percent a year over five years, faster than human health, yet only 30.9 percent of its companies remain active, the lowest survival rate of any section.
How many Thai industry sections were compared?
All 18 lettered TSIC sections that hold a meaningful base of registered commercial companies, excluding public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial organizations.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Fast Growth Versus Company Survival by Thai Section 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/which-thai-industry-sections-pair-fast-growth-with-strong-survival-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.