Which Thai Provinces Outperform Population in Revenue (2026)
In short
Rayong generates about 4.09 million baht in registered company revenue for every resident, 3.37 times the national average, as of 7 Jul 2026. Samut Prakan follows at 3.49 million baht per resident, 2.88 times the average. Together the two provinces hold about 3.3 percent of Thailand's population. Yet Rayong contributes 4.00 percent of mapped company revenue and Samut Prakan contributes 6.03 percent. Neither is a population magnet like Chiang Mai or Nakhon Ratchasima. Rayong runs the Eastern Seaboard's petrochemical and auto plants, and Samut Prakan runs the port linked industrial estates just outside Bangkok.
Which provinces earn more than their headcount predicts?
Rayong is the clearest outlier once Bangkok is set aside. Registered companies there reported 3,201,564,240,994.13 baht in revenue against a resident population of 782,000, a rate of 4,094,072 baht per resident. That is 3.37 times the national average of 1,214,281 baht per resident, computed from 80,083,020,653,176.25 baht in province mapped revenue divided by 65,951,000 residents. Samut Prakan comes next at 3,494,649 baht per resident, 2.88 times the average, built on 4,826,110,417,220.06 baht in company revenue against 1,381,000 residents. Chon Buri and Samut Sakhon follow at roughly 1.9 times the average each. Bangkok itself sits highest of all at 9,264,473 baht per resident, 7.63 times the average, but that is the expected result of hosting the country's corporate headquarters. Rayong and Samut Prakan are the surprising cases because neither ranks among Thailand's most populous provinces.
Company revenue per resident by province
- Bangkok9,264,473
- Rayong4,094,072
- Samut Prakan3,494,649
- Chon Buri2,329,091
- Samut Sakhon2,268,714
- Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya1,815,336
- Pathum Thani1,697,157
- Nonthaburi1,228,245
- Chachoengsao1,159,318
Figures in baht per resident.
Bangkok leads as the expected capital effect. Rayong and Samut Prakan lead everywhere else, well ahead of larger, more populous provinces.
Population, companies and revenue by province
| Province | Population (2024) | Companies | Total revenue (THB) | Revenue per resident (THB) | Multiple of national average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangkok | 5,456,000 | 812,799 | 50,546,964,253,127 | 9,264,473 | 7.63x |
| Rayong | 782,000 | 33,083 | 3,201,564,240,994 | 4,094,072 | 3.37x |
| Samut Prakan | 1,381,000 | 97,609 | 4,826,110,417,220 | 3,494,649 | 2.88x |
| Chon Buri | 1,636,000 | 127,023 | 3,810,392,598,538 | 2,329,091 | 1.92x |
| Samut Sakhon | 591,000 | 31,030 | 1,340,809,833,170 | 2,268,714 | 1.87x |
| Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya | 823,000 | 20,425 | 1,494,021,248,752 | 1,815,336 | 1.49x |
| Pathum Thani | 1,236,000 | 81,256 | 2,097,686,603,115 | 1,697,157 | 1.40x |
| Nonthaburi | 1,318,000 | 102,370 | 1,618,827,174,603 | 1,228,245 | 1.01x |
| Chachoengsao | 733,000 | 13,799 | 849,779,853,147 | 1,159,318 | 0.95x |
| Thailand, national average | 65,951,000 | 1,986,709 | 80,083,020,653,176 | 1,214,281 | 1.00x |
Registered company revenue against Department of Provincial Administration population figures, as of 7 Jul 2026.
Two provinces, two different routes to the same result
Rayong and Samut Prakan reach a similar revenue per resident by different paths. Rayong runs on scale per company. Its 33,083 registered companies average 96,773,698 baht in revenue each, 2.40 times the national average of 40,309,386 baht per company, a signature of heavy industry where a handful of refineries and petrochemical plants carry enormous turnover. Samut Prakan runs on density instead. It counts 70.7 companies per 1,000 residents against a national rate of 30.1, and its average company revenue of 49,443,293 baht is only 1.23 times the national figure. In other words Rayong wins with fewer, much bigger firms, and Samut Prakan wins with a much higher concentration of ordinary sized firms packed into a small, industrially zoned province next to Bangkok's port and river trade.
Why this matters
Population and economic output are treated as if they move together in most province rankings, and for most provinces they roughly do. Rayong and Samut Prakan break that assumption in a way that a simple company count or a simple revenue total would both miss. A province with under 800,000 residents out earning provinces with double or triple its headcount says something specific about where Thailand's industrial capacity actually sits. It sits at ports and petrochemical corridors, not at population centers. For site selection, labor planning or regional policy, revenue per resident is the number that shows where economic weight has concentrated relative to the people who live there, a different question from where the most companies are registered or where revenue is simply largest in absolute terms.
Definitions
- Revenue per resident
- A province's total reported company revenue divided by its registered population, expressed in baht per person.
- Registered population
- The Department of Provincial Administration's civil registration count of residents by household registration address, distinct from a de facto headcount of people physically present in a province.
- Province mapped revenue
- The sum of company revenue across provinces with a valid province code in the registry, which runs slightly below the whole economy revenue total because a small number of records carry no province code.
- Company density
- The number of registered companies per 1,000 residents in a province, a measure of how concentrated business registration is relative to population.
- Aggregate revenue
- The sum of reported revenue across every company in a group, not an average of individual company figures.
Assumptions
- Population figures are Department of Provincial Administration civil registration counts for December 2024, external to and independent of the DBD company registry, and are rounded to the nearest thousand as published.
- Registration based population can diverge from where people actually work, since many workers in industrial provinces commute or hold household registration elsewhere, so revenue per resident likely understates the true working population base in industrial provinces like Rayong and Samut Prakan.
- A small number of companies without a mapped province code are excluded from every province total, so the sum of province revenue runs marginally below the whole economy revenue figure.
- Revenue per resident measures industrial concentration relative to headcount. It is not a measure of personal income, wages or household wealth.
Methodology
Entity counts and total revenue per province come from market_province_insight in the DBD backed registry, as of 7 Jul 2026. Revenue per resident divides each province's total reported company revenue by its registered population. Population figures are Department of Provincial Administration civil registration counts by province for December 2024, external to the DBD registry, rounded to the nearest thousand as published. The national average divides the sum of revenue across provinces with a mapped province code, 80,083,020,653,176.25 baht, by the national population of 65,951,000. A small number of registry records carry no province code and are excluded from every province total, so the province sum runs slightly below the whole economy revenue figure.
How we verified this
- Rayong revenue per resident recomputed as 3,201,564,240,994.13 baht divided by 782,000 residents equals 4,094,072 baht, and 4,094,072 divided by the national average of 1,214,281 equals 3.37.
- Samut Prakan revenue per resident recomputed as 4,826,110,417,220.06 baht divided by 1,381,000 residents equals 3,494,649 baht, and that divided by 1,214,281 equals 2.88.
- National average revenue per resident recomputed as the province mapped total of 80,083,020,653,176.25 baht divided by 65,951,000 residents equals 1,214,281 baht.
- Rayong revenue share recomputed as 3,201,564,240,994.13 divided by 80,083,020,653,176.25 equals 4.00 percent, against a population share of 782,000 divided by 65,951,000, or 1.19 percent.
- Samut Prakan revenue share recomputed as 4,826,110,417,220.06 divided by 80,083,020,653,176.25 equals 6.03 percent, against a population share of 1,381,000 divided by 65,951,000, or 2.09 percent.
- Rayong average revenue per company recomputed as 3,201,564,240,994.13 divided by 33,083 companies equals 96,773,698 baht, and that divided by the national per company average of 40,309,386 baht equals 2.40.
- Samut Prakan company density recomputed as 97,609 companies divided by 1,381,000 residents times 1,000 equals 70.7 companies per 1,000 residents, against a national rate of 1,986,709 divided by 65,951,000 times 1,000, or 30.1.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates by province. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Department of Provincial Administration. (2024). Population and house registration statistics by province, December 2024. Ministry of Interior, Thailand, as compiled in Wikipedia contributors, Provinces of Thailand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Thailand
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai province generates the most company revenue per resident?
Bangkok leads at 9,264,473 baht per resident, but that reflects its role as the national headquarters hub. Outside Bangkok, Rayong leads at 4,094,072 baht per resident, followed by Samut Prakan at 3,494,649 baht.
Why does Rayong earn so much more revenue than its population would suggest?
Rayong hosts the Eastern Seaboard's petrochemical and automotive manufacturing base. Its 33,083 companies average 96,773,698 baht in revenue each, 2.40 times the national average per company, the signature of a small number of very large industrial firms.
Is Samut Prakan's advantage the same as Rayong's?
No. Samut Prakan's edge comes mainly from a high concentration of companies, 70.7 per 1,000 residents against a national rate of 30.1, rather than unusually large individual firms.
What population figures were used?
Department of Provincial Administration civil registration counts by province for December 2024, an external source independent of the DBD company registry.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Which Thai Provinces Outperform Population in Revenue (2026). Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/which-thai-provinces-outperform-their-population-in-revenue-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.