Which Thai Sectors Hold the Most Large Companies (2026)
In short
Thailand counted 13,875 large companies as of 17 Jul 2026, and just two industry sections held 74.3 percent of them. Wholesale and retail trade alone holds 5,590, or 40.3 percent. Manufacturing follows with 4,718, or 34.0 percent. Three of the 21 industry sections, public administration, household activities as employers and extraterritorial organizations, report zero large companies.
Which sectors hold Thailand's large companies?
Two sections dominate. Wholesale and retail trade holds 5,590 large companies, more than any other section. Manufacturing follows with 4,718. Together the pair accounts for 10,308 of Thailand's 13,875 large companies, a combined 74.3 percent, as of 17 Jul 2026 (DBD, 2026). Construction ranks third with 562, financial and insurance fourth with 556. Three sections report zero: public administration, household activities as employers and extraterritorial organizations. The remaining large companies sit thin across the other fifteen sections.
Large companies by industry section
- Wholesale and retail trade5,590
- Manufacturing4,718
- Construction562
- Financial and insurance556
- Transportation and storage448
- Real estate386
- Accommodation and food service260
- Professional, scientific and technical253
- Administrative and support240
- Information and communication196
- Electricity and gas191
- Human health and social work178
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing128
- Mining and quarrying55
- Water supply and waste management49
- Arts, entertainment and recreation31
- Education18
- Other service activities16
- Public administration0
- Household activities as employers0
- Extraterritorial organizations0
Figures in large companies.
Wholesale/retail trade and manufacturing tower over the rest. Three sections show no bar at all because they hold zero large companies.
Large companies by industry section, ranked
| Industry section | Large companies | Share of all large companies | Large-company rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale and retail trade | 5,590 | 40.3% | 0.78% |
| Manufacturing | 4,718 | 34.0% | 2.05% |
| Construction | 562 | 4.1% | 0.20% |
| Financial and insurance | 556 | 4.0% | 1.56% |
| Transportation and storage | 448 | 3.2% | 0.53% |
| Real estate | 386 | 2.8% | 0.26% |
| Accommodation and food service | 260 | 1.9% | 0.31% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 253 | 1.8% | 0.18% |
| Administrative and support | 240 | 1.7% | 0.24% |
| Information and communication | 196 | 1.4% | 0.37% |
| Electricity and gas | 191 | 1.4% | 2.44% |
| Human health and social work | 178 | 1.3% | 1.03% |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 128 | 0.9% | 0.66% |
| Mining and quarrying | 55 | 0.4% | 0.67% |
| Water supply and waste management | 49 | 0.4% | 1.02% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 31 | 0.2% | 0.17% |
| Education | 18 | 0.1% | 0.13% |
| Other service activities | 16 | 0.1% | 0.08% |
| Public administration | 0 | 0.0% | 0.00% |
| Household activities as employers | 0 | 0.0% | 0.00% |
| Extraterritorial organizations | 0 | 0.0% | 0.00% |
Large-company count, share of the national total, and the large-company rate within each section, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this matters
Large companies make up just 0.7 percent of Thailand's size-classified companies, yet they carry outsized weight in credit exposure, tax revenue and formal employment. Finding three in every four of them inside two sections tells a lender or a policymaker exactly where that weight sits. Wholesale and retail trade earns its top spot mostly through volume, hundreds of thousands of shops and traders, only 0.78 percent of which grow large. Electricity and gas runs the opposite way. It has just 7,833 companies total, yet 2.44 percent of them reach large status, the highest rate of any section, because power generation and grid infrastructure demand scale from the start. Three sections, public administration, household activities as employers and extraterritorial organizations, have produced no large company at all, though together they hold barely 74 registered entities and were never going to move the national count.
Definitions
- Large company
- The largest of DBD's four size bands, alongside micro, small and medium, assigned from a company's filed revenue and assets.
- Size band
- DBD's classification of a company as micro, small, medium or large, based on its financial filings rather than its industry.
- TSIC section
- The one-letter top level of Thailand's Standard Industrial Classification. Twenty one sections, A through U, sit above the five-digit industry codes.
- Large-company rate
- The count of large companies in a section divided by that section's total registered companies, showing how likely a company in that section is to be large.
Assumptions
- Counts include only companies with both a classified TSIC section and an assigned size band, 1,986,709 of the 1,989,709 companies on the register.
- Size band reflects DBD's own large, medium, small or micro classification and is not redefined by this page.
- The national large-company total moved by one company between the 7 Jul 2026 and 17 Jul 2026 refreshes of the aggregate tables, an ordinary effect of periodic reprocessing rather than a change in the underlying companies.
Methodology
Large-company counts come from market_tsic_insight, an aggregate table of DBD registry data grouped by 5-digit TSIC industry code, summed up to the one-letter industry section defined by DBD's TSIC standard. A company sits in the large band based on DBD's own four-way size classification, alongside micro, small and medium, derived from its filed revenue and assets. This page counts only companies with both a classified section and an assigned size band, 1,986,709 of the 1,989,709 companies on the register. Figures are as of 17 Jul 2026, the latest refresh of the aggregate tables, which moved the national large-company total by a single company from the prior published figure of 13,876.
How we verified this
- Summed count_large across all 21 TSIC sections in market_tsic_insight: 5590 plus 4718 plus 562 plus 556 plus 448 plus 386 plus 260 plus 253 plus 240 plus 196 plus 191 plus 178 plus 128 plus 55 plus 49 plus 31 plus 18 plus 16 plus 0 plus 0 plus 0 equals 13875, the denominator for every share on this page.
- Wholesale and retail trade plus manufacturing: 5590 plus 4718 equals 10308. 10308 divided by 13875 equals 0.7429, or 74.3 percent.
- Wholesale and retail trade alone: 5590 divided by 13875 equals 0.4029, or 40.3 percent. Manufacturing alone: 4718 divided by 13875 equals 0.3401, or 34.0 percent.
- Confirmed count_large sums to zero across every TSIC code inside sections O, T and U, the three sections with no large company, and that their combined entity_count is only 74.
- Large-company rate per section computed as count_large divided by entity_count: electricity and gas, 191 divided by 7833 equals 0.0244, or 2.44 percent, the highest of any section, versus wholesale and retail trade's 5590 divided by 716066 equals 0.0078, or 0.78 percent.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and size classification by TSIC industry code. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council. (2025). Thai economic performance in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the outlook for 2026. NESDC. https://www.nesdc.go.th/en/download/press-release-47/?ddl=99987
Frequently asked questions
Which industry section has the most large companies in Thailand?
Wholesale and retail trade, with 5,590 large companies as of 17 Jul 2026, ahead of manufacturing's 4,718.
Which sectors have zero large companies?
Public administration, household activities as employers and extraterritorial organizations report no large company at all, though together they hold only 74 registered entities nationwide.
What share of Thailand's large companies sit in wholesale/retail trade and manufacturing?
74.3 percent, or 10,308 of the 13,875 large companies nationwide, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Which Thai Sectors Hold the Most Large Companies (2026). Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/which-thai-sectors-hold-thailands-large-companies-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.