Three Sectors Hold 61.9% of Thailand's Company Register, 2026
In short
Three industries, wholesale and retail trade, construction and manufacturing, hold 61.9 percent of Thailand's 1,986,489 classified companies as of 17 July 2026. Wholesale and retail trade alone accounts for 715,976 companies, more than construction and manufacturing combined. Construction adds 283,534 and manufacturing adds 230,396, and together the three already clear three in every five firms on the register. Just two of those sectors, wholesale and retail plus construction, pass the halfway mark on their own at 50.3 percent. The other eighteen of Thailand's 21 industry sections split the remaining 38.1 percent among themselves.
How much of the company register sits in just three sections?
Three sections answer the question. Wholesale and retail trade, construction and manufacturing together hold 61.9 percent of the 1,986,489 Thai companies that carry a classified industry section, as of 17 July 2026 (DBD, 2026). Wholesale and retail trade alone accounts for 715,976 companies, more than the next three sections combined. Construction ranks second with 283,534 companies, and manufacturing ranks third with 230,396. Add them together and the total is 1,229,906 companies sitting inside just three of Thailand's 21 lettered industry sections. Two sections alone already clear half the register: wholesale and retail plus construction reach 50.3 percent between them, before manufacturing even joins the count. The other eighteen sections, from real estate down to the four companies classified as extraterritorial organizations, split what remains.
Share of Thailand's company register by section
- Wholesale and retail trade36.0%36
- Construction14.3%14
- Manufacturing11.6%12
- All other 18 sections38.1%38
Wholesale and retail trade alone is bigger than the next three sections combined. Eighteen sections share just over a third of the register.
All 21 industry sections ranked by company count
| Industry section | Companies | Share | Cumulative share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale and retail trade | 715,976 | 36.0% | 36.0% |
| Construction | 283,534 | 14.3% | 50.3% |
| Manufacturing | 230,396 | 11.6% | 61.9% |
| Real estate | 149,608 | 7.5% | 69.4% |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 138,962 | 7.0% | 76.4% |
| Administrative and support | 100,691 | 5.1% | 81.5% |
| Transportation and storage | 85,273 | 4.3% | 85.8% |
| Accommodation and food service | 83,598 | 4.2% | 90.0% |
| Information and communication | 52,537 | 2.6% | 92.7% |
| Financial and insurance | 35,567 | 1.8% | 94.4% |
| Other services | 20,455 | 1.0% | 95.5% |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 19,259 | 1.0% | 96.4% |
| Arts and entertainment | 18,486 | 0.9% | 97.4% |
| Human health and social work | 17,294 | 0.9% | 98.2% |
| Education | 13,897 | 0.7% | 98.9% |
| Mining and quarrying | 8,231 | 0.4% | 99.4% |
| Electricity and gas | 7,833 | 0.4% | 99.7% |
| Water supply and waste | 4,818 | 0.2% | 100.0% |
| Public administration | 38 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Households | 32 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Extraterritorial organizations | 4 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
Registered companies by industry section, share of the classified register, and running total, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this concentration matters
A company register this lopsided tells a story about how Thailand actually does business, not just how it counts businesses. Wholesale and retail trade absorbs everyone from a village grocery shop to a national distributor under a single ISIC letter, so it was always going to be large, but 36 percent of every classified company is a striking share for one heading to carry alone. Construction and manufacturing add scale rather than diversity: both are sections where a small registration fee and a simple business scope form clear the way for a new company, which keeps the entry count high even when the underlying projects are few. Pair this finding with the site's separate work on dormant companies and corporate assets and a fuller picture forms. The same three sections hold an even larger 67.9 percent of Thailand's dormant companies, so the register's shape and its dormancy problem sit in the same three places. Corporate assets tell a different story again, concentrated instead in financial and insurance, manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade, which shows that where companies register and where capital actually sits are not the same map. Anyone building a go to market plan, a lending model or a policy proposal around a typical Thai company should start from wholesale and retail trade, construction and manufacturing, because statistically that is where most companies already are.
Definitions
- Industry section
- One of the 21 broad, lettered categories in the ISIC classification that the DBD registry assigns to every company, such as wholesale and retail trade or construction. Sections are the broadest level of industry grouping the registry supports.
- Classified company
- A registered company that carries an assigned industry section in the registry. A small number of companies, 3,220 as of this data, have no classified section and are excluded from the shares in this piece.
- Concentration
- The degree to which a total is dominated by a small number of its parts. Here it measures how much of the company register sits inside a small number of industry sections rather than being spread evenly across all 21.
- Cumulative share
- The running total of a section's share added to every larger section that came before it in the ranking, showing how quickly the register fills up as sections are added one by one.
Assumptions
- Shares are based on raw company counts, not on revenue, assets or employment, so a section with many small companies can outrank a section with fewer but larger ones.
- The 3,220 companies without a classified industry section are excluded from every percentage, so all shares are relative to 1,986,489, not the full register of 1,989,709.
- A single ISIC letter groups very different businesses together, so wholesale and retail trade includes everything from a market stall operator to a national distributor under one heading.
Methodology
Entity counts are drawn from the DBD company registry as of 17 July 2026 and grouped by the 21 lettered ISIC industry sections that the registry assigns to each company. The denominator used for every share in this piece is 1,986,489, the sum of entity_count across all 21 sections, which is the set of companies that carry a classified industry section. A further 3,220 registered companies carry no classified section and are excluded from every percentage here. Shares are simple counts of companies, not counts weighted by revenue, assets or employment, so a large section is one with many registered entities, not necessarily one with the most economic activity.
How we verified this
- Summed entity_count across all 21 rows of market_section_insight and got 1,986,489, matching the classified-register anchor in the data guide.
- Summed the top 3 entity counts, 715976 plus 283534 plus 230396, to get 1,229,906, then divided by 1,986,489 to get 61.9135 percent, rounded to 61.9 percent.
- Divided the top 2 entity counts, 715976 plus 283534 equals 999510, by 1,986,489 to confirm they pass the halfway mark at 50.3154 percent.
- Confirmed the full register total of 1,989,709 minus the classified total of 1,986,489 leaves 3,220 companies with no section, which are excluded from every share in this piece.
- Summed the smallest 15 sections by entity count, from transportation and storage down to extraterritorial organizations, and confirmed their combined share is 18.49 percent against the top 6 sections' 81.51 percent, which sum to 100 percent.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons by industry section. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- OECD. (2026). Thailand: Financing SMEs and entrepreneurs 2026. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/financing-smes-and-entrepreneurs-2026_075d8058-en/full-report/thailand_a1b1b4e6.html
Frequently asked questions
Which three industry sections hold the most Thai companies?
Wholesale and retail trade, construction and manufacturing, holding 61.9 percent of the 1,986,489 classified companies on the register as of 17 July 2026.
Do just two sections already cover half of Thailand's companies?
Yes. Wholesale and retail trade plus construction alone reach 50.3 percent, before manufacturing is even added to the count.
How many industry sections does Thailand's company register use?
21 lettered sections, from agriculture through extraterritorial organizations, based on the ISIC classification the DBD registry applies to each company.
What share of companies do the smallest sections hold?
The 15 smallest sections combined hold just 18.5 percent of the register, less than wholesale and retail trade holds by itself.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Three Sectors Hold 61.9% of Thailand's Company Register, 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/wholesale-construction-and-manufacturing-hold-most-thai-companies-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.