Demographics of Thailand

50px Life in Thailand
Cuisine Culture Dance Instruments Demographics Economy Education Film Holidays Languages Literature Media Monarchy Music Politics Religion Society Sport Tourism

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Thailand, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Population

Thailand's population (1950-2015).

The 2014 population of Thailand is estimated to be 67,200,000.

Thailand's population is mostly rural. It is concentrated in the rice-growing areas of the central, northeastern, and northern regions. As Thailand continues to industrialize, its urban population – 45.7% (in 2010, according to NESDB) of the total population, principally in the Bangkok area – is growing. Accurate statistics are difficult to arrive at, as millions of Thai migrate from rural areas to Bangkok, then return to their place of origin to help with seasonal field work. Officially they have rural residency, but spend most of the year in urban areas.

Thailand's highly successful government-sponsored family planning program has resulted in a dramatic decline in population growth from 3.1% in 1960 to around 0.4% today. The World Bank forecasts a contraction of the population in ten years time. In 1970, an average of 5.7 people lived in a Thai household. At the time of the 2010 census, the figure was down to 3.2. Even though Thailand has one of the best social security systems in Asia, the increasing population of elderly people is a challenge for the country.

Life expectancy has risen, a positive reflection of Thailand's efforts in executing effective public health policies. The Thai AIDS epidemic had a major impact on the Thai population. Today, over 700,000 Thai are HIV or AIDS positive, approximately 2% of adult men and 1.5% of adult women. Every year, 30,000–50,000 Thai die from HIV or AIDS-related causes. Ninety percent of them are ages 20–24, the youngest range of the workforce. The situation could have been worse; an aggressive public education campaign in the early 1990s reduced the number of new HIV infections from 150,000 to 25,000 annually.

Entirely preventable is the leading cause of death among the age cohort under 15 years of age: drowning. A study by the Child Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Centre of Ramathibodi Hospital revealed that more than 1,400 youths under 15 years old died from drowning each year, or an average four deaths a day, becoming the top cause of deaths of children, even exceeding that of motorbike deaths. Thailand'd Disease Control Department estimates that only 23% of Thai children under 15 can swim.

Ethnic groups

Further information: Ethnic groups in Thailand

An ethnological map of Thailand (1974).

Thailand's ethnic origins have encountered significant changes and continue to evolve. The nation's ethnic makeup is heavily obscured due to the hefty pressure of Thaification, Thai nationalism, and social pressure, which is intertwined with a caste-like mentality putting some races at higher social standing over others. Chinese origins as evidenced by surname were erased in the 1920s due to royal decree, the CIA factbook lists 14% of Thai as Chinese origin.

Significant intermixing has taken place such that there are few pure ethnic Chinese, and those of partially mixed Chinese ancestry account for as much as a third to a half of the Thai population. Those claiming Thai ethnicity made up the vast majority of the population in 2010 (95.9%); 2% were Burmese, 1.3% others, and 0.9 unspecified. Thus, the actual ethnosocial and genetic makeup situation is very different from what is officially reported or self-claimed.

The vast majority of the Isaan people (​¹⁄₃ of Thailand's population) are ethnic Lao intermixed with Khmer blood, and they speak the Isaan language. Additionally there have been more recent waves of immigration from Vietnam and Cambodia across porous borders due to wars and subsequent poverty over the last few decades, whose immigrants have tried to keep a low profile and blend in.

In more recent years the Isaan people began intermixing with the rest of the nation as urbanization (and mobility) trends increase. Similarly, Myanmar has had numerous ferocious ethnic wars between the army and tribes who speak more than 40 languages and control large fiefs or states, lasting many decades. This has led to waves of immigrants seeking refuge or work in Thailand. The makeup of Myanmar nationals is extremely complex – they include people of Nepali ethnicity who escaped Nepal into Myanmar, and then immigrated to Thailand.

Following the 2014 coup, Thailand's Department of Employment released figures that 408,507 legal workers from 3 neighboring states, and 1,630,279 Myanmar nationals of any ethnicity, 40,546 Laotian, and 153,683 Cambodians without legal work authorization working and residing in Thailand. Some 180,000 Cambodians were said to have left Thailand post coup due to rumors, indicating government figures were an undercount. These statistics are merely a single snapshot and hardly authoritative as there is constant movement and plenty of hiding from authorities.

The language of the central Thai population is the educational and administrative language. Other dialects of Thai exist, most notably the Southern Thai language. Several other small Tai (not Thai) groups include the Shan, Lue, and Phu Thai.

Malay and Yawi-speaking Muslim's language of the south comprise another significant minority group (2.3%), yet there are a substantial number of ethnic Malays who speak only Thai. Other groups include the Khmer; the Mon, who are substantially assimilated with the Thai; and the Vietnamese.

Smaller mountain-dwelling tribes, such as the Hmong and Mien, as well as the Karen, number about 788,024. Some 300,000 Hmong are to receive citizenship in 2010.(link rot) This citizenship process has been ongoing and continues even in 2014.

Thailand is also home for more than 200,000 foreigners either as retirees, extended tourists, and workers, from for example, Europe (specifically United Kingdom) and North America. Asians tend to be guest or technical workers in Thailand. A number of nationals from PRC are able to physically blend in after learning Thai claiming to be Thai themselves, but there is also the element of extended stay tourism and retirees as well as condo property is legal for purchase.

Significant numbers of Filipinos work in Thailand due to their English-language skills, as well as technical workers from Japan and Korea. Thousands of Japanese also have retired in Thailand. In recent years there has been a large influx of Russian-speaking retirees and extended-stay tourists in the Kingdom, as well as many expatriates from all continents.

Languages

Further information: Languages of Thailand

Thailand is dominated by languages of the Southwestern Tai family. Karen languages are spoken along the border with Burma, Khmer is spoken near Cambodia (and previously throughout central Thailand), and Malay in the south near Malaysia.

The Thai hill tribes speak numerous small languages, many Chinese retain varieties of Chinese, and there are half a dozen sign languages. The Ethnologue reports 73 living languages are used in Thailand.

Population of Thailand above the age of 5 by language (UN statistics 2000)

Language	Language family	No. of speakers
Thai	Tai-Kadai	52,325,037
Khmer	Austroasiatic	1,291,024
Malay	Austronesian	1,202,911
Karen	Sino-Tibetan	317,968
Chinese	Sino-Tibetan	231,350
Miao	Hmong-Mien	112,686
Lahu	Sino-Tibetan	70,058
Burmese	Sino-Tibetan	67,061
Akha	Sino-Tibetan	54,241
English	Indo-European	48,202
Tai	Tai-Kadai	44,004
Japanese	Japonic	38,565
Lawa	Austroasiatic	31,583
Lisu	Sino-Tibetan	25,037
Vietnamese	Austroasiatic	24,476
Yao	Hmong-Mien	21,238
Khmu	Austroasiatic	6,246
Indian	Indo-European	5,598
Haw Yunnanese	Sino-Tibetan	3,247
Htin	Austroasiatic	2,317
Others		33,481
Unknown		325,134
Total		56,281,538

Religion

Further information: Religion in Thailand

Theravada Buddhism is the official religion of Thailand. 93.6% are estimated to be Buddhist, 4.9% Muslim, 1.2% Christian, 0.2% other and 0.1% have no religion.

In addition to Malay and Yawi speaking Thai and other southerners who are Muslim, the Muslim Cham of Cambodia in recent years began a large scale influx into Thailand. The government permits religious diversity, and other major religions are represented, though there is much social tension, especially in the Muslim South. Spirit worship and animism are widely practiced.

Vital statistics

Year	Population	Live births	Deaths	Natural change	Crude birth rate (per 1000)	Crude death rate (per 1000)	Natural change (per 1000)	Total Fertility Rate
1983		1 055 802	252 592	803 210	21.3	5.1	16.2
1984		956 680	225 282	731 398	19.0	4.5	14.5
1985		973 624	225 088	748 536	18.8	4.4	14.4
1986		945 827	218 025	727 802	18.0	4.1	13.9
1987		884 043	232 968	651 075	16.5	4.3	12.2
1988		873 842	231 227	642 615	16.0	4.2	11.8
1989		905 837	246 570	659 267	16.3	4.4	11.9
1990		956 237	252 512	703 725	17.0	4.5	12.5
1991		960 556	264 350	696 206	17.0	4.7	12.3
1992	57,788,965	964 557	275 313	689 244	16.8	4.8	12.0
1993	58,336,072	957 832	285 731	672 101	16.5	4.9	11.6
1994	59,095,419	960 248	305 526	654 722	16.3	5.2	11.1
1995	59,460,382	963 678	324 842	638 836	16.2	5.5	10.7
1996	60,116,182	994 118	342 645	651 473	15.8	5.7	10.1
1997	60,816,227	897 604	303 918	593 686	14.8	5.0	9.8
1998	61,466,178	897 201	310 534	586 667	14.7	5.1	9.6
1999	61,661,701	754 685	362 607	392 078	12.3	5.9	6.4
2000	61,878,746	773 009	365 741	407 268	12.5	5.9	6.6
2001	62,308,887	790 425	369 493	420 932	12.7	6.0	6.7
2002	62,799,872	782 911	380 364	402 547	12.5	6.1	6.4
2003	63,079,765	742 183	384 131	358 052	11.8	6.1	5.7
2004	61,973,621*	813 069	393 592	419 477	13.0	6.3	6.7
2005	62,418,054	809 485	395 374	414 111	13.0	6.4	6.6
2006	62,828,706	793 623	391 126	402 497	12.7	6.2	6.5
2007	63,038,247	797 588	393 255	404 333	12.7	6.3	6.4
2008	63,389,730	784 256	397 326	386 930	12.4	6.3	6.1
2009	63,525,062	765 047	393 916	371 131	12.1	6.2	5.9
2010	63,878,267	761 689	411 331	350 358	12.0	6.5	5.5
2011	64,076,033	795,031	414,670	380,361	12.4	6.5
2012
2013
2014
1 Source

Births and deaths

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR1	CDR1	NC1	TFR1	IMR1
1950–1955	940 000	344 000	596 000	42.5	15.6	27.0	6.14	130.3
1955–1960	1 093 000	348 000	745 000	43.0	13.7	29.3	6.14	108.7
1960–1965	1 249 000	353 000	896 000	42.3	12.0	30.3	6.13	90.5
1965–1970	1 386 000	362 000	1 025 000	40.4	10.5	29.8	5.99	75.5
1970–1975	1 371 000	355 000	1 016 000	34.6	8.9	25.6	5.05	63.2
1975–1980	1 297 000	338 000	959 000	28.9	7.5	21.3	3.92	50.4
1980–1985	1 201 000	300 000	901 000	24.1	6.0	18.1	2.95	38.9
1985–1990	1 113 000	266 000	848 000	20.4	4.9	15.5	2.30	29.1
1990–1995	1 050 000	313 000	737 000	18.0	5.4	12.6	1.99	22.6
1995–2000	955 000	373 000	582 000	15.6	6.1	9.5	1.77	18.6
2000–2005	914 000	426 000	488 000	14.1	6.6	7.5	1.68	15.1
2005–2010	872 000	486 000	386 000	12.9	7.2	5.7	1.63	12.4
1 CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births. Source

Data | The World Bank

Life expectancy at birth

total: 74 years (2011)

male: 71 years(2011)

female: 77 years (2011)

Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births)

11 deaths/1,000 live births (2011)

Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births)

12 deaths/1,000 live births (2011)

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Population

The population of Thailand is approximately 67.5 million people, with an annual growth rate of about 0.3 percent. In addition to Thai, it includes ethnic Chinese, Malay, Lao,Burma, Cambodia, and Indians, among others. According to 2010 decennial census, it revealed a population of 65,981,600 (up from 60,916,441 in 2000) and post-censal adjustments are being carried out to see if there was any reporting error.

Age structure

0–14 years: 21.2% (male 7,104,776/female 6,781,453)

15–64 years: 70.3% (male 22,763,274/female 23,304,793)

65 years and over: 8.5% (male 2,516,721/female 3,022,281) (2008 est.)

0–14 years: 19.9% (male 6,779,723/female 6,466,625)

15–64 years: 70.9% (male 23,410,091/female 23,913,499)

65 years and over: 9.2% (male 2,778,012/female 3,372,203) (2011 est.)

Population growth rate

• 0.615% (2009 est.)
• 0.566% (2011 est.)

Net migration rate

0 migrants/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.06 males/female

under 15 years: 1.05 males/female

15–64 years: 0.98 males/female

65 years and over: 0.83 males/female

total population: 0.98 males/female (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 73.6 years

male: 71.24 years

female: 76.08 years (2011 est.)

Nationality

noun: Thai (singular and plural)

adjective: Thai

Ethnic groups

Main article: Ethnic groups in Thailand

ethnic Thai 75%, Thai Chinese 14%, other 11%

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 92.6%

male: 94.9%

female: 90.5% (2002 est.)

External links

• World Bank: Thailand