The mystery of exactly how many expats live in Thailand

[zydeco]

Only 5200 Americans are collecting Social Security in Thailand. 

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-no-1-country-retirees-move-to-when-they-ditch-america-2019-07-26

[Mavideol]

something is incorrect with numbers, the data is based on 2010 survey A study carried out by the Institute for Population and Social Research at Mahidol University using data from 2010 .... in 2019 based on the SS retirement info less or much less than 40,000 Americans are in Thailand

 

 

 

US retired person.jfif

[oldrunner]

Don't forget the thousands of expats who have left via the smoke stacks of the Wats or Watts, which ever, the number is large as many of my friends have gone that route, I'll be in the ground of a Mosque, in any case, the body is gone but the spirit remains forever.

[newnative]

11 minutes ago, zydeco said:

Only 5200 Americans are collecting Social Security in Thailand. 

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-no-1-country-retirees-move-to-when-they-ditch-america-2019-07-26

The article says the figures might be misleading because some expats have their SS checks deposited in American banks--as do I.

[NCC1701A]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Those numbers are way low. A fraction of the reality.

sorry spidermike. can you provide a link where you got these figures? or explain the process.

 

[Mavideol]

1 minute ago, newnative said:

The article says the figures might be misleading because some expats have their SS checks deposited in American banks--as do I.

agree with you but still a huge difference, SS claims 5,200 and Thais claim 40,000 maybe the study was conducted by TAT

[Mavideol]

50 minutes ago, Zack61 said:

72,000 (retirees) x 800,000 (baht) = 57,600,000,000 Baht

 

And that's just the retirees

some of the 72,000 maybe be dead by now and some may have moved out as the study was based on 2010 data

[miamiman123]

They would be happy if these current numbers were half again. No doubt! 

[peter14]

Been here 4 years . Own 2 condo but tourist visa .  there is no category for people like me... pink card thai driver license 3 bank account... car motobike.. but am tourist..<deleted>...

[rexall]

2 hours ago, jlwilliamsjr18 said:

Expats are in fact one of the golden geese of Thailand. Do the math, if each one, spends 100 dollars a week, thats a sizable hunk for the economy.  So, why kill this golden goose?

No, no, no.  Expats are not the golden geese of Thailand. Golden geese are the golden geese of Thailand. The fanciful hope has always been to figure out some way to keep our money without having to put up with us. Of course, reality dictates that it is a package deal; love our money, love us.  Sorry guys.

[Pattaya46]

42 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

Have you not heard, a lot of embassies are not issuing those letters anymore, so it's 800,000 baht in the bank, //

"A lot of embassies" ??

AFAIK only 3 embassies stopped to provide these letters: UK, US and AU.

"A lot of embassies" continue to provide them. 

[smudger1951]

2 hours ago, jlwilliamsjr18 said:

Expats are in fact one of the golden geese of Thailand. Do the math, if each one, spends 100 dollars a week, thats a sizable hunk for the economy.  So, why kill this golden goose?

Good question, retirees and long stay westerner farangs inject foreign currency into the economy. The golden goose is dying.

[TKDfella]

2 hours ago, jlwilliamsjr18 said:

Expats are in fact one of the golden geese of Thailand. Do the math, if each one, spends 100 dollars a week, thats a sizable hunk for the economy.  So, why kill this golden goose?

Well, we can do the math but perhaps 'they' can't, Ha!

[newnative]

16 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

agree with you but still a huge difference, SS claims 5,200 and Thais claim 40,000 maybe the study was conducted by TAT

One other factor is you can get a retirement visa at age 50 so there are probably some Americans here who have not yet started to claim SS.  

[Thaifriends]

Expatriate is a term used to be only for professional workers settled abroad mainly as technical experts or investors. Now retirement and excile is also considered as expats due to influx of settlements abroad.

 

Why not we call and add Myanmar workers in Thailand and the Asian workers in the Middle East working to make tall buildings? 

I peronally think they should also be treated equally by calling them expats as they also have stay permit.

[Lacessit]

I'm not sure why this is an issue. I don't care how many or how few expats are in Thailand, and IMO neither does the Thai government.

[Thaifriends]

1 minute ago, Lacessit said:

I'm not sure why this is an issue. I don't care how many or how few expats are in Thailand, and IMO neither does the Thai government.

Perhaps there was no "hot" topic for today ????

[marcusarelus]

47 minutes ago, SymS said:

Let's do some maths. Assuming 500,000 "expats" spending 100 dollars a week, that a total of 2.6 billlions per year.  Based on the article, the number could be less than that, but most will likely spend more than $100 a week, and will contribute much more to the economy in a way that's hard to quantify. Anyway, using the previous numbers, Thailand GPD was 455 billions in 2017. That's 0.5% of GDP. Those poor Thai people would clearly starve without expats ????

They kicked out America and all of the GI's stationed here (50,000) and the millions of dollars we were spending on Thai labor to build airports and ports and communication infrastructure without a thought.  Cost Thailand a fortune.  That was only 50 years ago so I wouldn't bet too much on they being afraid to remove expats. 

[cdmtdm]

no Burmese ? 

[Spellforce]

I have an idea for immigration to clean their database: give us a "resident" status.

[Caspersfriend]

42 minutes ago, Shiver said:

I had something similar at a local shop.  Bought a few things that totaled 80 baht.  I was impressed that the person added it up without a calculator.  I gave 100 baht, and then they had to get the calculator out to work out the change lol.

They do that to show you [the customer[ that they are giving you the correct change -- not because they are unable to do simple arithmetic. The Chinese lady who owns our local [#1] shop would probably do well in the 'Mental Calculation World Cup' [look it up] but always uses the calculator, just to demonstrate [to Thai and non-Thai] that she is charging the correct total price and giving the correct change. Why would she [and her Thai counterparts] know the correct price of the thousands of items for sale in the shop but not be able to do simple addition/subtraction?

[DJ54]

One would think they could get close with a ballpark figure.....

ooops my bad not suppose to think to much...

[brianj1964]

1 hour ago, Zack61 said:

72,000 (retirees) x 800,000 (baht) = 57,600,000,000 Baht

 

And that's just the retirees

Only if their extensions were based on retirement, some may be married to Thai,s and prefer extensions based on marriage but still be classed as retired.

[Mavideol]

2 minutes ago, Caspersfriend said:

They do that to show you [the customer[ that they are giving you the correct change -- not because they are unable to do simple arithmetic. The Chinese lady who owns our local [#1] shop would probably do well in the 'Mental Calculation World Cup' [look it up] but always uses the calculator, just to demonstrate [to Thai and non-Thai] that she is charging the correct total price and giving the correct change. Why would she [and her Thai counterparts] know the correct price of the thousands of items for sale in the shop but not be able to do simple addition/subtraction?

out of the thousand(s) of items in the shop 999 of them have same price... most of the shops I know in Thailand use the one price fits all system

[marcusarelus]

59 minutes ago, Shiver said:

I had something similar at a local shop.  Bought a few things that totaled 80 baht.  I was impressed that the person added it up without a calculator.  I gave 100 baht, and then they had to get the calculator out to work out the change lol.

Two British studies suggested IQs dropped between 2.5 and 4.3 points per decade after WWII.  In Oslo have studied 730,000 Norwegian men and found their IQs are considerably lower than their fathers at the same age.

 

The Thais probably used the calculator to make you feel comfortable.  LOL

 

https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/973434/love-island-hayley-brexit-comment-low-iq

[mserror]

When I get the number in a dream, I will reply.

[steven100]

yes ….  but according to TVF farang , they are leaving everyday because Thailand is all bad and everything is so difficult and the police are corrupt and IO officer doesn't smile and they want better.  ????

[Almer]

Now we can see why the reporting  of movement and continuing 90 day reporting the figure is not known, wow.  But beware put to many figures in without taking the corresponding amount out, ie put the visit in but dont forget to remove it when you report your back home again etc or we will have more on retirement than thai nationals

[Pedrogaz]

Typical set of data from Thailand....raises more questions than it answers. Think to yourself here, the powers that be have this data that they are supposed to analyse...how can you analyse if you don't know what is being measured, how and by whom, over what time period? They then make "policy" with their analysis. And it is not only ex-pats....it's tourists numbers, road deaths, educational attainment , trade figures; you name it, it's the same, hear no accurate data, hear no accurate data, see no accurate data. No wonder the place is such a mess. 

[Almer]

20 minutes ago, brianj1964 said:

Only if their extensions were based on retirement, some may be married to Thai,s and prefer extensions based on marriage but still be classed as retired.

Whatever they still spend