Statistics On Farangs Linving In Thailand

[geovalin]

For an academic research, I would like to ask

Do you know by official statistics or by any other way:

- How many farangs (westerners) live in Thailand (let's say at least 8 months per year), do not count the ones with work permit

- How many of these farangs are older than 50

- How many foreigners live in Thailand, do not count the ones working here, details per country would be welcome

Any other figures, official or not but at least accurate are welcome

Thank you

[Globeliner]

Errr, may I ask why?

[kiakaha]

For an academic research, I would like to ask

Do you know by official statistics or by any other way:

- How many farangs (westerners) live in Thailand (let's say at least 8 months per year), do not count the ones with work permit

- How many of these farangs are older than 50

- How many foreigners live in Thailand, do not count the ones working here, details per country would be welcome

Any other figures, official or not but at least accurate are welcome

Thank you

farangs or westerners or foreigners ? All different things mate.

[NovaBlue05]

For an academic research, I would like to ask

Do you know by official statistics or by any other way:

- How many farangs (westerners) live in Thailand (let's say at least 8 months per year), do not count the ones with work permit

- How many of these farangs are older than 50

- How many foreigners live in Thailand, do not count the ones working here, details per country would be welcome

Any other figures, official or not but at least accurate are welcome

Thank you

farangs or westerners or foreigners ? All different things mate.

break it down by "white boys" and "other furriners"

[TheEmperorOfTheNorth]

Why exclude people with a work permit? Those are the really good ones; the rest is just freeloading / taking advantage.

Edited November 15, 2007 by TheEmperorOfTheNorth

[PeaceBlondie]

A poster who was banned long ago used to say, "There are no reliable statistics in Thailand." I seriously doubt there are reliable guestimates of the things the OP asks for here. It has been estimated that perhaps as many as 90% of the TEFL teachers working part time in the Chiang Mai area do not have work permits. It is estimated that for every smelly Scandanavian, there are three skanky Brits and two hillbillies from Arkansas who were not Rhodes scholars.

[TonyLeung]

i would be curious to see these numbers. i like to count the farang:thai in the skytrain and its usually around 10%.

[thomo]

taking advantage

dam_n right baby.

The best thing to do with 'advantage' is 'take it'

[ThaidleHands]

Looking at the statistics of the Tourism Authority of Thailand for 2006 you can make some assumptions at least to the scale. Including only those listing "Other" as purpose of visit (which excludes "Holiday", "Business", "Convention" and "Official") there were approximately 150,000 entries into the Kingdom by holders of passports of "farang" countries (Oceania, Europe and the Americas).

Obviously this excludes people who live here on extensions and don't enter the Kingdom; it also excludes those dodgy rascals who use tourist entries to become quasi-resident. Also keep in mind it's a count of entries, not a head-count so there may be quite a few folks who are counted more than once.

Approximately 1.3 million of the 4.8 million total entries to the Kingdom by passport holders from Farangland (for all purposes of visit) were by people 50 years of age or older. If this overall age distribution maps accurately to the "Other" category (and it probably does to some degree, but not perfectly because of retirement visas), you'd have about 35,000-45,000 entries (again, not a head count).

Depending on your mood, you could allow anywhere from 1.5 to 4 entries per person per year in the 50+ Other sub-category and arrive at a very rough guess of 10,000-30,000 individuals.

[madjbs]

estimated 41,000 Britons currently living in Thailand, according to research by the IPPR think tank.

from here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6176647.stm

[TheEmperorOfTheNorth]

> stimated 41,000 Britons currently living in Thailand

Ok, so that's something. Brits is probably also the biggest group, assuming that the ratios for various nationalities are similar to the tourist visitor ratios. So then you can go to the TAT site, check what percentage all the other nationalities are and get a reasonable estimate from that.

[sweetchariot]

skanky Brits

I'm going home

[nidge]

it also excludes those dodgy rascals who use tourist entries to become quasi-resident.

Thanks for the clarification, i never knew i was a dodgy rascal until today. If it was not so difficult to get an o visa than i would not be either dodgy or rascally.

[ThaiPauly]

A poster who was banned long ago used to say, "There are no reliable statistics in Thailand." I seriously doubt there are reliable guestimates of the things the OP asks for here. It has been estimated that perhaps as many as 90% of the TEFL teachers working part time in the Chiang Mai area do not have work permits. It is estimated that for every smelly Scandanavian, there are three skanky Brits and two hillbillies from Arkansas who were not Rhodes scholars.

Another poster on another thread quoted an ex British Prime Minister as saying

"There are lies, more lies and damned statistics"

I thought that was pretty cool

[Ricardo]

Why exclude people with a work permit? Those are the really good ones; the rest is just freeloading / taking advantage.

Erm , were you ever a Diplomat in a previous life, Your Imperial Excellency ?

As a long-term resident - I, and many many others, pay our & other peoples' ways here.

[ThaidleHands]

it also excludes those dodgy rascals who use tourist entries to become quasi-resident.

Thanks for the clarification, i never knew i was a dodgy rascal until today. If it was not so difficult to get an o visa than i would not be either dodgy or rascally.

Yeah, scoring that visa is right up there with the Labors of Hercules in terms of difficulty. It's O-for-Olympian, right?

[mark lamai]

actually it sounds like its research for the Thai Bargirls Association

[naka]

Why exclude people with a work permit? Those are the really good ones; the rest is just freeloading / taking advantage.

Selling real estate, teaching english, timeshares, or a beer bar shareholder ? That probably covers 95%.

Naka.

Edited November 15, 2007 by naka

[ThaidleHands]

If you speak to any average Thai, one of their main ongoing concerns is there are too many foreigners in Thailand.

Yes, those evil foreigners... poisoning Thai society with alien values like dedication, ingenuity, foresight and competence. They should be marched into the sea at the point of gun, every last one of them.

[chiang mai]

skanky Brits

I am deeply offended by your casual use of slang and take serious offense PeaceBlondie and insist that in future you refer to me and my fellow countrymen and women as scanky British people.

[zink]

According to Wikipedia, 6000 Americans and 45000 Europeans are living in Bangkok. If we assume that most of these are farangs, then farangs make about 1% of the total population in Bangkok.

[PeaceBlondie]

My apologies to skanky Brits, non-slanky Britons, and swanky UK citizens. And, to hillbillies on the road, again. And speaking of Willie Nelson titles, what blue-blooded New Englishman sang that song when he learned he'd been nominated as vice-president of the USA?

[Pepe']

If you speak to any average Thai, one of their main ongoing concerns is there are too many foreigners in Thailand.

Yes, those evil foreigners... poisoning Thai society with alien values like dedication, ingenuity, foresight and competence. They should be marched into the sea at the point of gun, every last one of them.

-------------------

Make sure you take their cash and credit cards before you sink um'.

That's all they good for anyway...

[Theyreallrubbish]

I've heard figures for expats in Bangkok at between 45k and 115k

There are also 13 million visitors a year of which about 5 million are from Western countries. Presuming each stays a week on average then are 100,000 western tourists in the country at any one time.

Of course, white faces appear to be higher because they mostly concentrate in a very limited number of areas throughout the country. Also, the tourists don't arrive evenly spread throughout the year so the country can appear to be over run at some times.

I've no idea how many retirement and marriage visas there are.

So there are probably 250,000 to 500,000 westerners in the country at any one time.

These numbers don't appear to be huge and shouldn't be high enough to spark the xenophobia that has been growing, especially because farang congregate in a relatively restricted area, which indicates that the xenophobia is a deliberately stoked political issue by certain powers that be.

[cm-happy]

A poster who was banned long ago used to say, "There are no reliable statistics in Thailand." I seriously doubt there are reliable guestimates of the things the OP asks for here. It has been estimated that perhaps as many as 90% of the TEFL teachers working part time in the Chiang Mai area do not have work permits. It is estimated that for every smelly Scandanavian, there are three skanky Brits and two hillbillies from Arkansas who were not Rhodes scholars.

PB, Love your sense of humor

[cobra]

Another poster on another thread quoted an ex British Prime Minister as saying "There are lies, more lies and damned statistics" ,

Additionally,

"Because as we know, there are known knowns, there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know". The Rumster,

[thaipete]

A poster who was banned long ago used to say, "There are no reliable statistics in Thailand." I seriously doubt there are reliable guestimates of the things the OP asks for here. It has been estimated that perhaps as many as 90% of the TEFL teachers working part time in the Chiang Mai area do not have work permits. It is estimated that for every smelly Scandanavian, there are three skanky Brits and two hillbillies from Arkansas who were not Rhodes scholars.

Another poster on another thread quoted an ex British Prime Minister as saying

"There are lies, more lies and damned statistics"

I thought that was pretty cool

that was put out by himself with the help of John Cleese

[tartempion]

i would be curious to see these numbers. i like to count the farang:thai in the skytrain and its usually around 10%.

What's your point?

On bus 53 it's usually around 0%, unless I am on it.

[Andrew Hicks]

For an academic research, I would like to ask

Do you know by official statistics or by any other way:

- How many farangs (westerners) live in Thailand (let's say at least 8 months per year), do not count the ones with work permit

- How many of these farangs are older than 50

- How many foreigners live in Thailand, do not count the ones working here, details per country would be welcome

Any other figures, official or not but at least accurate are welcome

Thank you

The stats must be accurate... ?

Interestingly when at Suan Plu in Bangkok recently trying to get my retirement visa renewed something struck me. The vast majority of supplicants there were not caucasian. They were mainly Asian.

The farang were probably not much more than 15% of the total.

Loads of foreigners then... not so many farang.

I'm in Surin and if it helps, I can vouch with complete accuracy that there's me and about six friends over 50, so that makes seven of us in all.

[naka]

If you speak to any average Thai, one of their main ongoing concerns is there are too many foreigners in Thailand.

Yes, those evil foreigners... poisoning Thai society with alien values like dedication, ingenuity, foresight and competence. They should be marched into the sea at the point of gun, every last one of them.

The way nationalism and xenophobia is drummed into Thai children from an early age would make Goebbels proud.

Read: Rituals of National Loyalty by Katherine Bowie.

Probably because quoting positive facts would be impossible !

Naka.