I heard that the best estimates are roughly 50,000 of us. Are there that few of us though? The way some people in Thailand talk, it would seem like there's much more than just 50,000 farangs living in all of Thailand! Are farang residents really only 0.1% of the population in Thailand?

Edited February 3, 200818 yr by MisterBill

There might be 50k legally resident farang with the correct visa, wp retirement visa etc.

Then there are the border runners whether on a multiple entry O or B as well as tourist visa's.

Ther figures I last saw was around 60k work permits but of course a minority of them will probably be farang - a tiny amount of WP's in total for a country of Thailands size wishing to develop - Singapore has almost 900,000

I heard that the best estimates are roughly 50,000 of us. Are there that few of us though? The way some people in Thailand talk, it would seem like there's much more than just 50,000 farangs living in all of Thailand! Are farang residents really only 0.1% of the population in Thailand?

It would not be feasible to get such a statistic because only your nationality is recorded by immigration, not your ethnicity.

'Farangs' are only 1 type of non-thai citizen resident in Thailand. You've also got africans, japanese, indians, chinese, koreans, arabs etc....

it would seem like there's much more than just 50,000 farangs living in all of Thailand

It probably seems that way because they tend to mass in the same touristy places. Where I live, you'd think it was a German/Italian suburb with some Thai immigrants.

I heard that the best estimates are roughly 50,000 of us. Are there that few of us though? The way some people in Thailand talk, it would seem like there's much more than just 50,000 farangs living in all of Thailand! Are farang residents really only 0.1% of the population in Thailand?

It would not be feasible to get such a statistic because only your nationality is recorded by immigration, not your ethnicity.

'Farangs' are only 1 type of non-thai citizen resident in Thailand. You've also got africans, japanese, indians, chinese, koreans, arabs etc....

Voila. If by "farang" you mean Caucasian, there is no way of knowing. I have never filled out an ethnicity question neither on my landing card not when applying for a visa. I suppose the little guy behind the desk at immigration could be ticking the "white honky" box as we walk through but I doubt it.

If buy "farang" you mean Westerner, you would have define which countries were included. If by "farang" you mean foreigner, yes the government has these stats but they would include other Asians.

Voila. If by "farang" you mean Caucasian, there is no way of knowing. I have never filled out an ethnicity question neither on my landing card not when applying for a visa. I suppose the little guy behind the desk at immigration could be ticking the "white honky" box as we walk through but I doubt it.

So, has it been 10 years yet since that question was last seen on the arrival-departure card or just 6-8 years or so..?

I'm going to make a definitive guess and say 130,000 ; or 1 in approximately 500.

I go with Lanna's guestimate.

Bangkok Post had a great write-up on this subject about three years ago. Complete statistics, per province, were laid out as part of an article about Farang/Thai marriages. In our little province of 1 million Thais, farangs numbered 1,200 at that time. That's one in 833. Shocked me as I only saw an average of about 1 farang a month in town (the capitol of the province).

Edited February 3, 200818 yr by toptuan

376.354.111111.222333.1111

to be precise

In all the time I've spent in Samut Sakorn over the past ten years or so, I only ever saw ONE, that's right ONE

OTHER farang in the hood.

Interesting...

it would seem like there's much more than just 50,000 farangs living in all of Thailand

It probably seems that way because they tend to mass in the same touristy places. Where I live, you'd think it was a German/Italian suburb with some Thai immigrants.

"Farang" is a caucasian. Period. But i can understand how some people who've not been in Thailand long wouldn't yet know this.

Other foreigners are not referred to with this term ie: Indians, Arabs, Japanese, blacks etc.. There are other words used to pigeon hole them.

If one is to use accurate terminology when posting , "non-thai" or "foreigner" is more correct to refer to the "all".

Voila. If by "farang" you mean Caucasian, there is no way of knowing. I have never filled out an ethnicity question neither on my landing card not when applying for a visa. I suppose the little guy behind the desk at immigration could be ticking the "white honky" box as we walk through but I doubt it.

So, has it been 10 years yet since that question was last seen on the arrival-departure card or just 6-8 years or so..?

well they do take photos now, so i guess they could run some hue analysis software on the skin color