Searching For Statistics On Expats In Thailand

[jaideeguy]

I've googled all morning and can't come up with any sources of information on the number of expats here in LOS. Mainly the ones on non immigrant visas [retirement/supporting a Thai/workers/missionaries etc] and interested in the breakdown by country of expats.

There just doesn't seem to be any readily available info.

The Royal Thai Immigration database should have all these numbers, but I can't access them. Easy to find lots of info on tourist arrivals, but what about info on us expats??

Any links [or official stats] would be appreciated........

[chiangmaibruce]

Mate, been there & done that. I see no reason why this info should not be available and made public. But it isn't. This info would be very useful in (for example) estimating the economic clout of resident foreigners.

I did find some out of date info (I'll look for the links now to post) and I had my wife send emails to relevant agencies (nil response).

[jaideeguy]

It's as if 'they' don't want us to know......or maybe 'they' just don't know, which wouldn't surprise me. Another thing i've always wondered is where do 'they' store all the reams of paperwork that 'we' submit for visa purposes.

Myself alone must have given them 2 or 3 reams of paperwork [lots duplicates] over the years.

Would appreciate any info/links you may dig up bruce.

Also used the TV search engine and came up with nil as well.....

"estimating the economic clout of resident foreigners" is kinda why i am curious....

[mizzi39]

Thailand used to put out a yearly statistical book that listed how many expats per country were residing in Thailand, plus many other interesting statistics. You can contact the Statistical Forecasting Bureau at:

National Statistical Office

Larn Luang Road, Bangkok 10100, Thailand

Tel + 66 2 2810333 ext. 1410, 1411

Fax + 66 2 281 3814

For more info. Cheers!

[chiangmaibruce]

Check these out ... not sure if links still work or not ... I was seeking this data in relation to a book I was writing ("Your Investment Guide to Thailand", Silkworms Books, 2010). I'm pretty sure that the Statistics Office was one of the organisations we approached (with nil success)

http://web.nso.go.th/eng/stat/subject/toc1.htm

www.econ.chula.ac.th/publication/journal/2001/cje130202.pdf

Edited May 17, 2010 by chiangmaibruce

[Jingthing]

Sometimes the local Pattaya "press" publishes statements from Thai immigration about the number of people using their offices for retirement extensions. The last figure I remember (which may be wrong) was about 20 thousand people.

[jaideeguy]

Interesting report on migrant labor Bruce, but it doesn't offer any info on US GUYS.....retirees/married/and teachers and seems a large amount of religious 'do gooders'.

I was surprised that there are nearly 1mil migrant [legal and illegal] workers here at almost any given time....most from Burma.

One personal observation up here in CM is what seems to be an increase of us falangs at least in my neck of the rice fields. 10 yrs ago, there was only 1 other falang in my area, but in the last couple of years, I've heard of at least 5 new falangs moving in.

I also wonder if the current state of insanity down south is scaring some other expats away??// have read quite a few posts on old timers wanting to pack it in and move away [before it gets any worse?].

Curious minds want to know how many of there are here and where we come from....

[jaideeguy]

Still googling for that info and no info yet.....why???

[robbo1]

Interesting report on migrant labor Bruce, but it doesn't offer any info on US GUYS.....retirees/married/and teachers and seems a large amount of religious 'do gooders'.

I was surprised that there are nearly 1mil migrant [legal and illegal] workers here at almost any given time....most from Burma.

One personal observation up here in CM is what seems to be an increase of us falangs at least in my neck of the rice fields. 10 yrs ago, there was only 1 other falang in my area, but in the last couple of years, I've heard of at least 5 new falangs moving in.

I also wonder if the current state of insanity down south is scaring some other expats away??// have read quite a few posts on old timers wanting to pack it in and move away [before it gets any worse?].

Curious minds want to know how many of there are here and where we come from....

Agree when I first visited Loei 5 years ago never saw a westerner but now every time I go there are more and more

[Bluetongue]

Last year or late 2008 it was reported in Australian media (I'm not sure which crisis precipitated this)

that there were 50k of us living here, assume that was all types, workers, retirees, thai with australian citizenship that have moved back.

Extrapolates to one or more million farangs I would have thought

[Farma]

The best I can find was from 2000 on this link. http://web.nso.go.th/eng/stat/subject/toc1.htm

You need to download the excel spreadsheet and look at tables 1.25 and 1.26

# TABLE 1.25 NUMBER OF RESIDENT ALIENS IN THAILAND BY REGION, CHANGWAT AND SEX: FISCAL YEARS 1998 - 1999

# TABLE 1.26 NUMBER OF RESIDENT ALIENS IN THAILAND BY NATIONALITY AND SEX: FISCAL YEARS 1996 - 1999

[jaideeguy]

Thanks for the link Farma.....I did see it in my googling, but passed it over. I have copied and pasted the numbers for table 126 and year 1999 and the numbers seem a little smaller than i expected, but that was 11 yrs ago and a lot more falangs have come [and gone?]. i hope excel will let me copy and paste.

male female

171,233 94,616 Total

140,681 76,454 China

4,671 1,587 India

3,684 1,760 United Kingdom

1,746 1,130 Vietnam

2,022 628 Japan

1,759 596 U.S.A.

814 478 Germany

651 513 Portugal

654 458 Philippines

690 452 Myanmar

701 373 Netherlands

630 409 Malaysia

610 344 France

602 285 Denmark

528 279 Indonesia

385 335 Australia

305 284 Sweden

382 192 Switzerland

322 231 Korea

378 95 Pakistan

248 134 Italy

199 178 Norway

204 192 Singapore

131 120 Canada

98 85 New Zealand

87 73 Laos

132 22 Nepal

606 371 Others

7,313 6,558 Nationality unknown

it worked!!

Do others agree that these numbers seem a little low??

the reason for the double figures are that left is male and right is female. source is Royal Thai Police. male and female totals come to 265,849.

Edited May 18, 2010 by jaideeguy

[Bluetongue]

I agree seem low. Especially Myanmar, Laos and cant see Cambodia or Bangla Desh. I had a look at the other spredsheet as well and it had 700 odd in Phuket in 1999, seems very low. I wonder how they gathered this sort of figure back then, I cant remember them using a computer at immigration around that time. Better as you say to keep looking for updated figures as the babyboomers retire the curve must have pointed up anyway.

[ProThaiExpat]

As we know, many lies are told with statistics.

In the U.S. which is a listed country with a tad over 1 million listed, there are at least 13 Million illegals, then you have legals etc.

Australia gives permanent residency to foreigners at a rate of about 400,000 a year, so when do you count them. Those awaiting admission, many years for most, are on Bridging Visas and must number in the millions.

[jaideeguy]

Since those figures [assuming that they are remotely correct] were published in 1999, I would guess that they have increased by a factor of at least 3 or 4. Am I any where near what others think??

It still remains mysterious that current figures are so hard to get.........

Why would 'they' want to hide them??

[jaideeguy]

Just looked at the previous table on 'resident aliens by chiangwat and region and the table shows

3,628 males, 1,410 females for Chiang Mai seems terribly lower than I observed in 1999. Can see that many falangs in one hour at the mall......

[rafish]

I agree seem low. Especially Myanmar, Laos and cant see Cambodia or Bangla Desh. I had a look at the other spredsheet as well and it had 700 odd in Phuket in 1999, seems very low. I wonder how they gathered this sort of figure back then, I cant remember them using a computer at immigration around that time. Better as you say to keep looking for updated figures as the babyboomers retire the curve must have pointed up anyway.

The Phuket Gazette reported about a year ago the overall resident Foreigners living in residence in Phuket at a little over 1700. Majority were UK, Sweden,Swiss, German, Korean, and US. The numbers reported are from Immigration Department here in Phuket. As to the truth or accuracy of these numbers, we all know the pile of paper submitted every year for the privilege of domicile here in LOS. The numbers you osted were from 99 so it makes sense, other than as difficulties rise within Burma, movement also occurs going out to Thailand. So many labor camps here in Phuket its difficult to discern where Burma ends or begins.

[tomparis]

The figures from jaideeguy seem very low.

6922 = French people registed in Thailand in 2008 (source: Maison de Français Etranger), significantly more than the "610 344 France" found.

Wikipedia (reliability..?) Bangkok page has LT BKK residents as:

250k Chinese

85k indian

44k japanese

25k us

45k european (so 7k french would seem about right)

15k taiwanese

20k s korean

20k malaysia

SG

7.5k australian

etc...

so maybe 6-800k foreigners (+ illegal Burmese, etc)

this seems to be a more reasonable estimate (from various sources, some needing citation).

Then you weight by estimate of average earnings to give a purchasing power.

You could also ask Embassies of the major LT resident countries for validation.

[jaideeguy]

I thought about asking my US consulate, but they really don't have that info as I am not required to register altho they offer that service....so to them, I really don't exist [except on some small immigration file].

It's the Thai immigration that would have the figures that I am seeking just to satisfy my own curiosity.

Agree that the 1999 figures seem too low.

[witold]

What is the Thai definition of 'RESIDENT ALIEN'?

Normally, 'resident alien' is someone who lives on permanent basis in the country with no additional paperwork required. It does not apply to people holding tourist, ED, or other temporary visas.

I have a hunch that the reason for these small numbers is that most foreigners are not resident aliens in LOS. A good chunk is juggling tourist visas extensions and ED visas... I can see 260K real resident aliens as being correct.

[needforspeed]

Thanks for the link Farma.....I did see it in my googling, but passed it over. I have copied and pasted the numbers for table 126 and year 1999 and the numbers seem a little smaller than i expected, but that was 11 yrs ago and a lot more falangs have come [and gone?]. i hope excel will let me copy and paste.

male female

171,233 94,616 Total

140,681 76,454 China

4,671 1,587 India

3,684 1,760 United Kingdom

1,746 1,130 Vietnam

2,022 628 Japan

1,759 596 U.S.A.

814 478 Germany

651 513 Portugal

654 458 Philippines

690 452 Myanmar

701 373 Netherlands

630 409 Malaysia

610 344 France

602 285 Denmark

528 279 Indonesia

385 335 Australia

305 284 Sweden

382 192 Switzerland

322 231 Korea

378 95 Pakistan

248 134 Italy

199 178 Norway

204 192 Singapore

131 120 Canada

98 85 New Zealand

87 73 Laos

132 22 Nepal

606 371 Others

7,313 6,558 Nationality unknown

it worked!!

Do others agree that these numbers seem a little low??

the reason for the double figures are that left is male and right is female. source is Royal Thai Police. male and female totals come to 265,849.

Seems very low to me and how about Russia!!!!!!!!

[slapout]

In 1992 or 93 while extending my o visa for one year, one of the immigration officials told me during small talk conversation that there were about 8000 foreigners living in CM at that time (legel). He was not talking tourist who came for extensions but living here. I was surprised at that large a number then.

[toptuan]

In 2004, the Bangkok Post had an article which dealt with the farang-Thai marriages in Isaan with hard statistics which were quite recent up to that point. It included the numbers of foreigners residing in each province in Isaan. You might want to give them a call/email and see if they'll dig around a bit for that article or plug you into their database. If you find it, then check the article or with the writer to see where they got their information. A long shot, but maybe you'll get lucky.

[KhaoNiaw]

This paper makes an attempt and provides a rough idea, also of some of the difficulties in arriving at a figure:

The Migration of Westerners to Thailand: An Unusual Flow From Developed to Developing World

Edited June 5, 2010 by KhaoNiaw

[NaiGreg]

I googled "stats on expats in Thailand" and came up with this nonsensical text

6"

Edited June 5, 2010 by NaiGreg

[Chivas]

Total number was 21,067 UK nationals in Thailand as at the end of the red shirt demonstration including tourists.

[astral]

Bear in mind that any immigration statistics will only be the officially retired/working.............