Population Of Koh Samui?

[ysamui]

From what I understand the official population of Koh Samui is "a little under 50,000".

This also happens to be the "magical number" that gives Koh Samui autonomy (a lot more money) and the title of "City".

The census is calculated how and when?

I remember being told when I settled here, almost 8 years ago, that the population was "a little under 50,000".

Should I conclude that means there has been zero population growth, no census in that time or some other reason?

That number of course, is the number of Thais born in Samui and still living in Samui. It does not include transient workers, tourists or expats.

If "a little under 50,000" is an accurate census, I would guess the average population, including all of the above, would be around 120,000.

Surely some consideration should be made to adjust Koh Samui's allocation of money to better represent and support the infrastructure required for 120,000 people and not 49,999 people.

There are three different levels of municipalities

thesaban naknakhon (city): More than 50,000 citizens

thesaban mueang (town): More than 10,000 citizens

thesaban tambon (subdistrict municipality): More than 5,000 citizens

Edited April 21, 2012 by ysamui

[Tropicalevo]

There are a small number of Thais who are from different provinces who then 'settle' and register in Samui. Unfortunately there are a larger number of Thais who live here who elect to stay 'registered' in their home province. One reason for this is the "I have to go home to vote" syndrome. I am sure that there are other reasons.

Maybe the guys married to 'non-registered' girls can enlighten us?

Bearing in mind that the more Thais that register - the more money that can go to improve the place.

[ysamui]

There are a small number of Thais who are from different provinces who then 'settle' and register in Samui. Unfortunately there are a larger number of Thais who live here who elect to stay 'registered' in their home province. One reason for this is the "I have to go home to vote" syndrome. I am sure that there are other reasons.

Maybe the guys married to 'non-registered' girls can enlighten us?

Bearing in mind that the more Thais that register - the more money that can go to improve the place.

Do you know, if there is a qualifying period or set length of time, a non-Samui Thai has to live in Samui, before being able to register to vote in Samui?

[wasas]

There are a small number of Thais who are from different provinces who then 'settle' and register in Samui. Unfortunately there are a larger number of Thais who live here who elect to stay 'registered' in their home province. One reason for this is the "I have to go home to vote" syndrome. I am sure that there are other reasons.

Maybe the guys married to 'non-registered' girls can enlighten us?

Bearing in mind that the more Thais that register - the more money that can go to improve the place.

Do you know, if there is a qualifying period or set length of time, a non-Samui Thai has to live in Samui, before being able to register to vote in Samui?

A non samui thai, just has to get a house book and register here, they don,t have to be here any amount of time

[SamuiRes]

Part of the problem according to my wife is that with childen under 18 they are all registered at the same adress as the mother. As the children live with the grandparents, changing her house book would create a problem for the children. There is of course the psychological reason of maintaining the ties to home and family.

With regard to the OP reference to City Status - I do not think Koh Samui has that as it would not qualify under the population density requirement even with a registered population well in excess of 50,000. The status seems to be some sort of typical Thai compromise to resolve the issue. Perhaps someone with better knowledge of this could enlighten us.

[Rooo]

Part of the problem according to my wife is that with childen under 18 they are all registered at the same adress as the mother. As the children live with the grandparents, changing her house book would create a problem for the children. There is of course the psychological reason of maintaining the ties to home and family.

With regard to the OP reference to City Status - I do not think Koh Samui has that as it would not qualify under the population density requirement even with a registered population well in excess of 50,000. The status seems to be some sort of typical Thai compromise to resolve the issue. Perhaps someone with better knowledge of this could enlighten us.

Check here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/197243-samui-is-a-tessabaan-muang/page__p__2349275__hl__samui%20status#entry2349275

[PoorSucker]

The problem to get se

There are a small number of Thais who are from different provinces who then 'settle' and register in Samui. Unfortunately there are a larger number of Thais who live here who elect to stay 'registered' in their home province. One reason for this is the "I have to go home to vote" syndrome. I am sure that there are other reasons.

Maybe the guys married to 'non-registered' girls can enlighten us?

Bearing in mind that the more Thais that register - the more money that can go to improve the place.

Do you know, if there is a qualifying period or set length of time, a non-Samui Thai has to live in Samui, before being able to register to vote in Samui?

A non samui thai, just has to get a house book and register here, they don,t have to be here any amount of time

The problem is that you must own a house to get a housebook, or have someone that's willing to enter you in their housebook.

My wife got registered in a friends housebook last year.

Now she can get 5000 baht next mayor election

Edited April 22, 2012 by PoorSucker

[ysamui]

Part of the problem according to my wife is that with childen under 18 they are all registered at the same adress as the mother. As the children live with the grandparents, changing her house book would create a problem for the children. There is of course the psychological reason of maintaining the ties to home and family.

With regard to the OP reference to City Status - I do not think Koh Samui has that as it would not qualify under the population density requirement even with a registered population well in excess of 50,000. The status seems to be some sort of typical Thai compromise to resolve the issue. Perhaps someone with better knowledge of this could enlighten us.

I had not heard about the "density" requirement as well.

It would be nice to have some way of getting accurate information. This may seem an insignificant topic to some, but the change from town to city would give Samui a lot more, and it's correct share of the "pot" that is now distributed from Surat Thani.

[ysamui]

Part of the problem according to my wife is that with childen under 18 they are all registered at the same adress as the mother. As the children live with the grandparents, changing her house book would create a problem for the children. There is of course the psychological reason of maintaining the ties to home and family.

With regard to the OP reference to City Status - I do not think Koh Samui has that as it would not qualify under the population density requirement even with a registered population well in excess of 50,000. The status seems to be some sort of typical Thai compromise to resolve the issue. Perhaps someone with better knowledge of this could enlighten us.

Check here:

http://www.thaivisa....us#entry2349275

Thanks, it is good reading

[jamesbrock]

According to this page from the Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA), as at December 2011 (2554), the official population of Samui is 54,113.

http://stat.dopa.go.th/xstat/pop53_1.html

(If you see Roman character gibberish instead of Thai script, you will need to manually switch from Western encoding view to the Thai encoding under the View menu of your browser.)

26,452 Males

27,661 Females

54,113

16,773 dwellings. Presumably this number only includes dwellings where the above numbers are registered at, and not any dwellings occupied by unregistered Thais or foreign residents.

Interestingly, the official figure only increased by 317 from December 2010 to December 2011...

[PoorSucker]

16,773 dwellings. Presumably this number only includes dwellings where the above numbers are registered at, and not any dwellings occupied by unregistered Thais or foreign residents.

16,773 house books. (Thabien Bahn)

[ysamui]

According to this page from the Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA), as at December 2011 (2554), the official population of Samui is 54,113.

http://stat.dopa.go....at/pop53_1.html

(If you see Roman character gibberish instead of Thai script, you will need to manually switch from Western encoding view to the Thai encoding under the View menu of your browser.)

26,452 Males

27,661 Females

54,113

16,773 dwellings. Presumably this number only includes dwellings where the above numbers are registered at, and not any dwellings occupied by unregistered Thais or foreign residents.

Interestingly, the official figure only increased by 317 from December 2010 to December 2011...

If both the population figure (54,113) and the qualifying figure (50,000) are correct, there must be some other requirement(s) that are preventing Koh Samui from achieving City status. One may well be the population density that was mentioned previously.

[itishothere]

One may well be the population density that was mentioned previously.

According to Wikipedia, this requirement was removed entirely in 2000. It used to be 3,000 per square kilometer. The article also refers to "sufficient income to carry out the tasks of a city" whatever that may mean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thesaban_nakhon#Cities

[jamesbrock]

If both the population figure (54,113) and the qualifying figure (50,000) are correct, there must be some other requirement(s) that are preventing Koh Samui from achieving City status. One may well be the population density that was mentioned previously.

Of course, we can't rule out that it could just be the apparent inability of anyone in any government department to follow any of their set rules and/or processes unless or until it benefits them to do so... (and I'm not just targeting the Thai government here)

[itishothere]

Of course, we can't rule out that it could just be the apparent inability of anyone in any government department to follow any of their set rules and/or processes unless or until it benefits them to do so... (and I'm not just targeting the Thai government here)

If Samui becoming a city means it gets more money, it follows that somewhere else gets less. That 'somewhere else' is not going to give it up without a fight!

There must be towns in Thailand that are just above 50,000 one year, and the next perhaps just below. Samui has a highly transient population. My guess would be that it has to be above the 50,000 level for a period of time before it is recognised.

Edited April 24, 2012 by itishothere

[jamesbrock]

Of course I could be a total idiot, and present the wrong figures!

The "correct" official figures are here: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=th&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fstat.dopa.go.th%2Fxstat%2Fp5484_01.html&act=url

8605 Males

9628 Females

18,233 Total

5476 Dwellings.

On a completely unrelated matter: my Thai isn't coming along as well as I thought.

[John 1]

Of course I could be a total idiot, and present the wrong figures!

The "correct" official figures are here: http://translate.goo...01.html&act=url

8605 Males

9628 Females

18,233 Total

5476 Dwellings.

On a completely unrelated matter: my Thai isn't coming along as well as I thought.

I will call those figures B/S.

[Rooo]

More here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/504130-samui-population/page__p__4755181__hl__+population#entry4755181

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/284001-samui-government/page__p__2902698__hl__population#entry2902698

[jamesbrock]

I will call those figures B/S.

Yep, they certainly don't gel with anyone's estimates; but they are straight off the Department of Provincial Administration's (DOPA) website.

[ysamui]

Of course I could be a total idiot, and present the wrong figures!

The "correct" official figures are here: http://translate.goo...01.html&act=url

8605 Males

9628 Females

18,233 Total

5476 Dwellings.

On a completely unrelated matter: my Thai isn't coming along as well as I thought.

Who's is?

[ysamui]

I will call those figures B/S.

Yep, they certainly don't gel with anyone's estimates; but they are straight off the Department of Provincial Administration's (DOPA) website.

Yes, the confusion over all these figures remind me very much of the stock-takes and accounting problems that are confronted daily in business here! lol

[jamesbrock]

Interesting how Wiki give the population as 50,000 (2008) but cites no reference for that figure. When you go back to DOPA's figure for 2008, you get 30,841...

The population was around this 30,000 figure from 2004 to 2008, but, for some reason, dropped to 18,026 in 2009. Where did nearly 13,000 people go in one year??

[ysamui]

Interesting how Wiki give the population as 50,000 (2008) but cites no reference for that figure. When you go back to DOPA's figure for 2008, you get 30,841...

The population was around this 30,000 figure from 2004 to 2008, but, for some reason, dropped to 18,026 in 2009. Where did nearly 13,000 people go in one year??

Maybe they went to the Full Moon Party?

[insertmembernamehere]

Thinking of the number of household registered Thais living on Samui, 18K does not see unrealistic.

I think the definition is the issue; "live" or "reside" is the question. Of course there maybe more Thais than that, but they are not "officially residing" here.

I think a more interesting figure would be a snapshot of all people on the island at any one time. For example, how many people are actually on the island on January 1 or May 1? Tourists, residents, illegals, everyone. That would be an interesting number.

[KTD]

54,000 people but 7 million cars and bikes

[jamesbrock]

dam_n you ysamui for reviving this thread! Because the low numbers were troubling me, I went back to the DOPA website - this time with my girlfriend beside me (and not trusting Google's oft-confusing translation). Thus, I, once again, and for fear of being labeled, and quite rightly so, an idiot, have to admit I was totally and completely wrong with my earlier posts. (I'm glad no one felt the inclination to verify my numbers, as I'd much prefer to admit my errors than have them pointed out to me.)

It turns out, that what Google translated to 'Muang Samui' is actually 'Amphoe Muang Surat Thani', and Ko Samui is actually way down on page 7 of DOPA's list, translated by Google into 'The City of London'.

This will teach me to rely on Google's translation!

Therefore, without any further ado, here is - whether you believe me or not! - the official population of Samui and Phangan districts:

[ysamui]

Let me try to combine some facts (as we know them) some guess work and some assumptions and attempt some calculations.

I apologise in advance if I miss anything or assume incorrectly. Please feel free to correct or advise me if any of this guesswork is way off the mark.

Fact - There are 61,318 permanent Koh Samui residents (thank-you jamesbrock)

- Koh Samui Airport has 1,000,000 arrivals per annum

- Ferry arrivals maybe 365,000 per annum (Guessing- 1,000 arrivals per day over 365 days - probably more?)

- Total number of arrivals, 1,365,000

- Assume that Jan - May peak season period (5 months) represents around 55% of visitors for the total year

- Total is 750,750 divided by 5 months

- Approximately 150,000 arrivals per month January - May

Add: Add 150,000 (arrivals) and 61,318 (permanent residents, thank-you again jamesbrock)

Conclusion: In the January to May period there is an average of 211,318* people on the Island every day.

*This figure does not include illegal aliens, left-over hippies or Thais in hiding. So maybe we should double it? lol

Please suggest any variations or corrections as I am very keen to try to get an answer that is as accurate as possible.

Edited May 13, 2012 by ysamui

[ysamui]

dam_n you ysamui for reviving this thread! Because the low numbers were troubling me, I went back to the DOPA website - this time with my girlfriend beside me (and not trusting Google's oft-confusing translation). Thus, I, once again, and for fear of being labeled, and quite rightly so, an idiot, have to admit I was totally and completely wrong with my earlier posts. (I'm glad no one felt the inclination to verify my numbers, as I'd much prefer to admit my errors than have them pointed out to me.)

It turns out, that what Google translated to 'Muang Samui' is actually 'Amphoe Muang Surat Thani', and Ko Samui is actually way down on page 7 of DOPA's list, translated by Google into 'The City of London'.

This will teach me to rely on Google's translation!

Therefore, without any further ado, here is - whether you believe me or not! - the official population of Samui and Phangan districts:

Thank-you jamesbrock for finally locating a document that can be regarded as "official".

Reading the document did bring a smile to my face though

The document states that there are 40,411 dwellings on Koh Samui.

It further claims a population of 61,318.

That is an average number of 1.5 occupants per dwelling....Very Very Funny

Australia has an average of 2.5 (and decreasing)

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/0/8DD7826E7F7235D8CA25732C0020820B?opendocument

United Kingdom has an average of 2.3 (and increasing)

http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/downloads/40house/chapter03.pdf

[Tropicalevo]

The document states that there are 40,411 dwellings on Koh Samui.

It further claims a population of 61,318.

That is an average number of 1.5 occupants per dwelling....Very Very Funny

Not really. I see no humour in it.

I have 3 registered dwellings on Samui that I pay housing tax on and that have an address. I'll bet that my wife and I are not included in the headcount.

In the village where I live there are more than 30 other dwellings. All have proper addresses and are recognised by the powers that be. Again, I'll bet that none of the residents are included in the headcount. (Only 5 of the other properties are occupied all year round.) Some of the other properties are owned by Thai nationals, but the Samui property is not their prime address.

[ysamui]

The document states that there are 40,411 dwellings on Koh Samui.

It further claims a population of 61,318.

That is an average number of 1.5 occupants per dwelling....Very Very Funny

Not really. I see no humour in it.

I have 3 registered dwellings on Samui that I pay housing tax on and that have an address. I'll bet that my wife and I are not included in the headcount.

In the village where I live there are more than 30 other dwellings. All have proper addresses and are recognised by the powers that be. Again, I'll bet that none of the residents are included in the headcount. (Only 5 of the other properties are occupied all year round.) Some of the other properties are owned by Thai nationals, but the Samui property is not their prime address.

Hi Tropicalevo, the reason it made me smile, is that in my 8 years living here, I can count on one hand the number of Thai's that I know who live alone. The vast majority share dwellings/houses/rooms with many others to keep the cost to a minimum. You do not agree?