Population Of Koh Samui?

[jamesbrock]

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.

Very interesting numbers there ysamui!

I still haven't found any official indication of how the DOPA arrive at their numbers, i.e. whether foreign nationals residing in Thailand are included at all, or if it's just registered Thai nationals. Obviously, the number of 90 day reports, and, therefore, registered addresses of a large number of foreign nationals, can easily be attained - but the question is: are they included?

Another question I have relates to the number of dwellings. How are they collated? It was suggested earlier that the number of dwellings simply equals the number of unique registered addresses - but how does this explain Ko Tao?

Interestingly, while looking for answers to these two questions, I found a new document from DOPA called "Glossary of official English names of Provinces, Districts and Positions in DOPA" (I found this after producing the table above, so two of the place makes therein are incorrect), it has a wealth of data that I'd never seen before including the date when each municipality was created or upgraded. In it, alongside Ko Samui's entry, in the column titled 'Thesaban Nakhon' (city), it has 'To be announced'... Not too many others of the 166 Thesaban Mueangs (town) had this notation.

[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.

Very interesting numbers there ysamui!

I still haven't found any official indication of how the DOPA arrive at their numbers, i.e. whether foreign nationals residing in Thailand are included at all, or if it's just registered Thai nationals. Obviously, the number of 90 day reports, and, therefore, registered addresses of a large number of foreign nationals, can easily be attained - but the question is: are they included?

Another question I have relates to the number of dwellings. How are they collated? It was suggested earlier that the number of dwellings simply equals the number of unique registered addresses - but how does this explain Ko Tao?

Interestingly, while looking for answers to these two questions, I found a new document from DOPA called "Glossary of official English names of Provinces, Districts and Positions in DOPA" (I found this after producing the table above, so two of the place makes therein are incorrect), it has a wealth of data that I'd never seen before including the date when each municipality was created or upgraded. In it, alongside Ko Samui's entry, in the column titled 'Thesaban Nakhon' (city), it has 'To be announced'... Not too many others of the 166 Thesaban Mueangs (town) had this notation.

I wonder what the announcement will be and when they will make it. It may be as you suggest, the promotion or upgrade to a City status.

Well done Sherlock, you may be onto something here.

[jamesbrock]

I wonder what the announcement will be and when they will make it. It may be as you suggest, the promotion or upgrade to a City status.

Well done Sherlock, you may be onto something here.

I'm not too sure I am; I have located the transcripts for the weekly (or thereabouts) DOPA board meetings (example: March 21, 2012), and have found nothing to indicate that Samui is even on the agenda. That being said, other municipality upgrades have been gazetted recently without appearing in the recent DOPA board meeting transcripts. Who knows how long it takes these things to happen.

According to the DOPA board meeting for March 14 2008, Ko Samui was scheduled to be upgraded to Thesaban Nakhon (city) as of April 19, 2008; however, the spreadsheet mentioned above notes "Originally planned to become Nakhon effective 2008-04-19, but then instead made a Mueang only". It became a Theseban Mueang on June 9, 2008. Neither of these two actions were mentioned on any subsequent DOPA board meeting transcripts.

Anyhow, it will happen, or it won't. At least I am understanding the Thai administrative divisions a lot more!