How Many Resident Expats In This Burg? (Greater Pattaya Metropolis)

[Jingthing]

I know it is thousands. But how MANY thousands do you reckon?

[gerry53]

Jez JT are you trying for 40,000 posts???

[DrTuner]

25000. With the total population of Pattaya City being around 250000. About 70% more or less part-time, so 7500 with fixed location. That's my ballpark guess.

[Jingthing]

That's a lot if true.

The question came to me because I read that Cuenca Ecuador now has 4000 expats and that's considered a boom but not yet big enough to much change the city.

How much do expats change Pattaya?

It seems to me not all that much but almost everything is geared towards TOURISTS.

[DrTuner]

I've gotten the vibe that expat oriented business is starting to gear up. Small specialized shops, such as butcheries and shops importing foreign goods are getting easier to find. A somewhat recent development, perhaps accelerated in the last 2-3 years. I have nothing but a general feeling to back that up. But I do think it has to do with the expat population growing fast.

[Chivas]

That's a lot if true.

The question came to me because I read that Cuenca Ecuador now has 4000 expats and that's considered a boom but not yet big enough to much change the city.

How much do expats change Pattaya?

It seems to me not all that much but almost everything is geared towards TOURISTS.

According to the Independant guy Simon Calder there are 21,000 Ex Pats officially in the whole of Thailand so impossible to be anything like 25k in Pattaya.....

[petercool]

The quoted 21,000 expats in the whole of Thailand is very unlikely. At one time there were at least that many just in Bangkok.

Expats include all nationalities not just caucasians. With the resident Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Australian and Europeans I would wager that 20,000 for Pattaya is not far off.

[meatballs]

I've always wondered this too. At most, I'd estimate there are 5,000 year around expats living in Pattaya.

I think it is much smaller than most people think. I know of only a few guys living in my area of town. The rest are tourists and I know because I never see them again.

[Jingthing]

I think it has to be over 5000. Just feels that way.

[meatballs]

The quoted 21,000 expats in the whole of Thailand is very unlikely. At one time there were at least that many just in Bangkok.

Expats include all nationalities not just caucasians. With the resident Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Australian and Europeans I would wager that 20,000 for Pattaya is not far off.

Depends on what your definition of expat is. Somebody who stays 2-3 months out of the year really isn't an expat. Also, I suppose if you count some Cambodians and Burmese here you might get a higher figure.

[timekeeper]

i remember when they had the mayoral election the time before last, it was said that there were 68,000 registered voters in the Pattaya area and a floating population of over 750,000

you decide how many of that 750,000 are resident expats.....

i think there would be well over 50,000

[LennyW]

i remember when they had the mayoral election the time before last, it was said that there were 68,000 registered voters in the Pattaya area and a floating population of over 750,000

you decide how many of that 750,000 are resident expats.....

i think there would be well over 50,000

I have to agree, well over 50,000. It may be difficult for some people to envisage that, particularly if they rarely get out from the confines of the city centre.

The Banglamung area covers a huge area, the area to the east of Sukhumvit is home to majority of the population these days and that stretches a long way inland, but i guess it depends on what you define as "the greater metropolis" Do you go as far as Laem Chabang/Sri Ratcha to the north, Bang Saray / Satthahip to the south, the Eastern Seaboard industrial estates along the 331 to the east?

Always been difficult to get a real figure.

Edit to add, just found this.........

Population of Pattaya

Pattaya City had 104,318 registered inhabitants in 2007. But that figure excludes the large number of Thais who work in Pattaya that remain registered in their hometowns but work in Pattaya. Also the not includes many long-term

expatriate

visitors who number from 50,000 - 200,000 during the season. Pattaya population numbers around 300,000 at any given time and peak season estimates put the figure as high as 500,000 people.

Edited August 25, 2012 by LennyW

[LennyW]

This table on Wiki gives the 2012 figures for the population of the area, again transient workers and expats are not included, it is showing the population of Banglamung at over 250,000, also Sriracha at over 250,000 and Satthahip at over 150,000, so it seems to be higher than a lot of people might think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattaya%E2%80%93Chonburi_metropolitan_area

Edited August 25, 2012 by LennyW

[Barack]

Resident expats have to do 90 day reporting so the number should be well known. Maybe a Howard Miller or Barry Kenyon could answer this.

[chiang mai]

As a starting point, just to get close to the town that has a ballpark, try this for Thailand overall:

"there are 250,000 long-term mainland Chinese; 105,000 Indians, most of them Sikhs and of which 80% hold dual Thai citizenship; 44,000 Japanese, 25,000 Americans; 75,000 Europeans not broken down by nationality; 15,000 Taiwanese; 20,000 South Koreans; 7,500 Australians; 12,000 Arabs; 20,000 Malaysians; 4,000 Singaporeans; 5,000 Filipinos; and 800 New Zealanders. Very few of those numbers are substantiated".

http://www.dougsrepu.../foreigners.php

There's another link which I probably am not allowed to post that talks of 100k expats in Issan alone and that seems credible given that ex-pats include all nationalities.

Edited August 25, 2012 by chiang mai

[Tolley]

The thing is that there are many farangs here a lot of the time who are not expats per se .

You have the retirees but then there are lots of people who live here who are working, married to a Thai, doing visa runs or people like myself who come and go all the time.

[lonewolf99]

Folks you are all forgetting one mitigating factor. Where we are i.e. LOS.

When it comes to official figures they are all manipulated. Thailand is supposed to have a population about 60 odd million. But take a look at Bangkok and the surrounding area and the population is officially around 12 million and I always think it is more. So you have 1/5th or 20% of the total is living there. Surely not.....

[chiang mai]

Folks you are all forgetting one mitigating factor. Where we are i.e. LOS.

When it comes to official figures they are all manipulated. Thailand is supposed to have a population about 60 odd million. But take a look at Bangkok and the surrounding area and the population is officially around 12 million and I always think it is more. So you have 1/5th or 20% of the total is living there. Surely not.....

Bangkok, 6.5 million permanent, a further 7 million transient workers.

[thenervoussurgeon]

on our estate which is quite small there are 5 brits ,1 chinese and 1 from hong kong and thats in 3 small streets.

[guzzi850m2]

Yes its not easy ti guess correctly, I myself as an eksample is only here 6 month pr year and spend the rest of the time off-shore earning money (worldwide) and a couple of more expats in my Moo Baan does the same, but we do live in Thailand, family- house-cars and so on.

Some well off expats spend some of the time in their home countries (summer time).

My guess will also be around the 50.000 mark in greater Patt area.

[Naam]

on our estate which is quite small there are 5 brits ,1 chinese and 1 from hong kong and thats in 3 small streets.

in my case 41 homes and 46 expats (including expat wives). not a single home inhabitated purely Thai.

[RabC]

Resident expats have to do 90 day reporting so the number should be well known. Maybe a Howard Miller or Barry Kenyon could answer this.

Complete rubbish, loads of expats don't utilise visas that require 90 day reporting.

[Chivas]

The quoted 21,000 expats in the whole of Thailand is very unlikely. At one time there were at least that many just in Bangkok.

Expats include all nationalities not just caucasians. With the resident Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Australian and Europeans I would wager that 20,000 for Pattaya is not far off.

Apologies I should have stated that the 21,000 were Brits not all nationalities but those are the official figures...

[Barack]

Resident expats have to do 90 day reporting so the number should be well known. Maybe a Howard Miller or Barry Kenyon could answer this.

Complete rubbish, loads of expats don't utilise visas that require 90 day reporting.

The topic is "resident" expats not tourists. Tourists are reported by their hotel, etc. Expats with retirement visas, work permits, etc. must do 90 reporting. So not complete rubbish for those that can read.

[avidflyer]

If one knew how many 90 day reports were done in a 90 day period, you would have some clue, I would think Barry could make a rather informed guess about those numbers.

[JanKlaasen]

I always see that Aussie looking guy sitting at the corner of Khao Talo and Sukhumvit.As he seems to have nothing else to do, I will ask him tomorrow to start counting.

[LeCharivari]

Resident expats have to do 90 day reporting so the number should be well known....

It is - 10,000 of all nationalities according to Soi 5 (that covers all of Chonburi, including eastern seaboard industrial areas, but the majority are resident in Pattaya).

Under 3,000 are Brits, despite Asif Ahmad's claim that there are 52,000 Brits "living in Thailand" (with the majority of Brits living in Pattaya). Much less and they'd be out of a job,of course .....

Before anyone says that can't be right, it must be 50,000+, etc do some basic maths:

If it takes 3 minutes per person to process a 90 day report that's 20 an hour for 6 processing hours a day = 120 per day; 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month (allow for holidays) that's 20 days x 120 people per month: 2,400; 3 months (90 days) x 2,400 = 7,200 maximum. Make it 2 minutes (maybe a little optimistic?) and you still only come up with 3,600 per month = 10,800 maximum.

Try the same for Retirement extensions, and at a very optimistic 10 minutes per person you come up with 6 per hour, 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, etc = 8,640 maximum.

A few people (I was one of them for 14 years) neither work nor are over 50 but are effectively "resident" as they are doing visa runs instead every 90 days, but I never met very many others in that situation.

[DrTuner]

Marriage extensions and business extensions need to be counted too. They're processed at different counters. But I'll stick to my 7500 figure, just because I like it for some oddball reason.

[timekeeper]

I always see that Aussie looking guy sitting at the corner of Khao Talo and Sukhumvit.As he seems to have nothing else to do, I will ask him tomorrow to start counting.

Aussie looking?

does he have one of those hats with corks on strings jangling around the rim?

[JanKlaasen]

I always see that Aussie looking guy sitting at the corner of Khao Talo and Sukhumvit.As he seems to have nothing else to do, I will ask him tomorrow to start counting.

Aussie looking?

does he have one of those hats with corks on strings jangling around the rim?

No, it sits on his head most of the time.