Thailand Population

The only country in South East Asia never to have been colonized, the kingdom of Siam named itself Thailand in May 11, 1949. In the Thai language, the word Thai means "freedom" and so Thailand means the "Land of the Free".

Thai is also the name of the majority ethnic group which is again part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic community spread over Thailand and its neighbouring South-East Asian countries A multi-ethnic land, almost three-fourths of Thailand's population is made up of the Thai group and the hill tribes that live primarily in the north.

Thailand has a relatively stable culture and common language Tai or Thai.
Within the Thai group there are several broad divisions with dialects mutually accessible to each other.

Besides the 33.7% of population that is Central Thai (including Bangkok), the Northeastern Thai / Lao / Isan comprise 34.2%. The rest id made up of Southern Thai ( 13.3%) and Northern Thai ( 18.8%).

According to 2006 estimates these are the demographic figures for Thailand:

Population: 64,631,595

Population Density: 126 people per sq km

Population Growth Rate: 0.68%

Urban-Rural Population Distribution:

Thailand is a farming-dependent country making the transition from an agricultural to an industrial-based economy. Almost 68% of the people of Thailand live in villages, despite the current trend of migration from the villages to the capital of Bangkok.

More than 6 lakh people live in the capital, Bangkok, the city which has the largest population.

The other large, populated cities are Songhkla, Nonthaburi, Chiang Mai and Nakhon Ratchasima.

ETHNICITY:

75% of the people are Thai. 14% of the population comprises the Chinese, and 3 % of Malays. The Khmer, Hmong, Karen and other hill tribes together comprise 8%.The Khmer, Laots and Vietnamese live mostly in the border areas.

RELIGION:

Buddhism is the majority religion, with Theravada Buddhism being the religious practice most people follow. Almost 85% of the population comprises Theravada Buddhists. To the north belong some 7 % of Muslims and there's a tiny 2% of people practicing Christianity.

WORKFORCE:

With one-fourths of the population under the age of 15, the work force now has more than 34.1 million people. Almost 8 lakh people join this force every year. The literacy rate is over 90 %. And the population by 2010 is expected to cross 70 million. Of these, the majority of the population comprises people less than 30 years old.

Thailand is all poised to keep setting new grounds as a youthful nation, vibrant and ever ready to welcome more and more tourists!

Accommodation in Thailand
Accommodation in Pattaya	Accommodation in Bangkok
Accommodation in Koh Samui	Accommodation in Phuket
Accommodation in Khaon kaen	Accommodation in Koh Kaew