Official population of Thailand 66,171,439, lower than previous figures

An announcement formally published in the Royal Gazette on Wednesday stated that the official population of Thailand as of December 31, 2021, is 66,171,439. That figure is a bit under 1% of the world’s population. Of that population, just 973,656 of those people are not Thai nationals while the vast majority, 65,197,783, are native to Thailand.

The data of Thailand’s population was collected and determined by the Central Domicile Registration Office, and the director of that registration office signed the declaration on January 7. As is standard in any official law, regulation, or declaration in Thailand, it must first be published in the Royal Gazette to be considered fully official, and that publication was done today.

Bangkok, by far the most populous province in Thailand, recorded 5,527,994 people officially residing in the mega-city. The top 5 most populated provinces reveal that the Northeast and North of Thailand is far more populated than the South and West of the country.

The Northeastern provinces of Nakhon Ratchasima, Ubon Ratchathani, and Khon Kaen were second, third, and fourth with 2,634,145 people, 1,868,519 people, and 1,790,863 people respectively. The fifth most populated province is the Northern province of Chiang Mai with 1,789,385 people living there.

The population count of 66.2 million people is about 4.5% lower than the 2018 population estimate of 69,428,453 as well as around 5% lower than the UN’s population estimate for Thailand in the middle of 2021, which appraised the country to have about 69.8 million people living there. Worldometer has estimated the population now to be slightly higher at just over 70 million people.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post