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The dominant settlement pattern in Thailand remains the rural village, where the primary occupation is wet-rice cultivation. Migration to urban areas has increased significantly since the mid-20th century, but the majority of the country’s people still consider their principal place of residence to be the village, even when they live and work for extended periods in urban environments.
There are a number of settlement types that vary depending on location. Villagers in the northeast live in houses clustered together on higher ground, surrounded by rice fields. In the north, by contrast, where most villages are found in the alluvial basins of major rivers, population growth and improvements in transportation have tended to disperse the villages away from the rivers and toward the main railroads and highways, reducing the amount of land available for growing rice. The north also contains the majority of the country’s hill settlements, which are similar to, though smaller than, the nucleated villages of northeastern Thailand.
The Chao Phraya delta is densely settled along areas of high ground that are free from flooding. A vast network of irrigation canals has modified the pattern of settlement and transportation. The mobility offered by small motorboats utilizing the canals has made it possible to establish villages to the east and west, away from the rivers. New highways have also modified settlement patterns, especially at river crossings and canals where new towns have appeared.
In the south and southeast, plantations, especially those producing fruit, rubber, and palm oil, are scattered along the fertile slopes, alternating with the low and narrow rice fields; the villages are interspersed among these plantations and fields. Most are linked by good roads and highways. Alluvial deposits containing tin, no matter how remote, can be reached by road and waterway. Settlement is almost continuous along both sides of the peninsula. Many people living in coastal settlements have long been fishermen, taking their boats out into the Andaman Sea or Gulf of Thailand.
Urban settlement
Urbanization in Thailand, as in many other developing countries, has proceeded rapidly since World War II, but growth has been highly uneven. The Greater Bangkok Metropolitan Area, which generally includes Bangkok proper and its twin city, Thonburi, and the contiguous cities of Samut Prakan to the southeast and Nonthaburi to the north, remains the dominant and only major urban centre in the country. The total population of this area is some 30 times larger than that of Udon Thani, the next largest city, and several times larger than that of the next 10 largest cities combined. Nonetheless, cities such as Khon Kaen, Ubon Ratchasima, Udon Thani, and Nakhon Ratchasima in the northeast; Chiang Mai in the north; Hat Yai, Surat Thani, and Nakhon Si Thammarat in the south; and Pattaya on the eastern seaboard grew quite significantly since the last decades of the 20th century and have assumed some of the urban characteristics of Bangkok.
Demographic trends
Thailand’s population rose rapidly in the 20th century, especially during the period between 1950 and 1970, when the government supported such growth. Since then, however, official policies and private family-planning programs have slowed this growth dramatically, making the country a model for other countries seeking to reduce their high population growth rates. The population profile that resulted from the earlier increase has nonetheless placed demands on the country’s education, housing, health, and employment systems.
From the mid-19th century to World War II, immigration, primarily from China, contributed markedly to the growth of the population. In the postwar period immigration has been restricted, and most of the refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam who obtained asylum in Thailand after the wars ended in those countries were not allowed to become permanent residents of Thailand. Some of the refugees were resettled in other countries, and a small number were repatriated to their own countries. Since the late 1980s hundreds of thousands of people from Myanmar have entered Thailand as refugees, as illegal immigrants, or, in a small number of cases, as legal guest workers. Although only a few of these people have been granted the right to remain permanently in Thailand, many have lived in the country for years or even decades.
Internal migration, notably the movement of people from the countryside to Bangkok, has produced major changes in the society. Bangkok has received a major share of all interregional migrants, most from the central and northeast regions. Although roughly one-third of Thailand’s total population is classified as urban, the figure does not take into account the large number of people who work primarily in urban areas while still retaining official residence in their villages. As in most other regions of the world, these migrants are mainly young adults less than 30 years of age.
Economy
Prior to the 1960s the Thai economy was based primarily on the production of rice and other foods and goods for domestic consumption and of rice, rubber, teak, and tin for export. The government then began to promote a shift from agriculture to the manufacture of textiles, consumer goods, and, eventually, electronic components for export. By the 1980s Thailand had embarked on a solid path of industrialization; even the economic crisis of the late 20th century only slowed, but did not halt, this economic transformation.
From 1963 until 1997 the Thai economy was one of the fastest growing in the world. The adoption of the first national development plan in 1963 spurred the shift from agriculture to industry. During the 1980s and ’90s numerous export-oriented industries emerged, primarily in the areas surrounding Bangkok. The large-scale migration of young women and men from rural communities to the greater Bangkok area drained labour from the countryside. Those continuing to pursue agriculture turned increasingly to machines to make up for the shortage of workers, bringing about a shift in the rural economy from subsistence to market-oriented agriculture. Most of the investment in new technology in the agricultural sector came from the savings of family members who had gone to work in the cities.
Hydroelectric complexes needed to sustain the growth of the industrial economy have displaced thousands of villagers from their homes and fields, inundated large areas of forest, transformed flood patterns, and reduced the supply of fish, on which many depend for their livelihood. By the 1980s villagers were organizing mass demonstrations to protest the inadequate compensation given to those displaced; they were joined by environmentalists and social activists mobilized by the negative impact of these projects. Other large protests have been mounted against government policies promoting the commercial exploitation of forests. These protests, together with rising concerns among the middle class about the environment, spurred governments of the late 20th and early 21st centuries to undertake projects with greater sensitivity to environmental issues than had been shown by previous governments.
Export-oriented industries and financial institutions, especially those created in the 1980s and ’90s, have relied heavily on foreign capital, making the Thai economy more vulnerable to changes in global economic conditions. In 1997 a sudden and rapid decline in the value of the Thai currency, the baht, triggered a financial crisis that quickly spread to other Asian countries. The crisis not only exposed the overdependence of Thailand on foreign capital but also focused attention on the consequences of unequal development and on weaknesses in several sectors of the economy. By the beginning of the 21st century, the economy had begun to recover, but the economic crisis and the emergence of a more democratic political order caused economic policies to become the object of intense public debate. A coup in September 2006 rekindled uncertainties about the future of the Thai economy. While announcing, rescinding, and subsequently reimposing various restrictions on foreign investment, the interim government promoted the king’s philosophy of “sufficiency economy,” an ideal emphasizing self-reliance and moderation in consumption, without rejecting capitalist investment.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
Rice is not only the main staple crop of the country but also the primary agricultural export. Thailand has for decades been one of the world’s largest rice exporters. Although high-yield varieties of rice were adopted in the 1960s, rice yields are much lower than in East Asia, owing primarily to less-efficient labour inputs. The main commercial rice-producing areas of Thailand are the Chao Phraya basin and the Khorat Plateau. Agricultural production has diversified significantly to meet domestic and world market demand. Among the crops produced for the market are cassava, corn (maize), kenaf (a jutelike fibre), longans, mangoes, pineapples, durians, cashews, vegetables, and flowers. Cash crops such as rubber, coffee, sugarcane, and many fruits are produced mostly on large holdings owned by the agribusinesses that began to emerge in the last decades of the 20th century. Tobacco was once an important cash crop, but it declined considerably as demand dropped.
The northeast of Thailand has long been known for its water buffalo and cattle. As agriculture became increasingly mechanized, the demand for water buffalo, once used for plowing and harrowing, decreased markedly. However, cattle production in the northeast increased because of a significant rise in demand for beef in urban areas. The northeast is also a major producer of pigs, to meet a growing demand for pork. Chicken production expanded dramatically since the mid-20th century, but increasingly it has been undertaken in central Thailand by companies rather than by smallholders. The outbreak of bird flu (avian influenza) in Southeast Asia in the early 21st century prompted the government on several occasions to order the destruction of large numbers of chickens, leading to an overall decline in poultry production and heavy revenue losses for producers. Chickens and smaller numbers of ducks continue to be raised for the domestic market.
Thailand was once one of the major exporters of hardwoods, especially teak and Dipterocarpus alatus, known in Thai as yang. In 1989 the government imposed a ban on logging following a catastrophic landslide in the southern part of the country that was largely blamed on the deforestation caused by excessive logging in the region. Some cutting for local uses has continued, and, although other types of timber from Thai forests have been exported illegally, the ban has generally been successful. Concerted efforts have also been mounted to conserve existing forests and to expand forest reserves, but those actions led to conflicts with peoples who have long lived in the areas affected.
Fish and other aquatic life have been the major source of protein in the Thai diet since ancient times. As deforestation and pollution of streams and rivers led to a decline in freshwater wild fish, there has been a marked increase in the raising of fish in ponds, especially in northeastern Thailand. Since the 1970s, Thailand has been one of the world’s major exporters of shrimp, fish, and fish products. However, the creation of shrimp farms and the overfishing of the Gulf of Thailand sparked disputes between commercial interests and villagers who depend on fish and shrimp as basic foodstuffs. Many traditional marine fishing areas have become polluted, and shrimp farms have been especially damaging to coastal mangrove forests. Some recovery efforts are under way.
Resources and power
Tin, mined mostly in the peninsula, has long been among Thailand’s most valuable mineral resources, and the country has become one of the world’s largest producers. Fluctuations in the world tin market, however, have caused output to be reduced. Other important mining and quarrying operations produce coal (lignite), zinc, gypsum, fluorite, tungsten, limestone, and marble. Rubies and sapphires are mined along the east coast of the peninsula.
Industrial expansion has increased demand for electricity and fossil fuels. Electricity in Thailand comes primarily from hydroelectric plants in the central plains, the north, the northeast, and Laos, with supplementary power coming from thermal plants using natural gas and lignite. Thailand has significant offshore natural gas reserves and less-abundant onshore oil resources. In the 1990s a controversial pipeline was constructed to transport natural gas from Myanmar to Thailand, but domestic production also expanded rapidly. By the early 21st century, Thailand’s dependency on imported petroleum and natural gas for energy had decreased markedly.
Manufacturing
The growth in manufacturing since 1970 has been especially dramatic, reflecting the large investments made by private firms. Although growth was initially spearheaded by the garment industry, electronic products assumed the vanguard in the mid-1980s, propelled by investment and transfer of production from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Since the late 1990s, Thailand has been a notable exporter of motor vehicles and, more recently, telecommunications equipment. While industrial development has been concentrated in and around Bangkok, production has also expanded along the eastern seaboard and, more recently, into northern, especially northeastern, Thailand, where much of the labour for all industries originates.
Finance
The Bank of Thailand, established in 1942, issues the baht, acts as central banker to the government and to the commercial banks, and serves as the country’s financial agent in dealing with international financial markets, international monetary organizations, and other central banks. Together with the Ministry of Finance, it is at the pinnacle of the government’s economic technocracy and plays the key role in managing the economy. Three other government financial agencies are also important: the Board of Investment, which offers financial incentives to domestic and foreign entrepreneurs; the National Economic and Social Development Board, which formulates the government’s five-year plans; and the Budget Bureau, which compiles the annual national budget. These government bodies focus primarily on creating the proper financial conditions for business to grow and prosper, leaving business decisions themselves to the private sector.
Commercial banks grew out of business syndicates established in the 1940s by business families with Chinese roots. In the post-World War II era, these banks have not only controlled the financing of trade; they have also played a key role in industry by channeling loans to business sectors and enterprises with high growth potential and by cultivating close working relationships with foreign investors. A restructuring of Thai commercial banking took place as a result of the economic crisis of the late 1990s; foreign holdings significantly increased, while the number of family-controlled banks dropped sharply. Some of the original family interests and leadership, however, persisted despite foreign ownership. Close ties between commercial banks and political leaders and government officials have been important for coordinating economic policy, but they have also been a breeding ground for corruption. In addition to banks, other important private-sector financial institutions include finance companies, which have become major sources of loans for the real estate market, and the securities firms active in the Securities Exchange of Thailand, the country’s stock exchange.
In the mid-20th century foreign investment emerged as one of the most important factors in the rapid growth of the national economy. As part of the liberalization of the country’s financial markets in the early 1990s, the government established the Bangkok International Banking Facility (BIBF), an offshore banking entity that became a major conduit for international capital. Originally envisioned as a means to establish Bangkok as a major financial centre rivaling Hong Kong and Singapore and serving all of Southeast Asia, the BIBF in fact became a channel by which foreign funds (primarily in the form of short-term loans) could enter Thailand’s domestic economy.
