Table of Contents
References & Edit History Facts & Stats

Regions

Thailand can be divided into four major regions—the north, northeast (also known as Isan), centre, and south (southern peninsula). Two additional subregions are the eastern seaboard, which straddles the central and northeast regions, and the west, which is part of the southern peninsula. These regions (phak) were formally recognized as distinct cultural, linguistic, and administrative entities during the process of building a unified country in the late 19th century, and the northern and northeastern ones, as well as part of the far southern peninsula, correspond to what had been semiautonomous domains within the Siamese empire prior to the reign of King Chulalongkorn (reigned 1868–1910). The two subregions have distinct characteristics.

North

The mountainous provinces located in the upper part of the northern region are often referred to collectively as Lan Na Thai, from the name for the loosely structured federation of principalities, with its capital at Chiang Mai, that existed in the area until the end of the 19th century. The people of Lan Na Thai speak the Kammüang (Northern Thai) dialect and follow Buddhist traditions akin to those practiced in Myanmar. The mountains of the north are also home to many upland minority groups.

The provinces of the lower north include the heartland of the first Thai kingdom, Sukhothai, which was named for its capital city. Peoples in this subregion speak dialects related to Standard Thai, rather than Kammüang, and follow cultural traditions similar to those of the Thai living in the central region.

Northeast (Isan)

The majority of peoples living in the northeast region, which corresponds to the Khorat Plateau, share linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions with the Lao living across the Mekong River. Until the late 19th century this region was made up of relatively independent realms. In the early 20th century the region was officially designated as Isan, a term derived from Sanskrit meaning “northeast.” The Lao-speaking people of this region, who constitute the large majority of the population, differentiate themselves not only from the Lao of Laos but also from the central Thai by referring to themselves as Khon Isan.

The Khmer and Kuy (Suai) living in the southernmost part of the northeast region speak languages and follow traditions more closely related to those of Cambodia than to those of either the Thai or the Lao. The large province of Nakhon Ratchasima, also known as Khorat, in the southwestern part of the northeast, was long an outpost of the Siamese empire and includes peoples known as Thai Khorat, who speak dialects closely related to central Thai. Although the northeast remains home to much of the country’s rural population, it also includes a burgeoning urban society. Among the fastest growing cities are Khorat, Khon Kaen, Ubon Ratchathani, and Udon Thani.

Centre

The Central Plain, occupying most of the Chao Phraya basin, is the political, economic, and cultural core of old Siam and present-day Thailand, and it is home to those who speak dialects closely related to Standard Thai. Historically, the people of central Thailand have followed a Buddhist tradition closely linked to that of the Khmer of Cambodia. Commercial and industrial activity is heavily concentrated in the region, especially in Bangkok, and economic growth has been faster there than elsewhere. This rapidly growing economic heartland continues to be a strong magnet, attracting people from other parts of the country, particularly from the northeast, who seek greater economic and social opportunities. Thus, while Standard Thai is the dominant language of Bangkok, Chinese and Isan (Lao) dialects are also spoken by a substantial number of people in the city.

Southern peninsula

The upper part of the southern-peninsula region, also called Pak Tai, has a distinctive identity linked to the historical role of towns such as Nakhon Si Thammarat, once known as Ligor. Because of the region’s historical ties to the later Siamese kingdoms, the language and customs of the southern Thai are similar to those of the Thai of central Thailand. The lower part of the southern region is inhabited by Malay-speaking Thai, most of whom are Muslims. The southern region has also attracted a large number of Chinese migrants, especially to work in the tin industry. Today the largest city in the south, Hat Yai, which serves as the centre of trade with Malaysia, is populated primarily by Sino-Thai.

West

The western and southwestern region, consisting mostly of hilly to mountainous terrain along the Myanmar border, is still sparsely populated. The upland Karen, who have long lived in the dense forests of the region, continue to engage in shifting cultivation. The western region became politically significant in the last decades of the 20th century as environmental groups pressured the government to ensure that old-growth forests in the area be preserved rather than cut by logging companies or inundated by the reservoirs created by hydroelectric dams. The region has also long been the locus of overland connections to Myanmar. During World War II the Japanese forced Allied prisoners of war to build a rail line in the region to connect Thailand and Burma (Myanmar), as dramatized in the 1957 British movie The Bridge on the River Kwai. In the 1990s the construction of a pipeline through the region to carry natural gas from Myanmar to Thailand was strongly protested by both environmentalists and those opposed to the military regime in Myanmar.

Eastern seaboard

The eastern seaboard subregion, stretching along the eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand, is undulating and hilly and extends eastward from Bangkok to the Cambodian border. The region contains significant numbers of people living along the border with Cambodia who speak Khmer or Khmer-related languages and follow cultural traditions related to the Khmer. Starting in the late 19th century, the region began to attract large numbers of Sino-Thai. This new migration was associated with the development of sugarcane and fruit plantations, sugarcane and lumber mills, and fish-sauce factories. A number of deepwater ports were developed in the 1970s. One of these, established by the U.S. Navy at Sattahip, has continued to be a major naval base, while another, at Laem Chabang, has become one of the largest commercial ports in the country. As the region developed into the most important port and industrial area of Thailand behind Bangkok, it, like the Greater Bangkok Metropolitan Area, attracted significant numbers of migrants from northeastern Thailand. The resort town of Pattaya has become the major urban area in this region.

Rural settlement

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.