INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THAILAND

History

Founded in 1238

1939 Siam changed its name to Thailand

Thailand has never been occupied by a European power. All other southeast Asian countries have been taken over at some time.

Geography

Thailand occupies 513,120 sq km being the 51st largest country in the world

Bordering countries: Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia

3,219 km of coastline

Climate governed by the Southwest monsoon between May and September and the Northeast monsoon between November and March.

Highest point in Thailand is Doi Inthanon at 2,576 m

Natural resources include: tin, rubber, natural gas, tungsten, tantalum, lead, gypsum, fluorite, arable land

64,150 sq km is irrigated land

Thailand controls the only land route from Asia to Malaysia and Singapore

People

Ethnic groups: Thai: 75%, Chinese: 14%, other: 11%

Religions: Buddhist: 94.6%, Muslim: 4.6%, Christian: 0.7%, other: 0.1% as in the year 2000 census

Population: around 67,100,000

Approximately 34% of the population live in cities

Largest city is Bangkok with approximately 7 million inhabitants

Government

Capital: Bangkok

Time: UTC+7

77 provinces

Founded in 1238 and never colonized

National symbols: Garuda (a mythical beast half man and half bird) and the elephant

Economy

Main exports: Machinery, Electronic components, agricultural commodities, jewelry

GDP: $602.2 billion

GDP per capita: $9,400

World’s second largest producer of tungsten

World’s third largest producer of tin

Communications

International country code: 66

Internet code: .th

78 million mobile cellular phones

There are 6 terrestrial TV stations. 2 owned by the military and the other 4 owned or controlled by the state

Internet users around20 million

Transportation

Thailand has 103 airports. 63 have paved runways

There are 6 heliports

There are a total of 4,071 km of railway track

There are 180,053 km of roads of which approximately 450 km are expressways

Please note all figures are approximate at time of posting this webpage and are provided for interest only.