Distillers Country guides / Thailand
Thailand
A one-page guide to Thailand for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Bangkok
- Official languages
- Thai
- Currency
- Thai baht (THB)
- Time zone
- UTC+7 (ICT)
- Area
- 513,120 km²
People
- Population
- 71.6 million (2025)
- Population growth
- -0.1% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 62.8%
- Aged under 15
- 14.4%
- Aged 65 and over
- 16.0%
- Life expectancy
- 76.6 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$577.0 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$8,057 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 2.4% (2025)
- Inflation
- -0.1% (2025)
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 20 for purchase (since the 2008 Alcoholic Beverage Control Act)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 7.7 litres of pure alcohol (2022)
- Traditional drinks
- Sura Khao (rice spirit)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Business France - spirits in Thailand (Aug 2026); Wikipedia - Thailand (basics, climate); IMF DataMapper WEO (GDP, population, growth, inflation; retrieved 26 Oct 2026); UN Comtrade (HS 2208); WHO Global Health Observatory; Wikipedia - Legal drinking age; Asian Century Stocks - ThaiBev note (Oct 2025); Wikipedia - ThaiBev. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.