Home | History | Economy | Demographics | Administration | Higher Education | Hotels | Transportation | Current issues

Demographics

As of the 2004 census, there are 6,500,000 registered residents in the city. Daytime population swells by over 2 million people. More than 50% of Bangkokians have some Chinese ancestors. Recently, Bangkok has experienced a large influx of foreign immigrants, long-term residents, and expatriates. The number of expatriate executives stood at 65,000 as of Nov, 2005 and additional number is increase in an average of more than 1,800 permits per month. Long-term foreign residents include 250,000 Chinese (citizen of China), 30,000 Japanese (the largest community in any Asian city outside Japan), 100,000 Indians (35,000 Sikh) of whom more than 80% have Thai citizenship, 6,000 Americans, 45,000 Europeans (the second largest number in any Asian city after Singapore), 15,000 Taiwanese, 7,000 South Koreans, 6,000 Nigerian, 8,000 people of Arabic countries, 25,000 Malaysians, and 4,000 Singaporeans. There are approximately 400,000 - 600,000 illegal immigrants from Cambodia, Burma, Russia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, China, and other countries. 92% of the population are Buddhist. The rest are Muslim (6%), Christian (1%), Jewish (300 residents), Hindu (0.6%), and others. There are some 400 Buddhist temples, 55 mosques, 10 Churches, and 2 Synagogues in Bangkok.