{
  "id": "thai-retirement-visa-holders",
  "title": "Foreigners on a Thai retirement / long-stay visa",
  "metric": "Foreigners holding a Thailand retirement (Non-O / O-A) or long-stay extension, year-end stock",
  "unit": "persons",
  "kind": "count",
  "volatility": "annual",
  "direction_note": "rising = more foreigners formally counted on the retirement track; this is the destination-register leg of the headcount triangulation, and it UNDER-counts retirees living on marriage, Elite/Privilege, LTR and DTV visas (it is not a count of all older Western residents)",
  "publisher": "No Margin Left",
  "source": {
    "label": "Husa (2022) \"Growing old and getting care: Thailand as a hot spot of International Retirement Migration\" (citing Thai Immigration Bureau figures); UN Network on Migration / Thailand Migration Report 2024 figures as reported by Pattaya Mail (2023). The Immigration Bureau does not publish a consolidated official series; these are the best-attested dated points.\n",
    "url": "https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366618093_Growing_old_and_getting_care_Thailand_as_a_hot_spot_of_International_Retirement_Migration"
  },
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "attribution": "No Margin Left, \"Foreigners on a Thai retirement / long-stay visa\" (Foreigners holding a Thailand retirement (Non-O / O-A) or long-stay extension, year-end stock). CC BY 4.0. https://nomarginleft.com/data/thai-retirement-visa-holders.json",
  "canonical": "https://nomarginleft.com/data/thai-retirement-visa-holders.json",
  "csv": "https://nomarginleft.com/data/thai-retirement-visa-holders.csv",
  "retrieved": "2026-06-13",
  "stale": false,
  "observations": [
    {
      "date": "2005",
      "value": 10709,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "note": "Husa (2022), Thai Immigration Bureau: 10,709 foreigners on a retirement/long-stay visa."
    },
    {
      "date": "2018",
      "value": 72969,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "note": "72,969 on the retirement/long-stay track (Husa 2022 / UN Network on Migration)."
    },
    {
      "date": "2021",
      "value": 52040,
      "confidence": "triangulated",
      "note": "52,040 reported for 2021 — the COVID dip (border closures, departures). Lower than 2018, consistent with the pandemic interruption; treat as a soft point.\n"
    },
    {
      "date": "2023",
      "value": 126654,
      "confidence": "sourced",
      "checked": "2026-06-13",
      "note": "126,654 foreigners on a retirement visa in 2023 (UN Network on Migration / Thailand Migration Report 2024). Up ~74% on 2018 (72,969). This is the retirement-visa administrative count, not a cross-program total of all retirees; the Immigration Bureau does not officially confirm a consolidated series, so treat as soft.\n",
      "readings": [
        {
          "value": 126654,
          "source": {
            "label": "Thailand Migration Report 2024 (UN Network on Migration / IOM), reporting foreigners on a retirement visa",
            "url": "https://thailand.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl1371/files/documents/2024-12/thailand-migration-report-2024.pdf"
          },
          "quote": "foreigners residing in Thailand on a retirement visa grew from 72,969 in 2018 to 126,654 in 2023"
        },
        {
          "value": 126654,
          "source": {
            "label": "Pattaya Mail, \"More than 100,000 retirees in Thailand now scattered amongst many visa programs\" (secondary reporting of the UN Network figure, looser \"retirees living in the kingdom\" gloss)",
            "url": "https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/more-than-100000-retirees-in-thailand-now-scattered-amongst-many-visa-programs-520597"
          },
          "quote": "126,654 retirees living in the kingdom in 2023, up from 72,969 in 2018"
        }
      ],
      "rationale": "The UN Network on Migration figure (126,654 for 2023) is the retirement-visa count and the most-cited recent point, reproduced across sources; flagged soft because the Immigration Bureau does not officially confirm a consolidated total and because it counts only the retirement track, not all older residents. Pattaya Mail's \"retirees living in the kingdom / scattered amongst many visa programs\" phrasing is a loose gloss of the same retirement-visa figure, not a broader total.\n"
    }
  ],
  "corrections": []
}