“We’d forgive most things if we knew the facts.”
The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene
• The King of Thailand will celebrate his 80th birthday this year.
• Exports now account for 60% of Thailand’s GDP, compared with 29% in 1990.
• The number of patients with heart disease has doubled from 318 to 682 per 100,000 of population and patients with diabetes has more than doubled from 278 to 587 per 100,000, while cancer patients has risen from 80 to 124 per 100,000 population.
(Public Health Ministry)
• In 2007, 42 per cent of Thais aged over 15 years old or about 17 million people were overweight.
(Public Health Ministry)
• About one in five Thai men (20 per cent) and three in five Thai women (60 per cent) are overweight.
(Public Health Ministry)
• In 2006 the attendance rate for Thai middle-school students was 89% compared to the world average of 79%. Thai high school students had an attendance rate of 65% compared to the world average of 51%.
(Unesco Institute for Statistics)
• 74,000 houses were completed and registered in Thailand in 2007 compared with 170,000 in 1996.
(Real Estate Information Centre)
• Sales in the local motorcycle market rose in February for the first time in 12 months with total registrations rising 8% year-on-year to 147,104 units.
(AP Honda Co)
• In 2008, an estimated 85,760 new conscripts will be recruited into the Thai armed forces.
(Bangkok Post, March 19 2008)
• Swedish tourists form the third largest group of visitors to Phuket.
(Bangkok Post, March 19 2008)
• Thailand uses nearly 5.2 billion plastic bags per year making the country the ninth largest user in the world.
(Bangkok Post, March 19 2008)
• Last year, 65,000 Americans went to Bumrungrad Hospital for in-patient or outpatient treatment, up from just 10,000 in 2001.
(Business Week)
• Thailand has an annual rice production of about 19 million tonnes, 10 million tonnes of which are for local consumption and the rest for export.
(Rice Exporters Association)
• Pick-up and passenger vehicle production in Thailand is expected to exceed 1.4 million units this year.
(The Nation, March 24 2008)
• Thailand’s auto industry employs 200,000 workers.
(The Nation, March 24 2008)
• Approximately 500,000 Thais have been infected with HIV, while an average of two people contracting HIV every hour.
(AIDS-prevention advocate, Meechai Viravaidya)
• Thailand produces around 900,000 one-ton trucks per year – about three quarters of global output.
(Bangkok Post, March 26 2008)
• Thailand’s richest person is Chaleo Yoovidhya (Red Bull) with Bt 126 million.
(Forbes)
• In 2007 117,395 rai of land in Thailand was damaged due to fire.
(National Park Park Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department)
• Approximately 90,000 Thai people are infected with Tuberculosis per year and of this 5,000 to 7,000 people are estimated to die from the disease.
(The Nation, March 24 2008)
