What would a basic income cost in Thailand?
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Total cost per year
834 billion Thai baht
about 25.4 billion US dollars
71.6 million people × 970 Thai baht a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2023)21.2%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)21.7%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)29.0%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)4.4%
Thailand in numbers
Thailand has a population of 71.6 million (2025) and a GDP of 19 trillion Thai baht (about 577 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 970 Thai baht a month would cost 834 billion Thai baht a year (about 25.4 billion US dollars), or 4.4% of GDP. That equals 21.2% of central government expense (2023), 21.7% of its revenue (2024), and 29.0% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 12.8 million) would cost 149 billion Thai baht a year (0.79% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 58.8 million), 684 billion Thai baht (3.6%).
Default amount: 970 Thai baht a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Thai baht with the World Bank's PPP conversion factor for household consumption (2025) and rounded to two significant figures. It is a reference point, not a policy proposal; change it above.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- Population
- World Bank: population, total (SP.POP.TOTL), and population by single year of age 0 to 17 (SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN), 2025
- SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN
- Government expense and tax revenue
- World Bank: central government expense, revenue excluding grants and tax revenue, % of GDP (GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS, GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS, GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2023, 2024
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- World Bank: PPP conversion factor, household final consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP), 2025
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.