Phuket Local Survival Dashboard
Phuket is growing — are residents doing better?
Eight resident-outcome measures, each with its definition, source, limitations and the data still needed.
Evidence & methods pilot v1.0 — not live, no overall score. Historical values are not current, and "not yet measured" is not zero.
Metadata reviewed: (not the data observation period)
Eight measures
No green/red judgement and no claim that growth causes harm or benefit. Trends appear only with at least two validated, comparable periods.
1. Awaiting a valid dataset
Housing affordability
How much of household income goes on housing?
— not yet measured
Trend: no comparable periods yet
- Definition / formula
- For each respondent household: monthly housing costs (rent or mortgage + specified essential housing fees) ÷ the SAME household's monthly income. Report the median and distribution, and shares by tenure (renter / owner / other). No fixed 'unaffordable' threshold is applied.
- Unit
- % of household income (median, distribution)
- Population / geography
- Households resident in Phuket, incl. renters and migrant households where sampled
- Period
- Not yet measured
- Cadence proposed / actual
- Annual / None yet
- Source owner
- Needs representative household microdata or a documented matched sample
Limitations: Never computed by dividing an average listing rent by an average wage — those describe different people.
No verified source yetData needed: See housing-related issues2. Historical value cited — not current
Cost of living context
What did sampled households spend each month?
38,941
Mean total household expenditure · THB per household per month · period 2023 (B.E. 2566) · NSO Income 2566 provincial report, Phuket, Table 6 · attributed citation; licence not verified
Trend: no comparable periods yet
- Definition / formula
- Household expenditure as a contextual baseline. Not a price index, not a minimum living wage and not the cost for a typical resident.
- Unit
- THB per household per month (mean)
- Population / geography
- Sampled households in Phuket province (NSO Household Socio-Economic Survey)
- Period
- 2023 (B.E. 2566)
- Cadence proposed / actual
- Each NSO survey round / One period cited (2023)
- Source owner
- National Statistical Office (NSO)
Limitations: Mean, not median — skewed by high spenders. Historical sampled-household context, not today's cost of living. No trend is shown: another appendix uses a different per-capita denominator and is not comparable.
3. Awaiting a valid dataset
Local SME survival
Are local small businesses still operating a year later?
— not yet measured
Trend: no comparable periods yet
- Definition / formula
- 12-month cohort survival: number of verified baseline eligible local SMEs still operating ÷ number of baseline eligible SMEs. Report closures, lost contact, seasonal closure, registered vs unregistered, and follow-up rate separately.
- Unit
- % of baseline cohort
- Population / geography
- Defined local SMEs (not all legal businesses)
- Period
- Not yet measured
- Cadence proposed / actual
- Baseline + 12-month follow-up / None yet
- Source owner
- Needs a PLC/partner cohort; DBD registrations/closures = context only
Limitations: Registration and closure counts cannot be turned into a survival percentage, and cover legal entities rather than informal SMEs.
4. Source identified — not ingested
Local jobs and earnings
Do people living in Phuket have work, and what do they earn?
— not yet measured
Trend: no comparable periods yet
- Definition / formula
- Employment, unemployment and earnings among workers resident in Phuket, including migrant workers where the source defines them. 'Local' means resident, not birthplace or passport.
- Unit
- Rates (%) and THB per worker per month
- Population / geography
- Resident workers in Phuket
- Period
- Not yet measured
- Cadence proposed / actual
- Quarterly / None yet
- Source owner
- Phuket Provincial Labour Office (Q1/2025 report exists; values not extracted)
Limitations: Job vacancies are not jobs held. Worker earnings and household income use different denominators and cannot be compared directly.
5. Awaiting a valid dataset
Local value retention
How much of participating organisations' spending stays local?
— not yet measured
Trend: no comparable periods yet
- Definition / formula
- (Locally paid payroll + eligible local procurement) ÷ eligible measured spending, for defined participating organisations, with documented resident/local-supplier criteria, exclusions, coverage and double-count prevention.
- Unit
- % of eligible measured spending
- Population / geography
- Participating organisations only
- Period
- Not yet measured
- Cadence proposed / actual
- Annual / None yet
- Source owner
- Unavailable — needs partner accounts
Limitations: A local spending-share proxy for participants only — not economy-wide leakage, profit outflow or a multiplier.
No verified source yetData needed: See tourism & local value6. Awaiting a valid dataset
Travel time
How long does the usual trip to work or school take?
— not yet measured
Trend: no comparable periods yet
- Definition / formula
- Median one-way usual commute in minutes, by mode, coarse origin/destination zones and time band, from a repeated consistent panel. No continuous GPS or personal routes.
- Unit
- Minutes (median)
- Population / geography
- Panel respondents (convenience sample is not representative of the island)
- Period
- Not yet measured
- Cadence proposed / actual
- Quarterly panel / None yet
- Source owner
- Needs a voluntary PLC panel (not running)
Limitations: No paid map API is used. Panel results describe respondents only.
No verified source yetData needed: See mobility issues7. Candidate source — unverified
Infrastructure pressure — waste
Is waste received within documented treatment capacity?
— not yet measured
Trend: no comparable periods yet
- Definition / formula
- Consistently defined daily waste generated/received ÷ documented effective treatment capacity, for the same geography, period and unit.
- Unit
- Ratio (tonnes/day ÷ tonnes/day)
- Population / geography
- Facility service area as documented (not extrapolated to the whole island)
- Period
- Not yet measured
- Cadence proposed / actual
- Annual / None yet
- Source owner
- Phuket City Municipality / Pollution Control Department (candidates, unverified)
Limitations: Never divide an annual volume by a daily capacity, and tourist counts alone are not a pressure measure.
No verified source yetData needed: See waste issues8. Candidate source — unverified
Infrastructure pressure — water
How often and how long is piped water interrupted?
— not yet measured
Trend: no comparable periods yet
- Definition / formula
- Documented interruption duration ÷ service exposure for a defined utility coverage area, or demand ÷ capacity where matching data exist.
- Unit
- Hours per connection per year, or ratio
- Population / geography
- Utility customers in the coverage area (PWA customers ≠ all residents)
- Period
- Not yet measured
- Cadence proposed / actual
- Quarterly / None yet
- Source owner
- Provincial Waterworks Authority / local providers (candidates, unverified)
Limitations: Shortages are never inferred from tide, rainfall or missing data.
No verified source yetData needed: See water issues
Growth context
Visitor statistics, tourism receipts and GPP describe the size of the economy, not household well-being. Compare aligned periods only; no forecasts or causal claims.
See visitor statistics with provenance in Phuket IntelligenceResident & commuter surveyStatus: pretest — no answers are being collected
Who may be missing from the data
Unregistered and migrant residents, renters and informal SMEs are often under-counted in official data and convenience surveys.
Who does what
- Phuket BiodiverCity frames the questions, with editorial independence.
- PLC holds the sources, methods and history.
- Voice to Action records real participation, actions and outcomes.
- Regenera (Thailand) Co., Ltd. may deliver commissioned research or pilots, with funding, sampling and conflicts disclosed.
- Payment never buys verification or a positive result.