Phuket is known for its visitors, but a growing number of foreigners also work here legally. Official work-permit data shows an international community that has more than recovered from the pandemic and settled at a higher level than before 2020.

The figures below come from the Department of Employment, as compiled with its sources by Phuket Travels, and from reports of the Phuket Provincial Employment Office.

Skilled permits are 37% above 2019

The Department of Employment counts valid work permits by category. The skilled categories, general permits under Section 59 and Board of Investment permits under Section 62, covered 9,820 foreigners in Phuket in 2019 and 13,482 in November 2025, an increase of 37%.

The per-resident figure uses registered population, which understates how many people really live on the island, but the method is the same in every year. The register stood at 432,464 at the end of 2025.

The pattern is clear. Permits fell by about 40% during the pandemic and were rebuilt within three years. Since 2024 they have held steady: the provincial employment office’s own register, which uses a slightly broader definition, shows 15,314 skilled permits in August 2026, close to its 2025 level of about 15,200.

That mirrors tourism, where foreign visitors were back at about 101% of their 2019 level in 2025.

Where they come from

In the office’s October 2025 breakdown, five nationalities hold about 54% of skilled permits:

Russians have grown from 895 permits in December 2020, but their numbers are below the April 2025 peak of 3,926, when they held about one permit in four. The wider mix, with Asian and European nationalities in the top five, shows a community that does not depend on any single market.

Why it matters

People who work in Phuket live in Phuket all year. Their need for homes, schools, healthcare and services does not follow the tourist calendar, which makes this a steadier source of local demand than visitor numbers alone. That is our reading of the data, not a figure the government publishes.

What the numbers do not show

Permits are a floor, not a headcount. Retirees, spouses and children, students and remote workers on long-stay visas need no work permit and do not appear. No agency publishes a reliable total for expats in Phuket, so any single figure quoted for the island should be treated with caution.

The skilled series also leaves out the island’s much larger migrant workforce. The Phuket Provincial Employment Office counted 138,244 foreign workers of all kinds in October 2025.

Most are workers from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam who staff hotels and construction sites and are counted under separate schemes, which is why their numbers swing with registration rounds rather than real changes.

The takeaway

Phuket is not only a place people visit. It is a place where a growing international community chooses to build working lives, with skilled permits 37% above 2019 and a broad mix of nationalities. Its true size is larger than any official series shows, which is a good reason to treat the permit figures as the minimum.

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