Growing number of middle class population with higher spending power The expansion of the economy, in particular of the income of the middle classes9/, will help to support increased demand for healthcare services. When Thai spending on healthcare is considered as a proportion of GDP, like that of many other ASEAN countries, it is still very low and this represents a significant opportunity for Thai hospitals (Figure 12). Urbanization. The United Nations forecasts that the Thai urbanization rate will rise from 35.6% in 2015 to 40.7% in 2025 (Figure 13) and this will present an opportunity for hospitals to expand operations into provincial centers, thus providing additional new markets to the somewhat saturated market in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. Operators will also benefit from government policy to expand industrial estates and the Eastern Economic Corridor, and from growth in urban communities in the AEC region.