Largest town in province

In most cases the largest town for each of the 75 province is the town which contains the provincial administration, and has the same name as the province. But there are some exceptions. Originally I was only aware of Hat Yai, which due to its location at the railway developed into the economic center of Songkhla province and has grown larger than city of Songkhla. But in fact there are several more, using the population numbers of 2008.

• In Songkhla province, the captial city Songkhla (เทศบาลนครสงขลา) has a population of 72,920, whereas the city Hat Yai (เทศบาลนครหาดใหญ่) has more than double with 157,382 registered citizens. [1]
• Pathum Thani (เทศบาลเมืองปทุมธานี) is an very small town with only 18,843 citizen. There is not only one larger municipality in the province, it is just the 7th largest town - in order of population the larger municipalities are Rangsit (เทศบาลเมืองรังสิต, 76,843), Tha Khlong (เทศบาลเมืองท่าโขลง, 56,257), Thanyaburi (เทศบาลตำบลธัญบุรี, 53,749), Khlong Luang (เทศบาลเมืองคลองหลวง, 51,890), Khu Khot (เทศบาลเมืองคูคต, 45,610), Sanan Rak (เทศบาลเมืองสนั่นรักษ์, 22,609). [2]
• As long as the plan to create a new province isn't pushed forward, the largest town of Tak province is Mae Sot (เทศบาลเมืองแม่สอด, 35,042), nearly double of Tak town (เทศบาลเมืองตาก, 19,274). [3]
• In Chonburi province, the special administrative area of Pattaya (เมืองพัทยา, 104,797) is by far the largest, much more than Chonburi itself (เทศบาลเมืองชลบุรี, 33,067). In fact, also Laem Chabang, Ban Suan and Saen Suk are larger. [4]
• The other touristic hot spot opposite the Bangkok bay is Hua Hin (เทศบาลเมืองหัวหิน, 52,919), and it is also way larger than the provincial capital Prachuap Khiri Khan (เทศบาลเมืองประจวบคีรีขันธ์ , 18,060). [5]
• A very close case is in the deep south, where Narathiwat (เทศบาลเมืองนราธิวาส, 40,521) is still slightly larger than Sungai Kolok (เทศบาลเมืองสุไหงโกลก, 39,564), yet this may have changed in the meantime already. [6]