New municipality geocodes

When DOPA redesigned their website in spring this year, the pages which contain the population statistics were reset to the 2009 state, and also the last update of the geocode list was reverted. When I now took yet another look at the website, there was a link to the statistics, but not using the www.dopa.go.th server name but instead simply an IP address. To my surprise at that address it not only had the latest population statistics, but also the geocode list was there, and even this was even last updated in October. Thus it is interesting to compare the changes within the last year.

While the only change in main file, ccaatt containing the codes for Changwat, Amphoe, Tambon, are the codes for Galyani Vadhani district, the rcode file which contains the municipality codes is more interesting. Most of the changes in that are the deletion of the obsolete codes, for example those of the Sakha Tambon and a few municipality codes assigned but not used yet. Then there are upgrades of municipalities and name changes, yet the only really new ones are the following codes.

• 2061: Sattahip (เทศบาลตำบลสัตหีบ), Chonburi - the rename to Khet Udom Sak (เทศบาลตำบลเขตรอุดมศักดิ์) hasn't been worked into the list yet
• 2179: Thap Ma (เทศบาลตำบลทับมา), Rayong
• 2389: Takang (เทศบาลตำบลตะกาง), Trat
• 2390: Nong Bon (เทศบาลตำบลหนองบอน), Trat
• 4063: Non Thon (เทศบาลตำบลโนนท่อน), Khon Kaen
• 7167: Rang Wai (เทศบาลตำบลรางหวาย), Kanchanaburi
• 7168: Non Sarai (เทศบาลตำบลหนองสาหร่าย
[Website currently offline]), Kanchanaburi
• 7270: Bang Kung (เทศบาลตำบลบางกุ้ง), Suphanburi
• 7382: Krathum Lom (เทศบาลเมืองกระทุ่มล้ม), Nakhon Pathom

It's also interesting to look at how long it took from the creation of these municipalities until they were listed with a code. Krathum Lom dates from 2007, Thap Ma from 2009, and all others from 2008, so about 2 years until they assigned the code. Note that most of the other new municipalities created in the last 4 years have no code yet, and especially in the case of Nakhon Ratchasima and Chiang Mai there are not enough codes free for all of them.

I don't the reason why the codes aren't assigned directly when the municipality is created, yet my guess is that it receives a code once they have the municipal registration office running - this list is named RCode, so the R may stand for registration, and also in the DOPA population statistics most of the new municipalities don't show yet as well, so maybe the numbers are still those reported by the Amphoe registration office.