The southern part of the province was originally a separate province named Lang Suan. It was incorporated into Chumphon in 1932.
In November 1989 the typhoon Gay hit the province hard - 529 people were killed, 160,000 became homeless, 7,130 km2 (2,753 sq mi) of farm land was destroyed. Gay is the only tropical storm on record which reached Thailand with typhoon wind strength
