LibGuides: Industrial and Economic Activities Classification Codes: Home

Current codes

Standard Industrial Classification - SIC Code
UKSIC 2007 came into effect 1st January 2008 and is the current version of the code used in the UK.
International Standard Industrial Classification – ISIC Rev.4 (2008)
Used by the United Nations for classifying economic data (production, employment, gross domestic product and other statistical areas). ISIC scheme was greatly influenced by UKSIC
Nomenclature génerale des Activités économiques dans les Communautés Européennes – NACE Rev.2 (2008)
Used for the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Union. It is similar to UK SIC and NAICS. It is available on the Europa website.
North American Industry Classification System – NAICS (2022)
In North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) the SIC code has largely been replaced by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS 2022)
North American Product Classification System – NAPCS
The NAPCS (2022) is the product classification system constructed as a result of the NAICS, and as such will be similarly applied by the United States, Canada and Mexico
Central Product Classification – CPC Ver.2.1 (2015)
The United Nations classification for goods and services. It is intended to be an international standard for organising and analyzing data on industrial production, national accounts, trade, prices etc.
Classification of Products by Activity - CPA (version2.1)
The European Union system is an alternative to the United nations CPC and is more closely related to the industrial activity classification.
Products of the European Community – PRODCOM
Prodcom is an annual European Union survey providing statistics on the production of manufactured goods. This extends the CPA code structure from six to eight digits.
Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System – HS (2022)
An internationally standardized system of names and numbers for classifying traded products developed and maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO). (January 2022 – used by 212 countries and economic unions).
Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) (Rev. 4 2006)
Classifies a country’s trade to enable comparing different countries and years. The classification system is maintained by the United Nations. The SITC is the most commonly used scheme for foreign trade statistics. SITC and HS are correlated statistics.
Standard Occupational Classification – SOC (2010)
This relates to the jobs performed by individual workers rather than the industry in which they work i.e. workers from the same industry could be in different categories of occupational classification.
Specialised Non-Industry Specific Schemes
The original purpose of some of these schemes may not be for economic reporting purposes, but nevertheless they provide a common starting point from which to begin international comparisons. E.g. International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) implemented on the recommendation of the World Health Organisation, allows comparison of morbidity figures. These can often be an indicator of national economic health.

What are Classification Codes?

Classification codes are used to describe or define an industrial activity in publications and databases.

Official publications produced by governments and international organisations, including national and international statistical offices, will generally make use of these codes, as do many commercial databases.

Countries, international organizations and publishers have developed independent classification schemes and although there is now greater harmonization in the EU there are still a number of classification schemes in use around the world.

Codes are periodically revised to reflect industrial and economic development and so it is important when carrying out research using data for a range of years to be aware of revisions.