Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community

The Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, commonly referred to as NACE (for the French term "nomenclature statistique des activités économiques dans la Communauté européenne"), is the industry standard classification system used in the European Union. The current version is revision 2 and was established by Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006.^[1] It is the European implementation of the UN classification ISIC, revision 4.

There's a correspondence between NACE and United Nations' International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities.^[2]

NACE is similar in function to the SIC and NAICS systems:

• Standard Industrial Classification
• North American Industry Classification System

a screenshot of NACE being used in a computer program

NACE uses four hierarchical levels:^[3]

• Level 1: 21 sections identified by alphabetical letters A to U;
• Level 2: 88 divisions identified by two-digit numerical codes (01 to 99);
• Level 3: 272 groups identified by three-digit numerical codes (01.1 to 99.0);
• Level 4: 615 classes identified by four-digit numerical codes (01.11 to 99.00).

The first four digits of the code, which is the first four levels of the classification system, are the same in all European countries. National implementations may introduce additional levels. The fifth digit might vary from country to country and further digits are sometimes placed by suppliers of databases.

References

1. Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains. OJ L 393, 30.12.2006, p. 1–39. EurLex
2. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/registry/regso.asp?Ci=70&Lg=1&Co=&T=0&p=2
3. EU RAMON classification database

External links

For a full list of NACE Codes, please refer to:

• List of NACE codes ( ! This page will no longer be updated as from 26 March 2010 as it contain Revision 1 list)
• European Commission, DG ECFIN,Further information on NACE rev.2 and Business and Consumer Surveys
• Browse the NACE code hierarchy in multiple languages