North American Industry Classification System(NAICS)

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The term, NAICS, refers to the North American Industry Classification System. NAICS is the Census Bureau's "system for classifying business establishments. It is the first economic classification system to be constructed based on a single economic concept. Economic units that use like processes to produce goods or services are grouped together." The system is hierarchical with more broad industries at the top of the numerical range. More specific industries have more numbers. For an example of this hierarchical arrangement, visit this page at the official NAICS site.

NAICS codes are used in the Economic Census as well as in a number of different databases (Business Source Complete, Mergent Online, Reference USA all use NAICS). To look up a code for a particular industry, visit the official NAICS website and do a keyword search for the industry.

The NAICS system was created in 1997 to replace the older SIC codes. SIC codes are no longer updated, while the NAICS codes were last updated in 2002. Since many resources use only NAICS or only SIC codes, it is important to have both the NAICS codes and SIC codes when doing business research. To convert SIC codes to NAICS codes (or vice versa), take a look at the SIC and NAICS Correspondence Tables.