Research with NAICS/SIC Codes: Home

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.

In your own research, you can use some of the library's specialized databases to find research by NAICS codes. This guide will show you how.

The NAICS is arranged in a hierarchical structure. The first two digits identify a major Economic Sector [formerly Division], the third digit designates an Economic Subsector [formerly Major Group], the fourth digit designates an Industry Group, and the fifth digit designates the NAICS Industry. For example, the NAICS number for potato chips is:

      31    Manufacturing

      311     Food Manufacturing

      3119      Other Food Manufacturing

      31191       Snack Food Manufacturing

      311919        Other Snack Food Manufacturing

The internationally agreed upon NAICS system determines only the first five digits of the code. Use of a sixth digit permits the individual countries to specify subdivisions suited to the country. Thus, 5-digit codes are standardized across the three countries, but at the 6-digit level the U.S. codes may differ from those in Canada or Mexico.