Surveys and Methodology

CSO Standard Classification of Industrial Activity

The CSO Standard Classification of Industrial Activity (Text 41K) is NACE Rev.1.1.

NACE Rev.1.1 is a statistical classification of economic activities. NACE is an acronym for 'Nomenclature générale des activités économiques dans les communautés européennes' (General Industrial Classification of Economic Activities within the European Communities).

This classification is a minor revision of NACE Rev.1, which in turn followed the original NACE 70 classification. NACE Rev.1.1 is an update only and contains no structural changes. It affects a small number of classes, and was created to reflect new and changing economic activities since the publication of NACE Rev.1 in 1990. A new version of the EU industrial activity classification, NACE, is under development and this new version (NACE Rev. 2) will incorporate major changes from the current classification. NACE Rev.1.1 is designed to allow comparisons of economic activities at national, European and global levels. The following is a list of the classifications with official links to NACE Rev.1.1:

• ISIC Rev.3.1 (International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, Third Revision)
• CPA (Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the European Economic Community)
• CPC (Central Product Classification)
• CN (Combined Nomenclature)
• PRODCOM (The List of Products of the European Community)

On January 1st, 2003 NACE Rev.1.1 became an official CSO standard classification. A concordance is available in the CARS database between NACE Rev.1.1 and NACE Rev.1 at Level 4 (Class level).

The criterion used to define an economic activity is based on an input of products (goods or services), a production process and an output of products. An activity is defined in NACE Rev.1.1 as ''when resources such as equipment, labour, manufacturing techniques, information networks or products are combined, leading to the creation of specific goods or services'. NACE Rev.1.1 coding is based on the 'principal activity' of a unit, where most of the gross value is added. Units should be classified to the category that best describes their activity e.g. retail of shoes - 52.43 - Retail sale of footwear and leather goods'.

CSO have created their own synonym list for NACE Rev 1.1. If you would like to receive a copy of this, please contact Classifications and Standards Section by e-mail at classifications@cso.ie

Legal Disclaimer: The CSO NACE Rev.1.1 synonym list is not an official document and while all care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of its contents, the Central Statistics Office will not accept liability for any loss or harm resulting from its use.

Further Information
An electronic copy of the NACE Rev.1.1 classification is available on the Eurostat RAMON classification web server.