Revision of ISIC

Classifications ISIC Revision of ISIC

Global Consultation on the draft
International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) Rev. 5

16 December 2022
The complete draft structure of the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) Rev. 5 was prepared by the Task Team on ISIC (TT-ISIC) of the UN Committee of Experts on International Statistical Classifications (UNCEISC).
The broad structure of ISIC Rev. 5 at the Section level (one-digit codes), Division level (two-digit codes) and Group level (three-digit codes) was endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission in March 2022. Since then, the TT-ISIC focused on the finalization of the structure at the Class level (four-digit codes). The complete draft structure therefore contains all the levels of the classification and will be submitted to the United Nations Statistical Commission in March 2023 for adoption.
The draft structure of ISIC Rev. 5 is the result of extensive discussions within the task team in consultation with experts in different areas such as classifications, national accounts, business statistics, financial statistics, and environmental accounting from countries and international and regional organizations. Two global consultations have been conducted thus far: the first in 2019 to collect issues for the revision of ISIC and the second in early 2022 to seek feedback on the broad structure of ISIC. The draft structure of ISIC Rev. 5 represents the decisions that the TT-ISIC made either unanimously or by a majority of its members.
There were many issues and proposals for the revision of ISIC. Although not all proposals for change in the revised ISIC are reflected in the final structure of the classification, they have been carefully discussed by the TT-ISIC, which made considerable efforts to integrate the proposed changes. On many occasions more work was needed to fully assess the feasibility and conceptual consistency of certain proposed structural changes. The TT-ISIC therefore recommended to include some of these issues in the research agenda and recognized that these issues would have to be revisited in future revisions of the classification.
If you have any questions, please contact chl@un.org
A note on the complete draft structure of ISIC Rev. 5 is available Read
The draft structure of ISIC Rev. 5 is available below, and also as an Excel file Download

Complete structure of ISIC Rev. 5

Please note that highlighted in red below are the changed categories (e.g., the categories with a new or revised title or scope). For a detailed description on the changes, please refer to the Excel file.

 A - Agriculture, forestry and fishing

 B - Mining and quarrying

 C - Manufacturing

 D - Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply

 E - Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities

 F - Construction

 G - Wholesale and retail trade

 H - Transportation and storage

 I - Accommodation and food service activities

 J - Publishing, broadcasting, and content production and distribution activities

 K - Telecommunications, computer programming, consultancy, computing infrastructure, and other information service activities

 L - Financial and insurance activities

 M - Real estate activities

 N - Professional, scientific and technical activities

 O - Administrative and support service activities

 P - Public administration and defence; compulsory social security

 Q - Education

 R - Human health and social work activities

 S - Arts, sports and recreation

 T - Other service activities

 U - Activities of households as employers; undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use

 V - Activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies


UNSD classifications

International coordination

Meetings and events