COICOP

The Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) is the international reference classification of household expenditure. The objective of (COICOP) is to provide framework for grouping household consumption expenditures on goods and services within homogeneous categories, which are based on the particular purpose that those goods and services are considered to fulfil.

COICOP is part of a set of the following four classifications of expenditure according to purpose, as part of the System of National Accounts (SNA), to analyze consumption by different institutional sectors according to the purpose for which the expenditure is undertaken:

• • COICOP: Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose
• • COPNI: Classification of the Purposes of Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households
• • COFOG: Classification of the Functions of Government
• • COPP: Classification of the Outlays of Producers According to Purpose

While COICOP is an integral part of the System of National Accounts (SNA), it is also used in several other statistical areas, such as household budget surveys and analyses of living standards; consumer price indices; and international comparisons of gross domestic product (GDP) and its component expenditures through purchasing power parities (PPPs), as well as in statistical activities related to culture, sports, food, health and tourism.

During its meeting in 2015, the UN Expert Group on International Statistical Classifications (since renamed as the Committee of Experts on International Statistical Classifications) recommended a full revision of COICOP 1999.

In March 2018, at its forty-ninth session, the Statistical Commission endorsed the revised Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP 2018) and recommended that countries use the classification as a statistical standard standard (UNSC Report on the 49th session, 2018, decision 49/114b). The revised COICOP was published at the UNSD website as a white-cover version. This document subsequently underwent an official editing process, resulting in the present publication.

The COICOP 2018 publication has undergone a final review and is being prepared for publication. The final version will be provided when available.

The complete structure and pre-copy editing version of the manual, as well as the COICOP 2018-COICOP 1999 correspondence table and related cover note, are available below, and at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/classifications/Econ

• • COICOP 2018 manual - pre-copy-edited version
• • COICOP 2018 final structure
• • COICOP 2018 - COICOP 1999 correspondence table
• • Cover note for correspondence table

The 1999 version of these four classifications of expenditure according to purpose, published jointly, is available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publication/SeriesM/SeriesM_84E.pdf.