Skip to content
English
Back to the main page
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

How do different industry classification standards relate to each other?

An overview of the main industry classification standards and how they are connected.

Main Standards: 

North Data supports the following standards: 

  • WZ 2025: Germany
  •  NAICS: North America
  •  ISIC: The international standard from the United Nations. 
  • NACE: European Union
  • UK SIC: United Kingdom (from 2007, also based on NACE Rev. 2.1. NOT to be confused with the older North American SIC.)

Individual Standards: 

North America

  • SIC: Older classification system
  • NAICS: Newer System, largely replaces the SIC

International

  •  ISIC: The international standard from the United Nations. The current version is Revision 4 (from 2008). It forms the basis for many national and regional classifications, including the European NACE and the German WZ classification. 

Europe

How the standards relate to each other: 

The standards are not independent - many are based on each other: 

  • ISIC (UN standard) forms the global base. 
  • NACE (EU) is based on ISIC 
  • WZ (Germany) is based on NACE
  • ÖNACE (Austria) and NOGA (Switzerland) are both also based on NACE (EU)
  • UK SIC is based on NACE (it is not the same as the North American SIC)

At first glance, the variety of standards may seem confusing – but in fact, they are largely compatible. The classifications NACE, WZ, and UK SIC are based on a common system.  
 
The Industry Segment filter of the Power Search, you can select different classification standards. North Data automatically converts (i.e. translates) data from one standard to another.