How many digits is a NAICS code?

Up to six. Two, three, four and five digit forms are levels of the same hierarchy rather than different codes, so a four-digit NAICS code is a valid industry group and not a truncated six-digit one.

Can a company have more than one NAICS code?

A company reports one primary code, but individual establishments inside it can be classified separately, and commercial datasets often hold secondary codes for additional activities. A large company operating across several industries is genuinely several classifications.

Is NAICS the same as the SIC code on my records?

No. SIC is the older four-digit United States system that NAICS replaced in 1997, and the two are not interchangeable. Crosswalks exist but do not map one to one, so a segment translated between them is an approximation rather than the same set.

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What Is a NAICS Code?

TL;DR

A NAICS code, from the North American Industry Classification System, is a code of up to six digits identifying what a business does. The United States, Canada and Mexico maintain it jointly, it replaced SIC for United States federal statistics in 1997, and it is revised every five years.

What do the six digits of a NAICS code mean?

Each digit narrows the classification. The first two give the economic sector, the third the subsector, the fourth the industry group, and the fifth the NAICS industry. The sixth digit is national detail, so it is the level at which the three countries are free to subdivide differently.

The five-digit level is therefore the finest one that is comparable across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Two examples from our own lead lists show the range: 6212 is Offices of Dentists at the four-digit industry group, and 238220 is Plumbing, Heating and Air-Conditioning Contractors at the full six digits.

Who maintains NAICS and how often does it change?

It is a joint standard. In the United States the Office of Management and Budget sets it and the Census Bureau publishes the manual and reference files; Statistics Canada and INEGI in Mexico are the other two partners. That tripartite arrangement is why the fifth digit is fixed across all three countries and the sixth is not.

Revisions come on a five-year cycle. The current edition is NAICS 2022 and the next is expected in 2027, which matters for list building because a code that existed in a previous edition may have been split, merged or renumbered, and older records still carry the old code.

How specific should a NAICS filter be?

Four digits is the usual working level. A two-digit sector filter returns a segment too broad to write one message to, and a six-digit filter is often narrower than the data supports, because each company is assigned one primary code while many operate across several national industries.

The practical approach is to filter at four digits, read the sample rows, and only drop to five or six when the sample shows the group is genuinely mixed. Widening back out later is cheaper than discovering that a six-digit filter excluded most of the companies you wanted.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Up to six. Two, three, four and five digit forms are levels of the same hierarchy rather than different codes, so a four-digit NAICS code is a valid industry group and not a truncated six-digit one.