United Nations Statistics Division

1. Options for national implementation of ISIC United Nations Statistics Division

2. Purpose of ISIC • Since its creation in 1948, ISIC had two goals: • Provide a tool for international comparison • Provide guidance to countries for a national activity classification structure • Increasing need for detailed internationally comparable data has led to more detailed versions of ISIC

3. National classifications • How can national classifications be structured? • Using ISIC as a starting point • Based on historical national versions

4. Using ISIC as a basis • Countries that use ISIC as a basis for their national classification, can do this to varying degrees: • Adopt ISIC “as-is” • Use the complete ISIC and add subdivisions to reflect nationally important industries (but maintain the ISIC coding structure) – can be “numerically truncated” back to ISIC [Example] • As above, but with changes of the coding structure (example: NACE) – requires correspondence table [Example] • Elevating lower level ISIC categories to higher national levels, (e.g. combine ISIC categories at 2- or 3-digit level) [Example]

5. Using ISIC as a basis • The first three methods maintain full comparability with ISIC at all levels (although option 3 may not be very intuitive) • Option 4 limits internationally comparability to a higher aggregation level only • Is use of the same coding as ISIC 4 a requirement? - No, but it makes comparisons easier.

6. Using historical national classifications as a basis • Using non-ISIC based classifications always creates difficulties for international comparison • Correspondence tables are necessary • May limit data conversion due to splits • Efforts are encouraged to line the historical versions up to ISIC • At detailed level (without considering aggregation structures) or • By lining up individual sections

7. What detail should be considered? • Minimum level of data reporting has been agreed at 2-digit level • However, most statistics and users will require more • Due to size and confidentiality reasons, not all detail may be useful for all countries • BUT: classification for collection may be more detailed than for distribution of data

8. What level should be considered? • Using more detail for collection allows for future adjustments if individual industries are growing • Level of detail for publishing depends on type of statistics anyway • No fixed guidelines exist for the proper choice of detail

9. Options to consider or avoid • ISIC structure and definition are based on few criteria (input, process, output, use of outputs) • Should other criteria be added for national purposes, such as private vs. public entity, manufacturing by hand (crafts) vs. manufacturing by machines? • What are the applications?

10. Options to consider or avoid • When introducing additional detail, check if the specialization for this activity really warrants a separate class • When following the ISIC structure and coding system, don’t renumber codes if you want to skip a code number (e.g. due to absence of that activity) • The activity may still exist illegally (or appear in the future) and should be accounted for in the SNA • Renumbering makes the ISIC link less intuitive

11. Rules for good housekeeping • If a category at level n is not further subdivided, the code at level n+1 should be the same code with a “0” appended • Use digit “9” for residual categories

12. The situation in the EU and the ESS Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 Article 4 - National classifications of economic activities 1. Member States' statistics presented according to economic activities shall be produced using NACE Rev. 2 or a national classification derived therefrom. 2. The national classification may introduce additional headings and levels and a different coding may be used. Each of the levels, except for the highest, shall consist of either the same headings as the corresponding NACE Rev. 2 level or headings constituting an exact breakdown thereof.

13. National subdivisions of NACE in the EU Member States and the ESS • 23 UE Member States (+ Norway) have national subdivisions of NACE Rev. 2. • Exceptions are: • Bulgaria • Hungary • Romania • Ireland • Malta

14. National subdivisions of NACE in the EU Member States and the ESS (cont.) Creating a national subdivision by adding an additional coding level (1): • NACE Rev. 2 class 41.20 • National class: • 41.20.1 • 41.20.2 • 41.20.9

15. National subdivisions of NACE in the EU Member States and the ESS (cont.) Creating a national subdivision by adding an additional coding level (2): • NACE Rev. 2 class 41.20 • National class: • 41.201 • 41.202 • 41.209

16. National subdivisions of NACE in the EU Member States and the ESS (cont.) Creating a national subdivision by adding an additional coding level (3): • NACE Rev. 2 class 41.20 • National class: • 41.20.10 • 41.20.20 • 41.20.90

17. National subdivisions of NACE in the EU Member States and the ESS (cont.) Creating a national subdivision by adding an additional coding level (4): • NACE Rev. 2 class 41.20 • National class: • 41.20.A • 41.20.B • 41.20.C

18. National subdivisions of NACE in the EU Member States and the ESS (cont.) Creating a national subdivision by adding an additional coding level (5): • NACE Rev. 2 class 41.20 • National class: • 41.20A • 41.20B • 41.20C

19. National subdivisions of NACE in the EU Member States and the ESS (cont.) Creating a national subdivisions by adding additional codes to the EU NACE coding, within the four-digit structure (only Spain): • NACE Rev. 2 class 41.20 • National class: • 41.21 • 41.22 • 41.29