How was Rev. 2.1 reviewed and validated?

NACE Rev. The Eurostat manual states that in 2018 (FIXED) the committee decided to launch a review of NACE Rev. 2, with the aim of integrating changes that had occurred since the previous revision, such as digitalisation, globalisation and more attention paid to well being and sustainability. A first stage was completed when the committee validated the structure of NACE Revision 2 Update 1 in May 2022 (FIXED). The legal instrument followed, and Eurostat then published the guidance documents for implementation.

What were the steps in the review?

The manual sets out the steps in sequence. The review was conducted by a task force composed of representatives designated by national statistical institutes of the European Statistical System and chaired by Eurostat, which reported to the Standards Working Group that validated its work. The European Statistical System Committee decided to launch the review and validated the structure at the end of the first stage. The foreword to the manual adds that the review process was led by Eurostat, during which the national statistical institutes of the European Statistical System, the European Commission services, the European Central Bank and more than 270 European trade associations were consulted.

The steps therefore move from consultation, through technical work in the task force, to validation in the Standards Working Group, and then to validation of the structure by the committee. Each step has a different function. Consultation gathers the views of users and producers of statistics. The task force does the detailed work of proposing categories. The Standards Working Group validates that work. The committee validates the structure as the agreed European structure. A reader who wants the authority for a category must therefore look to the validated structure and the legal instrument that specifies it, not to a consultation response or a draft proposal.

Step	Body and date in the manual
Review launched	European Statistical System Committee, 2018 (FIXED)
Technical work	Task force of national institute representatives, chaired by Eurostat
Validation of the work	Standards Working Group
Structure validated	European Statistical System Committee, May 2022 (FIXED)
Instrument adopted	European Commission, October 2022 (FIXED)

What did the review aim to integrate?

The manual states the aim in one sentence: to integrate in the classification changes that occurred in economic activities in the years since the previous revision, such as digitalisation, globalisation and more attention paid to well being and sustainability. The foreword gives three examples of the result: new categories for intermediation service activities, the rearrangement of information and communication activities into two sections, and additional categories in financial service activities so that holding companies, financing conduits, trusts and funds can be better identified. Those examples illustrate the kinds of change the review produced. They do not list every change, and this guide does not present them as a complete list. The complete record of major changes is in section 4 of the introductory guidelines in the manual.

The review also aimed to keep what did not need to change. Eurostat states that efforts were made to maintain the structure in all areas that did not explicitly require change based on new concepts, and the manual states that the overall characteristics of NACE have not been changed through Update 1. The balance between new detail and stability is a stated aim of the review, not an accident of the drafting. It explains why much of the classification is unchanged, even though the version number has moved.

What happened after validation?

After validation, the legal instrument was adopted and the guidance documents were published. The manual states that Regulation (EU) 2023/137, which established NACE Rev. 2.1 by amending the NACE Regulation, was published in January 2023 (FIXED), and that Eurostat published introductory guidelines and explanatory notes, as well as correspondence tables between NACE Rev. 2 and NACE Rev. 2.1, to facilitate implementation. The manual itself, in its 2025 edition (FIXED), gathers the introductory guidelines, the detailed structure, the general note and annotations of the explanatory notes, and the legal basis. The manuscript was completed in April 2025 (FIXED), according to the title page of the manual.

The Central Statistics Office in Ireland states that during 2025 (FIXED) Eurostat finalised its NACE guidance documentation and the Central Statistics Office Business Register completed work on updating the coding of enterprises to NACE Rev. 2.1. That is a national implementation step after the European validation and publication steps. It shows the sequence from European agreement, through legal specification and guidance, to national recoding. Each step has its own date, and the dates must not be collapsed into one.

What does the review history not decide?

The review history does not decide the code for any business, and it does not decide the entry held in a register. Validation of a structure means that the structure is the agreed European structure. Application of that structure to a unit is a separate step, carried out by the institute or register that holds the record, using the explanatory notes, the classification rules in the introductory guidelines, and the information held about the unit. A reader who cites the review history as if it settled an entry would be misreading the history. The history settles the framework. The entry is settled elsewhere.

Read the manual for the review steps and the validation date, read the overview page for the roll out that followed, and confirm any entry with the institute or register that holds it.