Sources and references

This site uses primary sources only. The sources fall into four groups.

First, EUR-Lex, for Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/137, and the EUR-Lex summary of both instruments. The summary states the four levels of the classification, the statistical purpose of the legislation, and the dates on which each instrument applies.

Second, Eurostat, for the NACE overview, the introductory guidelines, the explanatory notes and the correspondence tables. Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union and the publisher of the classification guidance.

Third, the national statistical institute of the country concerned, for each national variant and its timetable. A national variant is covered only from the institute of that country, or from the official register that holds the code.

Fourth, the United Nations Statistics Division, only for the relationship between NACE and the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC). ISIC is context on this site, not the subject of the classification guides.

Each guide lists its own sources at the end of the page. This page does not replace a guide’s own source list. A reader who wants to verify a claim should start from the source list on the guide that makes the claim.

No consultant page, vendor page, finder tool or blog post is used as a source on this site. Links were checked on the publication date shown on each guide. Primary sources can move or be republished, so a link that no longer resolves should be reported through the editorial contact channel when one opens, and checked directly on the EUR-Lex or Eurostat site in the meantime.