Many sources of information on industries are organized by industry code numbers, rather than industry names.
Since 1997, the most common coding system used in Canada is the North American Industry Classification System or NAICS (pronounced 'NAKES'). It replaced the old Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. NAICS was developed by Canada, the US and Mexico in order to provide more consistent and comparable statistics about business activity across North America.
NAICS 2017
NAICS 2017 groups economic activity into 20 sectors and 923 Canadian industries using 2- to 6-digit codes. The longer the number, the more specific the industry level.
Look up NAICS 2017 codes:
EXAMPLE of the breakdown of an industry using the NAICS 2017 system:
|
# NAICS digits |
Level | Example |
| 2 | Industry Sector (20 broad sectors) | 11 = Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting |
| 3 | Industry Sub sector (102) | 111 = Crop Production |
| 4 | Industry Group (322) | 1114 = Greenhouse, Nursery and Floriculture Production |
| 5 | Industry - standard for all 3 countries (708) | 11141 = Food Crops Grown Under Cover |
| 6 | Industry - specific to Canada, US, or Mexico (923 in Canada) | 111411 = Mushroom Production (US) |
See Statistics Canada's list of other Industry Classifications
Some sources still use the old SIC system