the.com/naics
the government's giant sorting hat for what your business actually does.
means NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) is the six-digit code the US, Canada, and Mexico use to categorize every industry, from lobster fishing to software.
from Introduced in 1997 to replace the aging SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) codes from the 1930s, built jointly by the US, Canada, and Mexico under NAFTA to standardize economic data across borders as trade integrated.
code lengthsix digits, each level narrows the industry further
replaced sicthe 1937 system it retired
updatedrevised every five years to track new industries
used byirs, census bureau, and loan applications alike
for instance
code 541511 — custom computer programming services, the tech-startup default
code 722511 — full-service restaurants, split from limited-service under 722513
code 111998 — all other miscellaneous crop farming, the catch-all bin