North American Industry Classification System Definition

North American Industry Classification System

[statistics, standards] Also known by the acronym NAICS. A system for classifying individual businesses by their types of economic activity. Developed collaboratively by Statistics Canada, Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía y Informatica (INEGI), and the U.S. Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC) to standardize the business statistical data produced by the three countries. NAICS is used by federal and local government agencies, trade associations, private businesses, and other organizations in North America to identify industry-related statistical data. NAICS replaced the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system in 1997.