Overview

The ‘statistical classification of economic activities’ in the European Community, abbreviated as NACE, is the classification of economic activities in the European Union (EU). The term NACE is derived from the French title: Nomenclature statistique des activités économiques dans la Communauté européenne. Various NACE versions have been developed since 1970.

The newest version is NACE revision 2 update 1 (NACE rev. 2.1), which is to be used for European statistics from 2025 onwards. This was adopted by the European Commission in October 2022.

For European statistics referring to the period 2008-2024, the members of the European Statistical System (ESS) are using the NACE revision 2 (NACE rev. 2).

Difference between rev. 2 and 2.1

NACE rev. 2.1 introduces new concepts at all levels of the classification, and restructures a number of the existing headings. At the same time, efforts have been made to maintain the structure of the classification in all areas that do not explicitly require change based on new concepts.

Roll-out of NACE rev. 2.1 

Currently, Eurostat and its partners in the ESS are preparing the ground for the roll-out by:

• developing explanatory notes for all classes of NACE rev. 2.1. These describe exactly which activities are to be classified under each heading;
• developing a correspondence table between NACE rev. 2 and NACE rev. 2.1. This will describe, for each NACE rev. 2 heading, how activities currently classified therein should be classified in NACE rev. 2.1;
• establishing plans for backcasting. This refers to recalculating time series which were reported under NACE rev. 2, so that they can be presented by NACE rev. 2.1;
• establishing plans for double reporting. This refers to tabulating data by NACE rev. 2 and NACE rev. 2.1 in parallel.

For further details on the roll-out, please consult article 2 of the Commission delegated regulation 2023/137.