Category

Understanding Industry Classifications

Overview

Places are categorized using a proprietary extension of Standard Industry Classification (SIC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Use categories to determine a place's lines of business.

SICs

Infogroup models categories using two attributes:

sic_code_ids - The list of all categories assigned to a place.
primary_sic_code_id - The category that represents the place's primary line of business.

Infogroup SICs vs. US Government SICs

The US Government created the SIC Coding system that categorizes businesses by general business activity using 4-digit codes. Our coding system goes even further to better define a company's line of business. A 2-digit extension is added to the government 4-digit SIC code to better match Yellow Page headings and provide additional granularity.

For example, the government 4-digit SIC of 5511 (Motor Vehicle Dealers (New and Used)) is broken down into the following 6-digit Infogroup sic_code_ids:

551102 (Automobile Dealers-New Cars)
551103 (Automobile Dealers-Used Cars)
551104 (Four Wheel Drive Vehicles)
551105 (Truck Dealers)

Primary SIC

Every place is assigned a primary_sic_code_id based on the primary activity of the business. If a place has only one SIC, it becomes the primary_sic_code_id by default. When businesses have more than one SIC, the primary_sic_code_id is verified during compilation. An internal model assigns a primary_sic_code_id when one cannot be assigned through research.

NAICS

SICs are mapped to two attributes to accommodate users of NAICS:

naics_code_ids - The list of all NAICS mapped from sic_code_ids.
primary_naics_code_id - The NAICS mapped from primary_sic_code_id.

NAICS vs. SIC

Beginning in January of 1997, the statistical agencies of the United States replaced the SIC system with NAICS. While the SIC system classifies businesses based on the products or services they produced, NAICS classifies businesses based on the processes used to create the products or services. NAICS was created in cooperation with the governments of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. NAICS allows statistical agencies from each respective country to compare productivity, costs, employment and other data across borders.

NAICS is a 6-digit system in which the first five digits are common among the three participating countries. The sixth digit allows each country to recognize activities that are important within their border, but not necessarily important to the other two. In order to align with our 6-digit sic_code_ids, Infogroup adds additional digits to the NAICS.

For example, the government 6-digit NAICS of 722511 (Full Service Restaurants) is broken down into the following 8-digit Infogroup NAICS:

72251101 (Chow Mein & Chop Suey)
72251102 (Box Lunches)
72251103 (Chicken Dinners)
72251104 (Chili Parlors)
...
72251118 (Barbecue Restaurant)

Tags

Tags provide additional detail about a place per-category. If a place has multiple SICs, it will have multiple tags: one for each SIC.