This web site lets you look at the new industry classifications in two ways:
Table 1: 1997 NAICS (US) matched to 1987 SIC
Table 2: 1987 SIC matched to 1997 NAICS (US)
These tables are new as of May 1998, and supersede those distributed with Federal Register Notices in 1997 and earlier. These tables also include comparability codes not reflected in the 1997 NAICS Manual.
This page is designed to help you interpret what you find in the tables, and to explain the additional dimension the Bridge Between NAICS and SIC will add in 2000. For help with getting around in the tables as presented on this web site, see How to Navigate NAICS Correspondence Tables and Index.
Table 1: NAICS to SIC
Table 1 shows the full NAICS hierarchy, and the 1987 SICs or parts of SICs that comprise each NAICS industry.
511 Publishing Industries
| 1997 NAICS Code |
1997 NAICS United States and U.S. Description | Codes | 1987 SIC Code |
1987 U.S. SIC Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 511 | Publishing Industries | ||||
| 5111 | Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Database Publishers | ||||
| 51111 | Newspaper Publishers | E | 2711 | Newspapers: Publishing, or Publishing and Printing | |
| 51112 | Periodical Publishers | R | 2721 | Periodicals: Publishing, or Publishing and Printing | |
| *2741 | Miscellaneous Publishing (shopping news) | ||||
| 51113 | Book Publishers | R | *2731 | Books: Publishing, or Publishing and Printing (except music books) | |
| *2741 | Miscellaneous Publishing (technical manuals and books) | ||||
| 51114 | Database and Directory Publishers | N | *2741 | Miscellaneous Publishing (database publishers) | |
| *7331 | Direct Mail Advertising Services (mailing list compilers) | ||||
| 51119 | Other Publishers | ||||
| 511191 | Greeting Card Publishers | u | R | *2771 | Greeting Cards (publishing greeting cards) |
| 511199 | All Other Publishers | u | R | *2741 | Miscellaneous Publishing (except database, sheet music, shopping news, and technical manuals and book publishing) |
| 5112 | Software Publishers | ||||
| 51121 | Software Publishers | R | *7372 | Prepackaged Software (software publishing) |
There are two codes shown for each line, a country code and an SIC comparability code.
Country (codes u and c). In most cases, U.S., Canadian, and Mexican industries are comparable
at the 5-digit level. There are, however, numerous exceptions, due to differences in the
economies of the three countries and time constraints in developing NAICS. For example,
construction, wholesale trade, retail trade, and public administration are comparable among the
three countries only at the 2-digit level. On the other hand, selected 6-digit categories are
comparable between Canada and the U.S.
| Comparable among Mexico, Canada and the U.S. (blank) | |
| c | Comparable between Canada and the U.S. |
| u | United States only |
Comparability with SIC. Each NAICS industry is identified as
| E | Existing industry without significant change from its SIC counterpart |
| R | Revised industry |
| N | New industry |
| L | Not applicable in the U.S. |
These comparability codes are not included in the NAICS Manual.
An asterisk (*) preceding an SIC code indicates that only part of the SIC is contributing to the NAICS category on that line, a part defined in parentheses in the 1987 SIC description.
Table 2: SIC to NAICS
Table 2 lists all 4-digit SICs along with their counterpart NAICS categories.
| 1987 SIC Code |
1987 U.S. SIC Description | 1997 NAICS Code |
1997 NAICS United States and U.S. Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2761 | Manifold Business Forms | 323116 | Manifold Business Forms Printing (pt) |
| 2771@ | Greeting Cards | ||
| . Lithographic Printing of Greeting Cards | 323110 | Commercial Lithographic Printing (pt) | |
| . Gravure Printing of Greeting Cards | 323111 | Commercial Gravure Printing (pt) | |
| . Flexographic Printing of Greeting Cards | 323112 | Commercial Flexographic Printing (pt) | |
| . Screen Printing of Greeting Cards | 323113 | Commercial Screen Printing (pt) | |
| . Other Printing of Greeting Cards | 323119 | Other Commercial Printing (pt) | |
| . Publishing Greeting Cards | 511191 | Greeting Card Publishers |
The abbreviation "pt." means "part of", and indicates that this component is mixed with pieces from other SICs to form the corresponding NAICS industry.
A @ symbol in the SIC code column indicates that this category cannot reasonably be approximated from NAICS-based data, i.e., there will be a break in the time series that is estimated to be greater than 3 percent of the 1992 value of output (e.g., sales, shipments) for the 1987 industry. Of course, that assessment had to be made in most cases without data, so the more definitive judgment on comparability will be rendered by the Economic Census Bridge Tables discussed below. The @ identification does not appear in the NAICS Manual.
Bridge Tables from the 1997 Economic Census
What is missing in the correspondence tables shown here are data that let you assess the
significance of each component and each change. For that you will need to wait until the
publication of the Bridge Between NAICS and SIC to be
published in 2000 as part of the 1997 Economic Census.
Bridge tables will present 1997 data cross tabulated by both old and new classification systems at
the same time, identifying the lowest common denominators between the two systems.
Conceptually, the bridge tables will reflect the same combinations shown in tables 1 and 2 above,
but with each line extended to show the number of establishments, sales or receipts, payroll and
employment associated with that NAICS and SIC combination. From that, users will be able to
calculate percentages for allocation strategies or other work to assemble time series before and
after 1997.
Economic census reports for 1987 included bridge tables for manufacturing, mining, and
construction to explore the SIC revisions put into effect for 1987.
Examples are shown in another article.
Pick Your Format
The full detail of both tables is accessible here in several formats, including formats easily navigated on the internet, database files, page images in portable document format (PDF), and a word processor format.
| Tables 1 and 2 together in an HTML frame. This format lets you easily explore the interrelationships between SIC and NAICS, because SIC codes in table 1 are linked to corresponding places in table 2, and NAICS codes in table 2 are linked to appropriate places in table 1. | Tables 1 and 2 together | |
| HTML, no frames, small files, for users whose browsers cannot access frames, or whose needs are met by only one of the tables. | Table 1 | Table 2 |
| HTML, no frames, one large file each. | Table 1 | Table 2 |
| ASCII, rectangular | Table 1 | Table 2 |
| ASCII, comma delimited | Table 1 | Table 2 |
| dBASE III+ (self-extracting) | Tables 1 and 2 | |
| PDF* | Table 1 | Table 2 |
| WordPerfect 5.1* (self-extracting) | Tables 1 and 2 | |
* Both PDF and Word Perfect files highlight changes between the April 9, 1997 Federal Register Notice and the NAICS Manual released in 1998.
dBASE and WordPerfect files are compressed in self-extracting files to minimize download time. Just copy them to your local drive, then run them as programs to uncompress their contents.
