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North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) system is a series of number codes that attempts to classify all business establishments by the types of products or services they make available. Establishments engaged in the same activity, whatever their size or type of ownership, are assigned the same NAICS code. These definitions are important for standardization.

In 2000, the SBA published in the Federal Register a final rule to establish small business size standards based on the NAICS. NAICS size standards replaced the previous standards based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system, which was first developed in the 1930s. If the size of a business exceeds the size standard for its overall industry group, it may still be a small business for the specific NAICS industry in that group. Some industries have higher size standards than the general one for the industry group. A Table of Size Standards by NAICS industry is on SBA's Size Standards Web Page at: http://www.sba.gov/size.

For Federal contracting, a small business must meet the size standard stated in the solicitation. The contracting officer designates the size standard of the procurement by selecting the size standard established for the NAICS industry that best describes the principle purpose of the procurement.

To search the NAICS system for your business classification code, please visit the NAICS website at: http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html.