Business Research

Industry classification systems are helpful when searching business databases. An industry can have more than one NAICS code. The longer the code, the more specific it is. For example:

722513 — Fast-food restaurants
7225 — Restaurants and other eating places
722 — Food services and drinking places
72 — Accommodation and food services

• NAICS (North American Industry Classification System)
  • A 6-digit coding system to categorize industries. Replaced the SIC system (see below).
  • Tutorial: Finding NAICS Codes 
• Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)
  • A four-digit classification system developed in the 1930's. No longer being revised, but still commonly used in many business databases.
• International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC)
  • Maintained by the U.N. Statistics Division. Used in a number of international databases.

Find market size, industry leaders, statistics, current status, future trends, histories and profiles of the industries here. If you look up the NAICS codes for your industry first, this will be a bit easier to search the library databases.