The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) is a system for classifying industries by a four-digit code. Established in the United States in 1937, it is used by government agencies to classify industry areas. The SIC system is also used by agencies in other countries, e.g., by the United Kingdom’s Companies House. It was developed by the Interdepartmental Committee on Industrial Statistics, established by the Central Statistical Board of the United States who developed the List of Industries for manufacturing, published in 1938, and the 1939 List of Industries for non-manufacturing industries, which became the first Standard Industrial Classification for the United States
In the United States, the SIC code has been replaced by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS code), which was released in 1997. Some U.S. government departments and agencies, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), continued to use SIC codes through at least 2019. The SIC code for an establishment, that is, a workplace with a U.S. address, was determined by the industry appropriate for the overall largest product lines of the company or organization of which the establishment was a part. The later NAICS classification system has a different concept, assigning establishments into categories based on each one’s output.
In the UK, Companies House uses a condensed version of the full list of codes available from the Office of National Statistics >>> The current Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) used in classifying business establishments and other statistical units by the type of economic activity in which they are engaged.
Additional resources
History of the Standard Industrial Classification Scheme [PDF]
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) System
SIC Manual
Data sources:
1.wikipedia
2.companieshouse.gov.uk/sic/
3.https://guides.loc.gov/industry-research/classification-sic