NAICS Codes

Learn about The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)

What's a NAICS Code?

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is a standard taxonomy of codes that allows classification of an organization’s industry. Federal statistical agencies use the NAICS classification system to collect, analyze, and publish statistical data related to the American economy. The NAICS code system uses a six-digit hierarchical coding system to classify all economic activity into twenty industry sectors with more granular descriptions within each six digit industry.

Level	Code	Description
Main Sector	61	Educational Services
→ Industry Group	6114	Business Schools and Computer and Management Training
→ → U.S. Industry	611420	Computer Training
→ → → Index Entries (For the U.S. Industry)		Computer operator training Computer programming schools Computer software training Computer training (except repair) Local area network (LAN) management training Software application training

NAICS in Insurance

Insurance providers often times utilize the NAICS code system to understand a business’s primary services and/or offerings. Insurance providers utilize the industry information to calculate the risk and premium of a business.

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NAICS at Herald

NAICS codes are grouped into sectors and sub-sectors with their most granular classification defined as “Index Entry” descriptions. Herald assigns each of these Index Entries a six digit alphanumeric identifier known as the “Herald Code”. The Herald Code is the value you’ll submit to classify an applicant when submitting applications with Herald.

All NAICS codes and Herald Codes are stored in a sheet, accessible in the Appendix. The full list contains thousands of classifications, you can see a snapshot below. You can also get these classifications using our [.h-endpoint-link]/classifications[.h-endpoint-link] endpoint, which supports multiple query parameters to easily classify an applicant. Learn more in our guide to getting classifications.

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Do NAICS codes change?

NAICS codes are reviewed and changed (if needed) every five years to stay aligned with current economic activities. For the latest review in 2022, NAICS updated seven industries related to Mining, Internet E-commerce, and Internet Publishing. Herald is closely monitoring the impact of the updates to insurance carriers’ underwriting and api taxonomy. Please see below an example of industry classification changes over time.