Skip to content

List of SIC codes and descriptions from authoritative sources

License

Notifications You must be signed in to change notification settings

rtlee9/SIC-list

Repository files navigation

SIC codes for download -- open source edition

Build Status Coverage Status Code Climate license PyPI

This repo provides lists of four-digit SIC codes scraped from the websites of two government agencies: the SEC and OSHA. The cleaned lists can be downloaded here and here, respectively, and refresh instructions can be found below.

Background

The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) is a system used to classify businesses by their primary business activity, or industry. The SIC system was created in the 1930's and has since been replaced as the industry classification system for Federal statistical agencies; however, it is still widely used by many businesses and by some government agencies.

Authoritative sources

SIC codes were once maintained and assigned by the US government. I've found that only two government agencies currently publish a list of SIC codes and descriptions:

Source Version Use case
Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) 1987 SIC manual Unknown
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) No version provided, but the SEC website indicates the webpage was last modified January 25, 2015 Used in EDGAR electronic filings

The SIC codes provided by the SEC generally align with those provided by OSHA; however, OSHA's SIC manual is more comprehensive -- it contains many more SIC codes than does the SEC's list.

Other sources

There are a number of online sources that provide SIC codes and descriptions, though I've found none that provide all of the following:

  • The source of their data
  • Their code, if relevant
  • Machine readable data

Taken together, these are important for assessing data quality and reliability. The purpose of this repository is to provide SIC codes in adherence with these standards.

Usage

The latest data can be found in the root directory. To refresh:

  1. Install Python 2.7
  2. Install python requirements: $ pip install -r requirements.txt
  3. From the command line run $ python src/main.py

License

Apache License 2.0