Classification of Economic Activities, Edition 2003 - (WZ 2003)

The purpose of the WZ 2003 is to cover in a uniform way the economic activities of enterprises, local units and other statistical units in all official statistics. It is based on the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev.1.1), which has been introduced in a binding manner through various EC Regulations. The classification was developed with the cooperation of numerous economic associations, authorities competent in the subject matters and other institutions. As a result, a hierarchically structured classification of economic activities has been developed, consisting of 17 sections, 31 subsections, 60 divisions, 222 groups, 513 classes and 1,041 subclasses, and allowing statistical allocation of all economic activities. A version including explanations and an alphabetic index with over 33,000 keywords are available for download to help in applying the WZ 2003.

The complete breakdown of the WZ 2003 is available here for free download (.pdf, 162 KB) for your internal use.

To read the file, you need the Acrobat Reader program, which may also be downloaded free of charge at Adobe.

Further information and publications may be obtained from the Federal Statistical Office.