SSIC Codes Explained, and How to Pick One
SSIC, the Singapore Standard Industrial Classification, is the system ACRA uses to record what a registered company does. Every company on this site shows a primary SSIC code, and most also show a secondary one.
Who maintains it
ACRA describes SSIC as Singapore's system for classifying business activities. The Department of Statistics (SingStat) publishes it and updates it every five years; the current edition is SSIC 2025. ACRA requires every ACRA-registered entity to use 5-digit SSIC codes for its primary business activity and, where it has one, its secondary business activity. This site uses SSIC 2025 to label every SSIC section and code page.
How the classification is structured
SSIC 2025 has five levels. The counts below are from SingStat's classification structure file:
- Section: a single letter, A to V, 22 in total. "G" is Wholesale and Retail Trade; "K" is Telecommunications, Computer Programming, Consultancy, Computing Infrastructure, and Other Information Service Activities.
- Division: a 2-digit code, 82 in total.
- Group: a 3-digit code, 212 in total.
- Class: a 4-digit code, 390 in total.
- Sub-class: the 5-digit code, 988 in total. This is the level ACRA records against a company, the code shown on every company page here, and the level each SSIC code page on this site groups companies by.
A code's digits nest: a 5-digit sub-class belongs to one 4-digit class, which belongs to one 3-digit group, and so on up to its section. An SSIC code page here links up to its section page, and a section page lists the companies registered under any code within it.
How a company picks a code
A company selects the sub-class that best describes its main business as its primary code and, if it has a second activity, one more as its secondary code. On ACRA's Bizfile service the company searches the classification by keyword. Most of the companies in this site's publication wave have a secondary code. Codes whose title ends in "n.e.c." are the "not elsewhere classified" sub-classes for activities that have no more specific code.
The code is what the company declared to ACRA, and ACRA's dataset gives no information on whether or when it was last reviewed. Read it as the company's registered business line. A company that changed what it does without updating its registration can still carry an older code.
Where to find a code
A company's primary and secondary SSIC codes are on its page here, next to its own description of what it does under the code. To browse from an activity to the companies registered under it, start from the SSIC sections listed on the home page.