NACE codes for Irish manufacturing: using CSO data to size and build account lists

NACE is the statistical classification of economic activities used across the European Union. It runs from sections (letters) to divisions (two digits), groups (three digits) and classes (four digits). Manufacturing is Section C; energy supply is Section D; water, sewerage and waste is Section E. Together with mining (B), these make up what the CSO calls Industry (B to E).

A newer version, NACE Rev. 2.1, is used for European statistics from 2025 onwards. Figures for 2008 to 2024 use NACE Rev. 2.[8] Every count on this page is a Rev. 2 figure. If you are merging lists coded under both versions, read our guide to NACE Rev. 2.1 changes for manufacturing lists before you filter.

The CSO's Business in Ireland 2024 release, published on 6 October 2026, counted 410,205 active enterprises in the business economy in 2024, up 2.2% from 401,359 in 2023. Industry (B to E) was 5.4% of active enterprises and 12.6% of persons employed.[1] In the 2023 edition, published on 15 December 2025, Industry was 5.5% of active enterprises and 12.8% of persons employed.[2]

The detailed table behind those releases is BRA31, Business Demography NACE Rev 2, on the CSO's PxStat database. It gives active enterprises, births, persons engaged and employees by NACE activity and size class for 2019 to 2024. In it, manufacturing (C) had 19,416 active enterprises in 2023 and 19,617 in 2024.[3] For the manufacturing size-band breakdown and what it means for a brief, see our Irish manufacturing account research guide.

Three definitions matter when you use these counts:

• The unit is the enterprise, not the site. An enterprise counts as active in a year if it has turnover, employs staff or makes investments in that year.[4]
• County figures follow the registered address. The CSO's county breakdown uses the address at which an enterprise is registered for Revenue purposes, not where it operates. A company with plants in several counties and one head office is counted where the head office is.[4]
• Coverage is the business economy. The series covers NACE sectors B to S, excluding public administration (O) and membership organisations (S94), and excludes non-market producers.[4] It is drawn from the CSO's central register of businesses in Ireland.[6]

BRA11 or BRA31? Searches for "CSO BRA11" are common. BRA11 is a Business Demography NACE Rev 2 table on data.gov.ie that comes from the CSO's PxStat service.[5] When we checked it on 27 October 2026, it held 2015 to 2020 only. Use BRA31 for current figures.

The table gives one line on why each division is worth a look, the Eurostat count for Ireland for 2024, and the CSO count for the same year. "Confidential" means Eurostat has withheld the figure. The CSO publishes some divisions only as part of a group, which the last column shows.

Sources: Eurostat structural business statistics, enterprises by detailed NACE Rev. 2 activity (sbs_ovw_act), reference year 2024, extracted 27 October 2026;[7] CSO BRA31, statistic Active Enterprises, all size classes, reference year 2024, read 27 October 2026.[3] The Eurostat figures for every EU country are in our EU manufacturing enterprises by country dataset, which you can download as a CSV (2024 data).

For 2024 the two sources give the same figure wherever both publish one: 19,617 for manufacturing, 494 for chemicals (C20), 725 for machinery (C28), 1,405 for non-metallic minerals (C23) and 1,008 for energy supply (D35).[3][7] The differences are in what each one publishes.

• Eurostat withholds some Irish divisions. For 2024 it marks pharmaceuticals (C21) and coke and refined petroleum (C19) as confidential. The CSO publishes both: 256 and 18 enterprises.[3][7]
• The CSO groups some divisions. It shows food, beverages and tobacco (C10 to C12) as one line, and basic metals with fabricated metal products (C24 and C25). Eurostat shows them separately, and the published parts add up to the CSO line: 2,134, 274 and 26 make 2,434, and 487 plus 3,446 make 3,933.[3][7]
• The confidential cells move from year to year. For 2023 Eurostat published C21 (247) but withheld C11, C23 and C24.[7] Check the year before you rely on a cell being available.

Used together, the two sources give more detail than either alone. One caution: do not fill a cell that one publisher has withheld by subtracting across sources, for example the CSO's C17 and C18 line minus Eurostat's C17. You would be estimating a number the publisher chose to withhold. The employment measures are also named differently: the CSO reports "persons engaged", Eurostat "persons employed".

Official statistics give counts, never names. For names, the Companies Registration Office (CRO) publishes its company records as open data under a CC BY 4.0 licence, refreshed daily. The file includes each company's status, registered office address, Eircode where given, and a NACE Rev. 2 code.[9] Companies declare the code themselves, and the CRO does not check it against what the company actually does.

When we downloaded the file on 27 October 2026, it held 324,434 companies with "Normal" status. The code is far from complete:

Our count from the CRO file, 27 October 2026.[9]

Of the companies that do carry a code, 5,693 had one in Section C. The largest divisions were other manufacturing (C32, 978), food (C10, 863) and repair and installation of machinery (C33, 740). Chemicals (C20) had 243 and pharmaceuticals (C21) 194. These are our counts, not CRO statistics.

What this means for a list:

• A NACE filter on CRO data misses most established companies. Almost every company registered before 2010 has no code, and that is where many long-running plants sit. Search by name, address or other evidence as well.
• A code is the company's own description. Treat it as a hint, as with any register code.
• The address is the registered office, often an accountant's or solicitor's office, not the plant.
• Companies are not enterprises. The CSO count is built from its own business register, not from CRO codes,[6] so the two numbers are not comparable.

If you need to choose a code from a description, the CSO's NACE Coder search returns candidate NACE Rev. 2 codes for a keyword.[10]

1. Write the activity in words first. For example: "plants that process liquid milk", not "C10". Then map the words to a division, group or class. Keep the words in the brief, because codes are broader than most product ranges.
2. Size the universe with the official count. Use BRA31 for Ireland by activity and size class. Use the Eurostat dataset when you need the same activity in other EU countries. The count is a ceiling on enterprises, not a prospect list.
3. Record the unit. Official counts are enterprises. Your list probably needs sites. One enterprise can run several plants, and some enterprises in a manufacturing code have no plant in Ireland at all.
4. Treat a code on a company record as a hint. A code on a register or database record may be self-declared, missing or out of date. In the CRO file, over a third of Normal-status companies have no code at all.[9] Confirm the activity at the site from the company's own material, permits, approvals or other public evidence.
5. Record the classification version for every source: Rev. 2 or Rev. 2.1.
6. Compare your result with the universe. If your list for a division is larger than the official count, look for duplicates or out-of-scope records. If it is far smaller, check whether your filters are too narrow.

Once the codes are chosen, use NACE codes in your ICP as one field among several, alongside site type, territory and evidence rules. For UK lists, the equivalent codes are in our UK SIC codes for manufacturing reference.

Checklist before you filter by code

• ☐ The activity is written in words, and the codes are mapped from it
• ☐ The NACE version is recorded for each source
• ☐ The official enterprise count for the chosen codes is noted, with year and table
• ☐ The brief says whether the list counts companies or sites
• ☐ The brief says how to treat a code that the evidence contradicts
• ☐ Confidential or grouped cells are left as published, not estimated

This example is fictional. The supplier and its brief are invented; the counts are real CSO figures.

A fictional valve supplier wants Irish food, drink, chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers with at least 50 persons engaged. In CSO BRA31 for 2024, C10 to C12 had 171 enterprises with 50 to 249 persons engaged and 55 with 250 or more. C20 had 28 and 11. C21 had 26 and 33.[3] Adding those published cells gives 324 enterprises. That sum is our arithmetic, not a CSO figure.

The supplier uses 324 as a ceiling for enterprises, not sites. It then builds the site list from evidence: a plant address and an activity description for each site. It adds CRO companies coded C10, C11, C20 or C21, then searches by name and evidence for older companies that carry no code. Head offices with no plant come out. An enterprise with three plants becomes three site records under one parent. Where the evidence contradicts a record's code, the record stays on hold until someone resolves it. Sector guides help at this stage: see our guides to Irish food and beverage company research and Irish pharmaceutical manufacturing account research.

What NACE code is manufacturing?

Section C, which covers divisions 10 to 33 of NACE Rev. 2. Each division splits into groups and classes, so you can narrow the code to the activity your range serves.

How many manufacturing enterprises are there in Ireland?

The CSO counted 19,617 active manufacturing enterprises in 2024 and 19,416 in 2023.[3] These are enterprises, not sites, and they include very small firms.

What is the difference between CSO tables BRA11 and BRA31?

Both are Business Demography tables by NACE Rev. 2. When we checked on 27 October 2026, BRA11 covered 2015 to 2020, while BRA31 covers 2019 to 2024.[3][5] Use BRA31 for current figures.

Why does Eurostat show some Irish divisions as confidential?

Eurostat marks cells "C" when it withholds a figure as confidential.[7] Leave those cells blank in your own analysis; do not estimate them by subtraction.

Can I find individual companies by NACE code?

Not from the CSO, whose tables give counts only. The CRO's open company records include a self-declared NACE code, so you can filter companies by code there. Most companies registered before 2010 have no code, though, so a code filter alone will miss many established manufacturers.[9]

Do Irish statistics use NACE Rev. 2.1 yet?

European statistics move to NACE Rev. 2.1 from 2025 onwards. Figures for 2024 and earlier use NACE Rev. 2, including all the counts on this page.[8]

1. CSO: Business in Ireland 2024 – Insights on the Lifecycle of Businesses, Key Findings
2. CSO: Business in Ireland 2023 – Insights on the Lifecycle of Businesses, Key Findings
3. CSO PxStat: BRA31 Business Demography NACE Rev 2
4. CSO: Business in Ireland 2024, Background Notes
5. data.gov.ie: BRA11 Business Demography NACE Rev 2
6. CSO: Business Demography methods
7. Eurostat: Enterprises by detailed NACE Rev. 2 activity and special aggregates (sbs_ovw_act)
8. Eurostat: Statistical classification of economic activities (NACE)
9. Companies Registration Office Open Data Portal: Company Records
10. Central Statistics Office (gov.ie): Search NACE Coder

CSO figures were read from table BRA31 on 27 October 2026. Eurostat figures were extracted on 27 October 2026 from data last updated on 30 September 2026. CRO counts are our own, from the Company Records CSV file (companies.csv.zip, last updated by the CRO on 27 October 2026), downloaded on 27 October 2026.