If you order a company list by industry, it helps to know the language of official statistics. In Switzerland this is NOGA, the “Nomenclature générale des activités économiques” of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). This article explains its structure, the Swiss specifics and typical pitfalls when defining a target group.

Five levels, identical to the EU up to the fourth

NOGA 2008 has five hierarchical levels: sections (letters A to U), divisions (2 digits), groups (3 digits), classes (4 digits) and types (6 digits). Up to the fourth level it corresponds to the European NACE Rev. 2. The fifth level is a Swiss addition: the last two digits of the six-digit code reflect specific features of the Swiss economy.

An example: class 26.52 “manufacture of watches and clocks” is divided into five types in Switzerland, from the manufacture and assembly of watches (26.52.01) to other watch components (26.52.05). Together they count 780 businesses according to FSO, STATENT 2024.

Swiss types that help with a selection

For company lists the types are particularly useful because they separate groups that are combined in the EU classification:

  • Banks: cantonal banks (64.19.02), regional and savings banks (64.19.04), Raiffeisen banks (64.19.05) and other bank groups.
  • Garages: maintenance and repair of cars (45.20.01, 9,238 businesses) separate from body shops (45.20.02, 2,466).
  • Building services: plumbing, plumbing with sheet metal work, plumbing and heating, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning as four types under 43.22.
  • Engineers: civil engineering offices (71.12.01), building services engineers (71.12.02) and surveying offices (71.12.04).
  • Retail: supermarkets by sales area, drugstores (47.75.01) separate from perfumeries, kiosks (47.62.01).
  • Personal care: hairdressing salons (96.02.01, 16,469 businesses) and beauty salons (96.02.02, 12,911).

The figures come from the statistics on the structure of businesses for 2024. They show how large a segment is officially, not how many records a list contains.

One business, one main activity

The FSO assigns each business in the business and enterprise register to exactly one type, namely its main activity. A plumbing and heating business that also installs solar panels is under 43.22.03 and not additionally under electrical installation. A retailer with a shop and an online store is under its product range, not under mail order retail 47.91.

In practice this means: a selection by code finds businesses with that focus, not everyone who also offers a service. If you need completeness, choose several related codes or add attributes such as a website to the selection.

Terms without their own code

Some everyday terms have no equivalent in NOGA. “Skilled trades” is not a section but spread across construction, manufacturing and services. “Treuhand” (fiduciary) largely matches 69.20 but in everyday use also includes property management (68.32). And “start-up” or “SME” describe age and size, not activity.

If you are looking for such target groups, describe the activity in your own words. From that, a list of NOGA codes can be derived, checked and adjusted where necessary.

NOGA 2025 is coming

The FSO has published NOGA 2025, which is based on the revised European NACE Rev. 2.1. Among other things, it reorganises digital activities and financial technology. The official figures in this article and on kontaktdatenbank.ch are still based on NOGA 2008. If you compare lists across several years, make sure both use the same classification.

Codes for your request

Every industry page on kontaktdatenbank.ch names the NOGA codes belonging to the industry and the official number of businesses. The page Company addresses by industry gives an overview of all 22 industries; how the commercial register relates to NOGA is explained in the article Commercial register, Zefix and UID.