NAP: Nomenclature d'activités et de Produits - French Nomenclature of activities and products

The NAP was the national industrial classification system used in France from 1973 to 1992. Structured into four classification levels, from broadly defined categories at the first level to finer categories at the fourth level, the NAP was widely used in France across the government agencies and private sector organizations.

Metadata

Publisher type	National
Publisher(s)	Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques
Jurisdictions	France

Available versions

NAP 1973 (Legacy)

Background

The NAP was the national industrial classification system used in France from 1973 to 1992 with a single version (known as NAP73 or NAP 1973) operating during the period. The NAP, which succeeded the NAE (Nomenclature des Activités Économiques) of 1959, was developed by the National Commission for Nomenclatures of Activities and Products composed of representatives of all administrations and professional and union organizations.

The NAP was organized as a unified framework of nomenclatures that characterize the production system. Each component of this framework corresponds to a specific category of data and the processing involved. The first component of the NAP is the activity version, which organizes information related to production operations, while the second is the product version, designed to present data about the products themselves. The overall structure of the NAP illustrates the fundamental relationship that defines both corporate accounting and national accounting: the connection between a specific product and the various production factors employed in its creation. This link is reflected in the NAP in its classification of activity groups and product groups.

Following the release of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE) as part of efforts to enhance the comparability of European economic data, the activity version of the NAP was replaced in 1993 by the NAF (Nomenclature des Activités Françaises), while the product version was replaced by the CPF (Classification des produits française).

Versions

NAP 1973 (Legacy)

The NAP operated in France from 1973 until its replacement by the NAF in 1993.

Structure of NAP

The activity version of the NAP, which this article is focused on, is structured into four levels, as follows:

First level (NAP15): 15 categories identified by alphanumeric codes ranging from U01 to U19. This is the broadest level of classification in NAP.
Second level (NAP40): 39 categories identified by alphanumeric codes ranging from T01 to T49.
Third level (NAP100): 99 categories identified by numeric codes ranging from 01 to 99.
Fourth level (NAP600): 650 categories identified by numeric codes ranging from 01.00 to 99.01. This is the most granular level of classification in NAP.

The table below shows the number of subcategories in each of the 15 first level (NAP15) industries. The NAP15 industry U10 (Market services) is the most detailed with 102 categories followed by U04 (Intermediate goods industries) and U08(Trade) with 97 and 87 categories respectively. Notably, the NAP also makes provision for non-market services in the NAP15 industry U14. In summary, focusing on the NAP600 (four-digit) level, codes 01.00 to 03.40 cover agriculture, forestry and fishing activities; 04.11 to 55.73 cover various types of industrial and manufacturing activities; 56.01 to 67.13 relate to commercial activities; 68.01 to 74.10 relate to transport while 75.01 to 99.01 cover various types of services (rental, teaching, research, health, leisure) and administrations.

First level (NAP15) code	First level (NAP15) description	NAP40	NAP100	NAP600
U01	Agriculture, forestry, fishing	1	3	21
U02	Agricultural and food industries	2	8	41
U03	Energy production and distribution	3	5	9
U04	Intermediate goods industries	8	15	97
U05	Capital goods industries	4	13	75
U06	Consumer goods industries	5	10	85
U07	Building, civil and agricultural engineering implementation industries	1	1	14
U08	Trade	4	8	87
U09	Transport and telecommunications	2	8	38
U10	Market services	4	15	102
U11	Real estate rental	1	1	3
U12	Insurance	1	1	5
U13	Financial institutions	1	1	7
U14	Non-market services	1	9	65
U19	Foreign diplomatic representation in France; international organizations	1	1	1
	Total	39	99	650

Resources

NAP73 - Codes with description (Excel)

Where is it used?

As with the current NAF, the primary user of the NAP was INSEE, the national statistics bureau of France. Major national databases such as the Sirene Directory included the NAP code of all businesses. The NAP was the framework for presenting national and sectoral industrial data in France.
Other government agencies and private organizations also used the NAP for a range of statistical and administrative purposes including to conduct market research, analyze industry trends, and make investment decisions.
The NAP framework has also been used widely in academic research, looking for instance into issues such as wage differences across industries and exchange rate fluctuations in the French context.