Industry

The industry in which a person works, or the industry in which they worked in their last main job.

The industry in which a person works relates to their main job and is derived from the main activity of their employer or business. This is used to assign responses to an industry code based on the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities.

Total number of categories 22

Individual question 38: What is (was) the main activity of your organisation, business or freelance work?

This information is used to assign a code to the industry an individual works in using the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities (UKSIC). This enhances the quality of industry coding and is required at a local level to understand economic performance and analyse local labour markets. It also provides information for policy development and monitoring land use, transport and housing needs.

The statistics show trends in employment by industry and help planners to develop or revise employment land policies. For instance, there might be an increased demand for land for retail and office usage but decreasing demand for traditional manufacturing industries. In combination with information about occupation, this information is particularly useful for economic development, regeneration and monitoring labour market trends.

Information supplied by these questions is used as a base for forecasts of employment (by sector, occupation and industry) and for transport planning. It is also used to identify any associations between the characteristics of individuals and industry, for example to highlight a concentration of groups of people in industries associated with low-paid employment.

This variable is a collapsed version of the full industry classification. It is comparable with the equivalent version created by ONS for the 2021 census in England & Wales (industry_current_22a)

This variable is directly comparable to the Level 2 codes created for the 2011 census in Scotland (2011 census : Industry hierarchy).

Where people did not answer a census question or where there were inconsistencies between answers, a process known as edit and imputation was used to iron out inconsistencies and fill in gaps in census data. More information about our edit and imputation process is available on our website.  

Industry had a relatively high rate of imputation at 12.9%. This is similar to the 2021 England & Wales Census, which had an imputation rate of 10.1% for current industry (for people in work in the week before census) and 14.1% for former industry (for people not in employment in the week before census who had previously been employed). 

A further 12.1% of records had their lower level industry code imputed. These were cases where a respondent provided vague or partial information that allowed them to be assigned to a higher level industry code, but the low level code required imputation. Users working with the extended industry categories due to be released in Winter 2024/25 should be aware that the low level categories rely on a higher rate of imputation than the higher level categories. 

Additional quality assurance checks were performed to check that the imputed distribution of industry was similar to the distribution of responses received by respondents who did answer the employer name and activity questions. The imputation for this variable has also been challenging historically, in 2011 the non-response rate for this variable was 8.5%. More information on imputation rates for this topic has also been published on the Scotland’s Census website. 

The industry in which a person works relates to their main job and is derived from information provided on the main activity of their employer or business. This is used to assign responses to an industry code based on the Standard Industrial Classification 2007.

The classification is based on the Standard Industrial Classification 2007: UK Standard Industrial Classification 2007 (UK SIC 2007)

These classifications are then used to assign individuals industry groups via the Industry hierarchy.

Not applicable category (XX) comprises: Schoolchildren and full-time students living away from home during term time, all those under the age of 16 and all those who have never worked.

Question 36

This information is used to assign a code to the industry an individual works in using the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities (UKSIC). This enhances the quality of occupation coding and is required at a local level to understand economic performance and analyse local labour markets. It also provides information for policy development and monitoring land use, transport and housing needs.

The statistics show trends in employment by industry and help planners to develop or revise employment land policies. For instance, there might be an increased demand for land for retail and office usage but decreasing demand for traditional manufacturing industries. In combination with information about occupation, this information will be particularly useful for economic development, regeneration and monitoring labour market trends.

Information supplied by these questions is used as a base for forecasts of employment (by sector, occupation and industry) and for transport planning. It is also used to identify any associations between the characteristics of individuals and industry, for example to highlight a concentration of groups of people in industries associated with low-paid employment.

The question in England & Wales (2011) is identical to the Scotland (2011) question.

In 2011 industries were coded based on the main activity of the employer or business for which they worked, using the Standard Industrial Classification 2007 (SIC2007). In the 2001 Census, SIC1992 was used, meaning only high-level comparisons between the two sets of census results are possible.

This question asks for a description of the business, or main activity of each person’s employer. The variable uses a Census modified version of the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities 1992 – UK SIC (92) classification. For the 2001 Census, industry descriptions given to the question above are automatically coded using the modified SIC(92) classification. Where possible, output is at the detailed 4-digit level. However, in many cases, insufficient information is given by the public when completing this question. For example, insufficient responses provided by the form-filler relating to the construction industry has meant releasing output at the 2-digit level only. This has resulted in a need to produce a modified output classification that is a mixture of 2, 3 and 4-digit industry codes. In standard output, the most detailed classification is at section level, A to Q.

The classification is based on the Standard Industrial Classification 1992: UK Standard Industrial Classification 1992 (UK SIC 1992)

These classifications are then used to assign individuals industry groups via the Industry hierarchy. n.o.s stands for ‘not otherwise stated’.

Not applicable (XXX) comprises:

• All people aged 15 and under or aged 75 and over, UK
• All people aged 16-64, who were not working in the week before census and who last worked before 1996 or who have never worked, England, Wales and Scotland
• All people aged 65-74 who were not working in the week before census, England, Wales and Scotland
• All people aged 16-74 who have never worked, Northern Ireland