SSIC Code Singapore 2026: How to Find and Choose Yours

SSIC 2025 replaced SSIC 2020 in May 2026, and the code list shrank from 1,023 codes to 988

An SSIC code is the five-digit number that tells ACRA what your company actually does. Every entity registered in Singapore carries one for its primary business activity, and can carry a second for a secondary activity. You pick it when you incorporate, and you’re required to keep it accurate afterwards.

The full name is the Singapore Standard Industrial Classification. You’ll also see it called the business activity code, the ACRA activities code or simply your classification code, and they all refer to the same thing. The Department of Statistics maintains the list and updates it roughly every five years.

The current edition is SSIC 2025, published on 15 April 2025. It holds 988 five-digit codes across 22 sections, down from 1,023 codes in SSIC 2020. Around 50 codes were removed or merged, new ones were added for activities like carbon capture and alternative proteins, and one whole section was split in two.

Check the section split against your own records first. Splitting the old Section J re-lettered every section after it, so a code list you found online two years ago now points at the wrong letters.

Quick Answers: Digits, Limits, Deadlines and Where to Look

Question	Short Answer
How many digits is an SSIC code?	Five. The first two are the division, and each extra digit narrows the activity.
How many can my company have?	Up to two: one primary, plus one secondary where it applies. Further activities are filed separately.
Where do I check mine?	In Bizfile, on your Entity information page under Business activities.
How long do I have to update it?	14 days from the date your business activity changes.
Does the code affect my tax?	Not directly. It’s a statistical and regulatory classification, not a tax band.
Where’s the official list?	The Department of Statistics publishes SSIC 2025 as a free PDF and Excel file.

Most founders treat the code as a box to tick during incorporation, pick something roughly close, and never look at it again. The cost shows up later. A licence application stalls because your declared activity doesn’t match what the agency expects, or your bank has you on file as a consultancy while your invoices show goods moving across borders.

Table of Contents

1. What Is an SSIC Code
2. What Changed in SSIC 2025
3. The SSIC 2025 Code List: All 22 Sections
4. How to Find Your SSIC Code
5. SSIC Codes for Common Singapore Business Types
6. How to Choose the Right SSIC Code
7. How to Change Your SSIC Code With ACRA
8. What Happens If Your SSIC Code Is Wrong
9. Your SSIC Code and Your Business Account
10. FAQs

What Is an SSIC Code?

An SSIC code is a five-digit number that classifies your business by economic activity, drawn from a national list maintained by the Department of Statistics. ACRA uses it to record what your entity does. Other agencies use it to work out which rules apply to you.

The classification runs on five levels, and each one adds a digit:

1. Section. A single letter, from A to V, covering a broad area of the economy such as Construction or Education.
   
2. Division. Two digits, narrowing the section into a field. Division 62 covers computer programming and consultancy.
   
3. Group. Three digits.
   
4. Class. Four digits.
   
5. Sub-class. Five digits. This is the level you file with ACRA.

So a software company developing applications sits in Section K, division 62, and files 62011, Development of software and applications (except games and cybersecurity).

Who uses your code: Beyond ACRA, the SSIC feeds government surveys, IRAS records, licensing checks and the statistics that describe Singapore’s economy. The review that produced SSIC 2025 involved ACRA, IRAS, MOM, MAS, EDB and Enterprise Singapore, among others.

How Many Digits Is an SSIC Code?

Five digits, always. Shorter numbers you see in the official documents are the levels above it. Division 41 covers the construction of buildings; class 4100 narrows that, and 41001, General contractors for building construction and major upgrading works, is the actual code you file.

If a form asks for your SSIC code and you enter fewer than five digits, you’ve given the division or class it sits under. Enter all five.

SSIC vs SIC vs NAICS: Are They the Same Thing?

They’re different systems, and only one of them applies in Singapore. SSIC is the Singapore standard. SIC is an older United States classification, still used by data providers like Dun & Bradstreet, and NAICS is the North American system that replaced it. Australia and New Zealand run their own, ANZSIC.

None of them is interchangeable with SSIC on an ACRA filing. What SSIC 2025 does align to is ISIC Revision 5, the United Nations classification, which is what makes Singapore’s industry data comparable internationally. The Department of Statistics publishes correspondence tables between the two.

What Changed in SSIC 2025

SSIC 2025 was published on 15 April 2025 and took effect across government digital services on 9 May 2026. A Singpass Partner Support notice to Myinfo Business partners confirms both the date and the reason: ACRA and the Department of Statistics moved the SSIC activity code from the 2020 version to the 2025 version. Some old codes were merged and mapped to new ones, some were split into several, and code numbers and descriptions changed.

ACRA doesn’t publish the changeover date on its own SSIC guidance pages. You’ll also see it claimed that every registered entity was auto-mapped and notified on the day, which no official source states, so check your own profile rather than assuming yours was handled.

What changed in the classification:

Change	What it is under SSIC 2025
Total five-digit codes	988, down from 1,023
Divisions, groups, classes	82 divisions, 212 groups, 390 classes
Codes removed or merged	Around 50, either obsolete or covering very few businesses
Brand-new codes	26
Codes given a new number	58
Codes changed in any way	609 of 988. The other 379 carry over untouched
Sections	22, labelled A to V, one more than SSIC 2020
Biggest structural change	The old Section J, Information and Communications, split into Section J and Section K
New sub-classes	Carbon capture (39000) and manufacture of alternative proteins, among others
Existing codes widened	Definitions expanded to cover crypto-asset activities, crowdfunding, streaming and immersive media
Restructured	Section Q Education, and the division and group structure for arts activities

Check whether your section letter moved when Section J split. SSIC 2020’s Section J covered information and communications as one block. SSIC 2025 splits it into Section J, for publishing, broadcasting and content production, and Section K, for telecommunications, computer programming, consultancy and computing infrastructure. Every section letter after J then moved up one. Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities was Section M under SSIC 2020 and is Section N under SSIC 2025.

Some codes are simply gone. Code 30201 no longer exists in SSIC 2025, for example. Its group now holds a single code, 30200, Manufacture/repair of railway and tramway locomotives and rolling stock. If 30201 is still sitting on an old record of yours, it won’t return anything on Bizfile. To trace where an old code went, use the two-way SSIC 2025 to SSIC 2020 correspondence tables, which the Department of Statistics publishes separately from the main report.

Do You Need to Update Your SSIC Code After the 2025 Change?

Probably not, but check your profile before you assume. If your business activity hasn’t changed and the mapped code still describes what you do, no filing is needed. The mapping was automatic, and it worked by matching old codes to new ones without reference to your particular business.

Two situations do need action. If your old code was one of the roughly 50 that were removed or merged, the replacement may sit in a broader category than you’d choose yourself. And if your activity has drifted since you incorporated, the SSIC 2025 transition didn’t fix that, and the 14-day rule for updating a changed activity still applies.

The SSIC 2025 Code List: All 22 Sections

Every SSIC code sits inside one of these 22 sections. Find your section first, then narrow down by division. The divisions column shows which two-digit ranges belong to each section.

Section	Covers	Divisions
A	Agriculture and Fishing	01–03
B	Mining and Quarrying	08–09
C	Manufacturing	10–32
D	Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air-Conditioning Supply	35
E	Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation Activities	36–39
F	Construction	41–43
G	Wholesale and Retail Trade	46–47
H	Transportation and Storage	49–53
I	Accommodation and Food Service Activities	55–56
J	Publishing, Broadcasting, and Content Production and Distribution Activities	58–60
K	Telecommunications, Computer Programming, Consultancy, Computing Infrastructure, and Other Information Service Activities	61–63
L	Financial and Insurance Activities	64–66
M	Real Estate Activities	68
N	Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities	69–75
O	Administrative and Support Service Activities	77–82
P	Public Administration and Defence	84
Q	Education	85
R	Health and Social Services	86–88
S	Arts, Sports and Recreation	90–93
T	Other Service Activities	94–96
U	Activities of Households as Employers of Domestic Personnel	97
V	Activities of Extra-Territorial Organisations and Bodies	99

Where to get the full list: The Department of Statistics publishes SSIC 2025 free of charge, and both files live on the SingStat SSIC page.

• The classification structure (Excel) lists every code with its title. Download this one if you want to search all 988 codes by keyword.
  
  
• The full report (PDF) adds the detailed definitions, the exclusions under each code, and the alphabetical index. Use it when the title alone doesn’t tell you whether a code covers what you do.

How to Find Your SSIC Code

Your existing code is on your ACRA business profile. To check it:

On your business profile, the same field is called Principal Activities. The downloaded ACRA business profile that banks, clients and auditors ask for uses that older label, so the two names refer to the same thing.

If you’re not yet incorporated and need to pick a code for the first time, use the SSIC search on Bizfile. Enter a keyword describing what you’ll do, and it returns matching codes with their full descriptions. ACRA’s own guidance on finding the right SSIC code walks through the same search.

Searching the Official SSIC 2025 List

The Bizfile search works well when you already know roughly what to call your activity. When you don’t, the Department of Statistics Excel file is better, because you can search the full text of every definition rather than just the titles.

Use the alphabetical index. SSIC 2025 expanded its detailed definitions and alphabetical index specifically to make this easier. Looking up the thing you sell or the service you provide is usually faster than guessing which section it belongs to.

SSIC Codes for Common Singapore Business Types

The codes below are real SSIC 2025 sub-classes. They’re a starting point for the most commonly registered activities. Search the full list before you commit to one.

Construction

Section F covers construction across divisions 41 to 43, split between building work, civil engineering and specialised trades.

Code	Activity
41001	General contractors for building construction and major upgrading works
42100	Civil engineering general contractors
43210	Electrical works
43220	Installation of plumbing, heating (non-electric) and air-conditioning systems
43301	Renovation contractors
43901	Foundation works; micropiling, conventional piling and underpinning

Construction is one of the sectors where the description matters more than the number. A firm doing only renovation work carries 43301, and putting the general contractor code 41001 on it overstates what the business does to anyone who checks.

Trading, Import and Export

Singapore trading companies sit in Section G. The code is set by the goods you deal in, and importing or exporting them doesn’t change which one applies.

Code	Activity
46100	Wholesale on a fee or commission basis
46304	Wholesale of confectionery and bakery products
46522	Wholesale of electronic components
46900	Wholesale trade of a variety of goods without a dominant product

Pick 46900 only when no single product dominates. It’s the catch-all for mixed trading, and it’s the code some founders default to when a more specific one would describe the business better. If most of your revenue comes from one product category, use that category’s code.

Trading businesses tend to be the ones paying suppliers in several currencies at once, which is worth planning for separately from the classification question. Our guide to paying overseas suppliers from Singapore covers the payment side, and telegraphic transfers explains what the bank route actually costs.

Professional and Consulting Services

Professional and consulting firms sit in Section N, across divisions 69 to 75. These codes sat under Section M in SSIC 2020, so older lists will have them under the wrong letter.

Code	Activity
69101	Legal activities
69201	Accounting, auditing and tax consultancy services
69202	Book-keeping services
70201	Management consultancy services
70204	Human resource consultancy services
70205	Public relations, marketing and brand consultancy services
71111	Architectural services

Management consultancy has several specific codes beneath it, including consultancy for healthcare organisations, hotels, and port and maritime work. Check whether one of those fits before defaulting to the general 70201.

IT, Software and E-commerce

Section K, divisions 61 to 63, holds the technology codes that moved out of the old Section J.

Code	Activity
62011	Development of software and applications (except games and cybersecurity)
62012	Development of computer games
62013	Development of software for cybersecurity
62021	Information technology consultancy (except cybersecurity)
63111	Data centres
63201	Online marketplaces operating on a fee or commission basis for goods and food sold by third-party; online marketplaces operating on a fee or commission basis for food delivery services

Online retail has no separate code. Division 47 runs out at group 478, retail sale via stalls and markets, with no “retail sale via the internet” sub-class anywhere in it. If you own the stock you sell online, classify by the goods. A business selling clothing through its own website uses the retail clothing code, the same one a shop on Orchard Road would file.

Codes starting 632 cover marketplaces that connect buyers and sellers for a fee or commission without owning the goods. If you hold the stock yourself, they don’t apply to you.

Food and Beverage

Code	Activity
56111	Restaurants
56112	Cafes
56121	Fast food outlets
56130	Pubs
56200	Food caterers
55101	Hotels

Food businesses need a Singapore Food Agency licence to operate, and the licence type follows the format of the business. A restaurant, a food caterer and a food kiosk are three different licences, so pick the SSIC code that describes the same operation you’re licensing.

How to Choose the Right SSIC Code

The Department of Statistics sets out a top-down method for this, and it’s the same logic ACRA expects you to apply:

1. Identify your main revenue-generating activity: Where does the largest share of your income come from? That activity determines your primary code, not the activity you spend the most time on or plan to grow into.
   
   
2. Find the section it belongs to: Use the 22-section table above to narrow to a letter.
   
   
3. Work down through division, group and class: Each level should still describe your business. If a division doesn’t fit, you’re in the wrong section.
   
   
4. Select the five-digit sub-class: Read the full description underneath the title, which is where the scope of the code is actually set out.
   
   
5. Check the exclusions: SSIC definitions list what a code does not cover, and this is where most wrong choices get caught.

Primary and secondary activities: Your ACRA profile holds one primary SSIC code and, where it applies, up to one secondary code. The primary is your main activity by revenue. The secondary is for a separate second line of business, such as a consultancy that also runs a training arm. If you carry on more activities than that, file them through the General Lodgement (Others) eService with the relevant code for each.

A bakery that both makes its products and wholesales them to other retailers files 46304, Wholesale of confectionery and bakery products as its primary activity, and 10719, Manufacture of bakery products n.e.c. as its secondary. That’s two codes from two different sections on one company, and the order tells ACRA which side of the business earns more.

What to Do When No SSIC Code Fits Your Business

Pick the closest code and add a description. SSIC has 988 codes for an economy with far more than 988 kinds of business, so the classification is designed to work with approximation.

Codes ending in 9 are usually the “not elsewhere classified” catch-all for their group, and 43909, Other specialised construction activities n.e.c. is a typical one. A few catch-alls are worded differently. 46900 covers wholesale of a variety of goods without a dominant product, doing the same job without the n.e.c. label.

Describe the activity in your own words where the form allows it. ACRA lets you record a business activity description alongside the code, and that free-text description is what a reader sees when the code alone is too broad. A niche training business with no dedicated code is better served by an accurate description under a general education code than by a specific code for something adjacent.

Codes That Need Another Agency’s Approval First

Some SSIC codes trigger a referral. ACRA sends the application to a government agency, and that agency has to approve it before your registration goes through. The trigger is the code itself, so choosing one of these commits you to the approval that comes with it.

ACRA publishes the full list of referral authorities. These are the ones tied to specific codes:

Agency	Codes referred
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)	64120, 64130, 64140, 64150, 64992
Ministry of Education (MOE)	85310, 85331, 85401, 85402, 85403
SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)	85320, 85340, 85350, 85404
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)	94911, 94912, 94913, 94914, 94919
Council for Estate Agencies (CEA)	68201, 68209
Board of Architects (BOA)	71111
Ministry of Law (MinLaw)	69101
Enterprise Singapore (ESG)	66124
Singapore Food Agency (SFA)	10611, 10740

Several referrals are triggered by the business name rather than the code. Names containing “academy”, “college”, “university”, “military”, “defence”, “professional engineer” or “ASEAN”, and use of the Merlion, all go to the relevant authority for clearance.

Match the code to the approval you can actually get. Picking a referred code you can’t get approval for will stall your incorporation while the agency reviews it. Picking an unreferred code to describe work that is in fact regulated is worse, because registration goes through and you end up operating without the licence the activity requires.

Referral is separate from licensing. Plenty of activities need a licence without triggering an ACRA referral, and employment agencies under MOM are the common example. If you’re incorporating in a licensed field, settle the licence question first. Our company incorporation guide covers where that sits in the wider setup sequence, and sole proprietorship versus Pte Ltd covers the structure decision that comes before it.

How to Change Your SSIC Code With ACRA

You must notify ACRA within 14 days of your business activity changing. The filing process:

1. Log in to Bizfile
   • with Singpass and open your Entity information page.
     
2. Select Business activities and click Edit
   
3. Search for the new code
   • by keyword, or enter the five-digit number directly if you already know it, then pick the activity from the dropdown.
     
4. Enter the effective date of the change
   • Add or amend a secondary activity here too, using Add secondary business activity.
     
5. Review, confirm and submit
   • ACRA’s published fee schedule for companies lists no charge for updating your business activity.

File additional activities separately. If you’re adding a third or subsequent activity rather than replacing one of the two on your profile, use the General Lodgement (Others) eService and include the relevant SSIC code for each one.

Tell your licensing agency, your insurer and your bank as well. The Bizfile filing updates the ACRA register and nothing else. Each of those three holds its own record of what your business does, and each has to be updated separately.

What Happens If Your SSIC Code Is Wrong

An out-of-date code rarely causes an immediate problem, so nothing forces you to correct it and most companies never do. It surfaces later, when someone pulls your profile: a licensing officer, a grant assessor, your bank’s compliance team, or a client running due diligence before signing.

Licensing and permits stall. An agency assessing your application compares your declared activity against what you’re asking to do. If the two don’t match, the officer comes back with questions, and your application sits unprocessed until you answer them.

Grants and schemes can fall through. Support schemes are frequently scoped by sector. If your code says one thing and your operations say another, you may be assessed against the wrong criteria.

Your bank has you on file as something you’re not. Your declared business activity is part of what a bank or business account provider assessed when they onboarded you, and it shapes the risk profile they hold. Changing what your business does without telling them leaves your provider holding an activity description that no longer matches what you actually do.

Take a company registered as a consultancy that starts importing goods. It now has trade flows its provider never assessed, possibly involving jurisdictions the provider screens for. That isn’t misconduct, but it can still trigger a compliance review, a request for updated documents, or a hold on a payment, because the provider is screening your account against the activity you declared when you opened it.

Your ACRA profile stops matching your invoices. When a client, an auditor or a counterparty downloads your business profile and it describes a different business from the one you’re billing them for, expect questions before they sign off, and expect to answer them in writing.

Does Your SSIC Code Affect Billing or Invoicing?

No, not directly. Your SSIC code is a statistical and regulatory classification. It doesn’t set your tax rate, determine your GST treatment or dictate how you categorise invoices. GST registration turns on taxable turnover, and corporate tax is charged at the same rate whatever your sector.

Where the code does reach your invoicing is indirectly. Sector-specific rules and licensing conditions are frequently scoped by activity, and some accounting systems use the classification to set up default categories when you onboard.

Take the InvoiceNow e-invoicing requirement. It phases in by GST registration type and annual supplies on set dates, and your SSIC code plays no part in deciding when you’re in scope.

Your SSIC code is one more company record to keep current, alongside your books. Our guides to bookkeeping in Singapore and choosing accounting software cover the rest of it.

Your SSIC Code and Your Business Account

Your declared business activity is one of the things any business account provider looks at when you apply, alongside your entity type and where your money moves. You’re also expected to tell your provider when that activity changes, in the same way you tell ACRA.

YouBiz is a multi-currency business account for Singapore-registered companies, and the SSIC code you file is part of what we assess at onboarding. We support Private Limited companies, sole proprietorships registered with ACRA, partnerships and LLPs.

What you get:

• S$0 a month. No monthly fee and no minimum balance
• Unlimited 1% cashback on eligible card spend, with no cap and no minimum spend
• Real 0% FX fees on card spend across 150+ currencies, at the Mastercard wholesale rate
• 8 currency wallets to hold, exchange and receive: SGD, USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, HKD, AUD and CHF
• Free virtual and physical cards with per-card spend limits and merchant category controls
• Overseas transfers in 20 currencies from the dashboard

If your SSIC sits in wholesale trade, import or export, most of what you spend is denominated in someone else’s currency. Our breakdown of how YouBiz exchange rates work shows what the wholesale rate means against a bank’s, and the best business account in Singapore comparison sets out the alternatives. For teams issuing cards to staff, the corporate card guide for SMEs is the better starting point.

FAQs

Check Your SSIC Code and Update It If It’s Wrong

The SSIC code takes five minutes to pick at incorporation, and it then sits on your public profile as the description every agency, bank and counterparty reads when they look you up. Check what’s on your profile now that SSIC 2025 has replaced SSIC 2020, and file an update if what you do has moved on from what you declared.

Once the classification is right, the account is the next thing to sort out. YouBiz gives your company a multi-currency business account with S$0 monthly fees, unlimited 1% cashback and real 0% FX fees on card spend. That applies whether you’re trading goods, billing clients overseas or paying for software in US dollars.

Apply for a YouBiz account in under five minutes via Singpass. We review your application and email you within 1 to 2 business days, your virtual Mastercard is live in the app straight after, and the physical card follows in 5 to 7 business days. The full YouBiz guide covers what the account does in detail, and the multi-currency business card comparison shows how it stacks up.

Happy spending!