Published: 04.02.2011 Updated: 08.05.2018

To ensure comparability of national statistics in the EU, two classification systems are in force: European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010) and Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (hereinafter, NACE) whereby institutional units and sectors of the economy can be classified.

ESA 2010 was launched by Council Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union.

ESA 2010 groups institutional units into sectors by their principal functions, behaviour and objectives, and local kind-of-activity units into industries by input of products, production process and output of products.

According to ESA 2010, there are five institutional sectors: non-financial corporations (S.11), financial corporations (S.12), general government (S.13), households (S.14) and non-profit institutions serving households (S.15). Each sector is further divided into subsectors.