Businesses will be assigned a new SBI code in 2025

Amsterdam's Zuidas is home to a large number of businesses
© Hollandse Hoogte / Lex van Lieshout
Preparations for the 2025 revision of the Standard Industrial Classification (or SBI) are in full swing at Statistics Netherlands (CBS). The revised SBI will be introduced in September 2025 and gradually implemented across all CBS statistics. The Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK) is also fulfilling a key role in this process.

Classification of economic activities

The system of classifying economic activities is updated approximately once every 15 years, in order to ensure that we describe our economy as accurately as possible. Work on the next revision is currently in progress and CBS, in cooperation with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, will implement this revision in 2025. This involves creating a new version of the Standard Industrial Classification: SBI 2025. Along with other EU member states, the Netherlands is obliged to carry out this SBI revision, which is being coordinated by Eurostat, the European statistics office. This revision will enable statistics offices in the EU to compile comparable figures across European countries.

SBI 2025

The European Union and its member states assign a code to each class of economic activity. In the Netherlands, the Chamber of Commerce is responsible for implementing the classification process. Each business is assigned one or more SBI codes, which indicate how their business activities are classified. The SBI code will change for a large number of businesses that are registered with the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce is expected to implement the changes to the Dutch Business Register in the first half of September 2025. From then on, all existing registrations will have an SBI 2025 code, and newly registered businesses will be assigned a code from SBI 2025.

Partnership between CBS and the Dutch Chamber of Commerce

Currently, businesses are being recategorised from the old SBI code system to the new one. An assessment is being done to see which code from the new SBI matches the activities registered in the Dutch Business Register. This is being done in close partnership between CBS and the Chamber of Commerce, and the process is largely automated. CBS cannot change a SBI code that has already been assigned, nor can it communicate changes to the Chamber of Commerce. If a business is assigned a code by the Chamber of Commerce that no longer accurately reflects its business activities, it can submit a request to the Chamber of Commerce to change the SBI code. 

More information about the SBI 2025 project can be found on the updated webpages at CBS.

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