The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now published the final UK Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2026, including explanatory notes. The updated framework includes a large number of improvements and better reflects today’s UK economy.
Historic England’s Skills team and SocioEconomic Research team have been supporting DCMS with this review and are pleased to inform you that this now includes a specific sub code for archaeology (72.201).
In future, organisations will be able to code their area of business as ‘Archaeological Research Investigations’ in relevant reporting. This is positive news as it will enable greater recognition, and analysis, of archaeology as a distinct area within industry.
SIC codes allow consistent tracking of data in relation to employment levels, job growth and decline, wages, skills shortages and productivity and will help to make the argument about archaeology’s contribution to the economy. A SIC code for archaeology will complement and strengthen labour market intelligence, making it easier to draw comparisons between our sector and others.
The ONS expects SIC2026 will first feed into the 2031 Blue Book Publication, which is the earliest opportunity for National Accounts to incorporate SIC2026-coded survey results. This date reflects the scale of preparation required before SIC2026 can be used operationally across ONS systems.
New: a UK Standard Industrial Classification for archaeology
Thursday, 7th May 2026