What Falls Under Other Personal Service Activities in ISIC Rev. 5?

Other personal service activities in ISIC Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, cover personal services supplied directly to individuals that are not described in earlier sections. This includes washing and dry cleaning of textiles, hairdressing and beauty treatment, funeral and related services, and other personal services such as pet care and personal services not elsewhere classified. The service is personal and often delivered face to face, and the customer is an individual rather than a business buying a support service.

A service for one person, face to face, and paid for as a service

Other personal services are defined less by a single trade than by a relationship: a service supplied directly to an individual, often delivered face to face, where the customer is a person rather than a business buying support for its own operations. That relationship is what holds together activities that otherwise look unrelated, from washing clothes to arranging a funeral. The customer brings a personal need, a body, a garment, a pet, or a bereavement, and the provider does work on or for that person directly. The product used in the process, such as shampoo, detergent or a coffin, is incidental to the service. What is bought is the washing, the cutting, the care or the arrangement, not the object consumed along the way.

What belongs here, strand by strand

• Washing, dry cleaning and ironing of clothing and textiles for individuals, where the customer is a household member bringing personal items
• Hairdressing, beauty treatment and related personal care, delivered to the individual in person
• Funeral, cremation and related services, arranged for a family at a moment of bereavement
• Other personal services, including pet care and services not elsewhere classified in the UNSD entry

A laundry that washes and irons clothes for households shows the first strand at its simplest: garments arrive dirty, leave clean and pressed, and the household pays for the work, not for the water or detergent. A salon that cuts hair and provides beauty treatments shows the second: the work is done on the person, in the chair, and cannot be stored or shipped. A funeral director arranging a funeral shows the third, where the service is organisational and ceremonial as much as physical, coordinating arrangements on behalf of a family. Pet care and the remaining services not elsewhere classified show the residual character of the scope: Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, needs a home for personal services that are real and countable but do not fit an earlier section, provided the service is genuinely personal and genuinely supplied to an individual.

The same cleaning, cutting or care, supplied to a business, is different

The edges here turn on who the customer is, more than on the physical task. Cleaning offices or buildings for a business belongs in Section O, because the customer is an organisation buying a support service for its premises, even if the mop and bucket look identical to domestic cleaning. Providing health or beauty treatment as a medical service is health work, because the purpose and the professional basis have changed, even if the treatment room looks like a salon. Retailing cosmetics or clothing is trade, because the customer buys an object to take away, rather than a service performed on them. Operating a hotel or restaurant for guests is accommodation and food work, because the service is lodging or meals, not personal care. In each case, the question to ask is not “what tool was used” but “who was served, and what were they actually buying”. That question resolves most borderline cases faster than a list of trades.

Why household spending on personal services deserves its own view

Personal services reflect household spending and life events in a way few other sections do. A haircut is routine spending, a laundry bill tracks household routines, and funeral spending follows bereavement, not fashion. Keeping these services visible helps local economies understand employment and spending patterns that would otherwise be hidden inside larger totals, and it helps analysts see how small businesses, often run by one or two people, contribute to jobs. Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, contains 22 sections from A to V, with 87 divisions, 258 groups and 463 classes in total, so a personal service placed in the wrong class would move local employment and spending between aggregates that policy makers use to judge local economies. Start from the UNSD detail page, work through the section and its finer levels for this topic, and keep a note of the wording relied on, paying attention to whether the customer is an individual or a business, since that distinction often decides the placement.

This guide describes personal services for statistical purposes only, and it does not assign a code, a principal activity or a registration to any particular laundry, salon, funeral director or pet care provider. For a real business, the national statistical institute or business register that holds its record should confirm the correct placement.