What Do Sections U and V Cover in ISIC Rev. 5?

Sections U and V in ISIC Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, cover two special cases at the end of the classification. Section U covers activities of households as employers, including households employing domestic personnel, and undifferentiated goods and services producing activities of households for own use. Section V covers activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies, such as embassies, international organisations and similar bodies that operate outside the normal jurisdiction of the host country.

Two sections for units that do not fit the company pattern

Most of ISIC describes businesses, public bodies and other organisations that produce goods or services for others. Sections U and V exist because two kinds of unit do not fit that pattern, yet must still be counted if national totals are to be complete. Section U covers activities of households as employers, including households employing domestic personnel, and undifferentiated goods and services producing activities of households for own use. Section V covers activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies, such as embassies, international organisations and similar bodies that operate outside the normal jurisdiction of the host country. Neither section describes a normal market business. Both describe a situation where the usual employer, producer or jurisdiction logic breaks down, and a special home is needed so the activity does not vanish from the statistics.

Inside Section U: a household as an employer, and a household producing for itself

• Households employing domestic personnel, such as cleaners, cooks and gardeners, where the household itself hires, pays and directs the worker
• Households producing goods for own use, as described in the UNSD entry, where production is for the household’s own consumption rather than for sale
• Households producing services for own use, as described in the UNSD entry, on the same own use basis

A household that directly employs a domestic worker, paying wages and setting hours, shows Section U in its clearest form, because the household itself is the employer. There is no agency, no firm and no intermediary standing between the household and the worker. The employment relationship is direct, and the household, rather than a business, appears in the statistics as the employer unit. Own use production is different again: a household producing goods or services for itself is both producer and consumer, and Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, gives that undifferentiated activity a place rather than forcing it into a market industry it does not belong to.

Inside Section V: bodies that operate outside host jurisdiction

An embassy that operates in a host country under diplomatic arrangements shows Section V, because it is an extraterritorial body rather than a normal resident unit. The same logic covers consulates and international organisations operating in a host country: they are present physically, they employ people and they carry out activities, but they operate outside the normal jurisdiction of the host country, so counting them as ordinary domestic public administration would misstate both the host country’s public sector and the body’s own status. Section V therefore gives them a separate home, where their activities can be counted without being absorbed into the host government’s totals or into a market industry.

Four cases that look like U or V but belong elsewhere, and why completeness matters

Employing a cleaner through an agency that remains the employer belongs in Section O, because the agency, not the household, is the employer, even though the work happens in the household’s home. Providing domestic services as a business, classified by the service, belongs with that service, because the provider is a firm selling cleaning, cooking or gardening, not a household employing a worker. Operating a business from a household address, classified by its activity, belongs with that activity, because a home address does not turn a shop, studio or consultancy into a household employer. Government administration of the host country, in Section P, belongs with public administration, because it is the host government acting within its own jurisdiction, not an extraterritorial body operating outside it. Sections U and V matter for national accounts completeness: domestic employment and international bodies would otherwise fall outside business statistics, leaving gaps in employment and output totals. Giving them their own sections ensures that household employers and extraterritorial bodies are counted, even though they do not fit the usual company model. Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, contains 22 sections from A to V, with 87 divisions, 258 groups and 463 classes in total, and U and V are the sections that close the system at its edges. Before using any code here, open the UNSD classification detail page and the Rev. 5 publication, and check in particular who the employer is, whether production is for own use or for sale, and whether the body operates inside or outside host jurisdiction.

This guide explains two exceptional sections in statistical terms only, and it does not settle any household’s or body’s code, principal activity or registration. For a real case, confirmation should come from the national statistical institute or business register that holds the relevant record.