Classificação Nacional de Atividades Econômicas
Brazil’s national classification of economic activities, maintained by IBGE through the CONCLA commission. CNAE 2.3 follows ISIC’s conceptual structure but is numbered independently, with its own code format — a class reads 01.11-3 and a subclass 0111-3/01.
How a CNAE Brazil code is built
Each digit narrows the activity from the broadest sector down to a specific national industry. Here's how 0111-3/01 decomposes:
Structure at a glance
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History
CNAE was introduced in 1994 to give Brazil a single activity classification across statistics and tax administration. Successive revisions (1.0, 2.0, 2.2) tracked ISIC revisions; CNAE 2.3 is the current edition.
Usage & importance
Used by IBGE for statistics and by Receita Federal and the state tax authorities for company registration — every Brazilian CNPJ carries a CNAE code. Because CNAE is renumbered rather than ISIC-coded, conversions are matched by meaning and never by code identity.
Revision timeline
Convert CNAE Brazil codes to any other system
Verified crosswalks between CNAE Brazil and the other sixteen systems, both sides clickable.