NAICS code for a municipality: 921140, 921110 or the service's own code

This page is for city and town clerks, finance officers and grant staff filling in a form that asks for a NAICS code, and for companies that sell to local government and want to target the right departments. It covers the codes for general government, the codes for municipal services, the SIC equivalents and how many municipalities there are.

The codes for general city and town government

If a form wants one code for the whole municipality, choose by how your government is organized. Where the mayor or chair sits on the council or commission, the Census definition fits 921140 exactly. Where the mayor or manager runs a separate executive office, 921110 is the closer fit. The Census index lists "city and town managers' offices" and "mayor's offices" under 921110, and "city and town councils" under 921120.

Why departments have their own codes

The Census Bureau's sector definition is explicit: "ownership is not a criterion for classification in NAICS", so government establishments that produce goods and services like private businesses are classified with those businesses. Administering a program is sector 92; operating it is coded by the activity. Its own example is an airport: the authority that administers it is 926120, while operating it is 488119.

So a water department applying for a utility loan, or a city hospital filling in a supplier form, should give the operating code, not 921140.

The SIC codes for a municipality

The 1987 SIC system puts government in Division J, Public Administration, Major Groups 91 to 97 and 99. The general government codes map one to one:

Watch the numbering: SIC Major Group 92 is Justice, Public Order, and Safety, while NAICS sector 92 is all of Public Administration. A "92" on an old list doesn't mean the same thing as a "92" on a new one. On a UK Companies House form, general public administration is 84110 in UK SIC 2007.

How many municipalities there are

County Business Patterns, the usual source for counts on these pages, excludes Public Administration (sector 92) and most establishments with government employees. The count comes from the Census of Governments instead:

The Census Bureau counts an entity as a government only if it exists as an organized entity, has governmental character and has substantial autonomy. Municipal, township and county governments are the general-purpose governments (38,704 in 2025). Dependent school systems run by a city, common in Massachusetts and Connecticut, aren't counted as separate governments.

The same caveat applies to any code-based count of municipal services. Because CBP leaves out most establishments with government employees, its count of 4,554 water supply establishments (221310) in 2023 leaves out most city-run water departments.

Size standards and where the code is used

SBA sets no small business size standards for sector 92: its table says the sector's establishments are government agencies administering programs "not performed by private establishments". Where the code does get used:

• Vendor, bank and insurance forms. When a municipality is the customer or the policyholder, the form may ask for its NAICS code. Give the general government code for the city as a whole, or the operating code when a department such as the water utility is the applicant.
• Federal and state registrations. When a department registers on its own, give its operating code, which is how the program will read what it does.
• Your own records, if you sell to cities. Code accounts by department function. A body camera vendor's buyers are in 922120 and a meter vendor's in 221310, even though both work for the same city.

Finding municipalities and their buyers

The Census Bureau publishes an annual Public Use File listing every active independent government unit, which is the complete list of municipalities; the list of local governments guide covers how to use it. For municipal finances, bond documents and annual disclosures are on the MSRB's EMMA site, the SEC-designated source for municipal securities disclosures. Cities don't file 10-Ks, so EDGAR isn't the place to look.

To reach the right person, start with the department, not the code: public works directors, police chiefs, finance directors and IT directors buy different things on different budget cycles. Bebop can search by description, for example cities in Ohio with 20,000 to 100,000 residents that posted an IT director opening this year, and explain why each fits.

Worked example

Illustrative example. The town and figures are invented.

The Town of Maple Hollow (maplehollow.example) has a five-member council that elects one of its members as mayor and hires a town manager. A bank's treasury services form asks for one NAICS code.

Because the mayor is a member of the council, 921140 fits the town as a whole. When the town's water department applies separately for an equipment loan, it uses 221310, and the police department's vendor registration with a state purchasing cooperative uses 922120.

A software company selling utility billing to towns like Maple Hollow shouldn't build its list on 921140. Census counts 19,489 municipal governments, but the buyers are only the ones that run their own water systems, so the list should start from the water systems (the 221310 activity), not from every 921140 government.

Next step: see how to build the full list in the list of local governments guide.