The Statistical classification of products by activity, abbreviated as CPA, is the classification of products (goods as well as services) at the level of the European Union.
Product classifications are designed to categorise products that have common characteristics. They provide the basis for collecting and calculating statistics on the production, distributive trade, consumption, international trade and transport of such products. The CPA is part of a wider family of international classifications, developed mainly under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Division, which makes it possible to compare statistics across countries and across different statistical domains.
CPA product categories are related to activities as defined by the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE). Each CPA product is assigned to a single NACE activity. This linkage to NACE activities gives the CPA a structure parallel to that of the NACE at all levels.
Since 1993, several CPA versions have been developed. The newest is CPA version 2.2 which is available on the Eurostat classifications webpage.
CPA has a hierarchical structure with six levels, each identified with a specific code. For CPA Version 2.2 (applicable from 2025 onwards), the number of positions at each level is as follows:
The first four levels of CPA are fully aligned with the NACE classification. PRODCOM, the EU classification of industrial products aligns with the six levels of CPA and assigns two further digits to describe additional breakdowns.
CPA is primarily used in meeting EU reporting requirements but is also used in some national statistical outputs such as National Accounts.
National
National Accounts - Supply and Use tables
EU
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