CNAE codes in English, with the ISIC equivalent and company counts.
All 1,359 Brazilian CNAE 2.3 subclasses translated, mapped to ISIC Rev.4 and counted on 9,844,825 active companies. Free CSV.
CNAE (Classificação Nacional de Atividades Econômicas) is the activity classification every Brazilian company declares on its CNPJ. Version 2.3 has 1,359 subclasses. The official labels are Portuguese only; the tables below give each one in English, its ISIC Rev.4 equivalent and how many active companies in Brazil use it as their main activity (release 2026-10-10).
CNAE is built on ISIC, so the 21 sections (A to U) and the divisions match one to one. Below the division the two drift apart: 1,212 of the 1,359 subclasses map to a single ISIC class through IBGE's correspondence table; the others map to one ISIC division whose candidate classes are listed.
Download the full crosswalk as CSV (free, 1,359 rows: code, English label, Portuguese label, section, division, ISIC class, number of companies). Also on Hugging Face and Kaggle.
Sections
Active companies (head offices) by the section of their main CNAE, LatSouth Brazil build.
The most used CNAE subclasses
| CNAE | Activity (English) | ISIC | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
8112-5/00 | Building condominiums | 8110 | 334,977 |
8211-3/00 | Combined office administrative services | 8211 | 283,565 |
9430-8/00 | Social rights advocacy associations | 9499 | 252,579 |
6462-0/00 | Holding companies of non-financial institutions | 64 (6420 / 7010) | 240,120 |
6911-7/01 | Legal services (law firms) | 6910 | 204,762 |
8630-5/03 | Outpatient medical activity restricted to consultations | 8620 | 203,795 |
4781-4/00 | Retail sale of clothing and accessories | 4771 | 190,423 |
4120-4/00 | Construction of buildings | 4100 | 160,912 |
7020-4/00 | Management consulting, except specific technical consulting | 7020 | 155,966 |
5611-2/01 | Restaurants and similar | 56 (5610 / 5630) | 143,792 |
4930-2/02 | Road freight transport, except dangerous goods and removals, intermunicipal, interstate and international | 4923 | 140,460 |
9491-0/00 | Religious and philosophical organizations | 9491 | 139,528 |
7112-0/00 | Engineering services | 7110 | 138,667 |
9492-8/00 | Political organizations | 9492 | 137,181 |
4110-7/00 | Real estate development (incorporation) | 4100 | 123,220 |
Main activity of active companies (head offices); individual entrepreneurs (MEI) excluded.
Classification: IBGE/CONCLA, CNAE 2.3 and the CNAE-ISIC correspondence. English labels: LatSouth translation. Counts: LatSouth Brazil build of the Receita Federal release 2026-10-10.
Related guides
Filter Brazil's companies by any of these codes.
10,933,117 active Brazilian companies from the Receita Federal (CNPJ registry), cleaned, in English, with ISIC codes and no personal data. Free 25-row sample; full country file or ready-made packages.