Institutional Sectors Groups of consuming/producing units or industries

The institutional sectors are one of the two key concepts in understanding the sector accounts (the other being 'transactions').

The sectors are a breakdown of the economy by groups of similar producing or consuming units. There are five main institutional sectors, four domestic and the fifth representing the rest of the world. The four domestic sectors are:

- Non-Financial corporations
- Financial corporations
- General government
- Households (including non-profit institutions serving households such as charities and universities).

Non-Financial corporations are those which exist to produce goods and non-financial services. They are, in the United Kingdom, mainly public limited companies, private companies and partnerships. They are mostly owned privately but there are some public corporations.

Financial corporations are those engaged primarily in financial activities such as banking and insurance.

General government comprises central government and local authorities. They produce public services, some of which are transferred to households, as well as making cash transfers. They also invest in public assets. Their activities are funded by levying taxes and selling financial instruments.

The household sector contains all the resident people of the United Kingdom as receivers of income and consumers of products. It includes those in institutions such as prison and hospitals as well as conventional family units. It also contains one-person businesses where household and business accounts cannot be seperated.

Units not in the country are allocated to the rest of the world sector.

Data for these institutional sectors are available in the National Statistics quarterly publication 'United Kingdom Economic Accounts' and the annual publication 'United Kingdom National Accounts'. The data are available to download.