Industries may be divided into three broad categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary industries are concerned with extracting or drawing products from natural sources. They include extractive industries, such as mining and farming, and genetic industries, which involve breeding plants and animals for further reproduction, like poultry farms.

Secondary industries use materials extracted by the primary sector to produce goods for final consumption or further processing. These are divided into manufacturing and construction industries. Manufacturing industries are further sub-divided into analytical, synthetical, processing, and assembling industries based on their method of operation.