Classifying Economic Activities into Sectors

Class 6 Social Science · Chapter 14: Economic Activities Around Us · NCERT Exploring Society: India and Beyond section 14.1

Learn

Long ago, most people farmed, raised animals, made tools and pots, and wove cloth. Today there are thousands of ways to earn a living: making mobile phones and drones, working in banks and hotels, driving trucks, writing software, repairing fridges... Grouping these activities helps us understand how they work and how they are linked.

Activities with similar features are grouped into economic sectors. In the primary sector, people take goods directly from nature: farming, fishing, mining, forestry and raising livestock. Growing vegetables, collecting wood, mining coal and collecting eggs from a poultry farm are all primary activities.

In the secondary sector, raw materials are turned into finished goods: manufacturing in factories (cloth from cotton, furniture from wood, cars from steel), construction of buildings and bridges, and producing electricity and supplying water.

The tertiary sector provides services that support people and the other two sectors: transport, trade and shops, banking, communication, healthcare, education, tourism. A teacher, a doctor, a truck driver and a shopkeeper all work in the tertiary sector.

Explore: which sector?

1. Sort each activity.

Remember

• Primary: goods from nature (farming, fishing, mining, forestry, livestock).
• Secondary: making goods (manufacturing, construction, electricity); tertiary: services (transport, banking, health, education, trade).

Quick check

A doctor treating patients works in the … sector.

1. tertiary
2. primary
3. secondary
4. none

Think about it

Think of the people who helped make your school notebook. Which sectors did they work in?

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.