In the 2008 SNA all resident institutional units are grouped together to form five institutional sectors, on the basis of their principal functions, behaviour and objectives:
S.11. Non-financial corporations are institutional units which are independent legal entities and market producers that are principally engaged in the production of goods and non-financial services.
S.12. Financial corporations are institutional units which are independent legal entities and market producers that are principally engaged in financial services including financial intermediation.
S.13. General Government consists of institutional units that, in addition to fulfilling their political responsibilities and their role of economic regulation, produce services (and possibly goods) for individual or collective consumption mainly on a non-market basis and redistribute income and wealth.
S.14. Households are institutional units consisting of individuals or groups of individuals as consumers and as entrepreneurs producing market goods and non-financial and financial services provided that the production of goods and services is not by separate entities treated as quasi-corporations. It also includes individuals or groups of individuals as producers of goods and non-financial services for exclusively own final use.

S.15. Non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs) are separate legal entities which are non-market producers that are principally engaged in the production of services for households or the community at large and whose main resources are voluntary contributions.
ESA 2010 further divides the institutional sectors S.11 – S.14 into sub-sectors according to type of production (market or non-market) and control (government or non-government) of the institutional units. No single method of sub-sectoring may be optimal for all purposes or all countries, so that alternative sub-sectoring may be useful. Dividing the total economy into sectors enhances the usefulness of the accounts for purposes of economic analysis by grouping together institutional units with similar objectives and types of behaviour. Sectors and subsectors are also needed in order to be able to target or monitor particular groups of institutional units for policy purposes.