A method for classifying parking scenarios for an assistance system for parking a motor vehicle wherein a predetermined number of parking scenarios are defined, each parking scenario is described by a predetermined number of typical parking scenario criteria, and the criteria are based at least on parking space-specific parameters. The method includes determination of data from the environment of the motor vehicle by means of an environment sensor system in the motor vehicle, determination of the parking space-specific parameters from the environment data, examining the criteria of each parking scenario on the basis of the parking space-specific parameters, and classifying each parking scenario on the basis of the examined criteria.