Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - United States - Richmond FED - Monthly
This series is part of the dataset: Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity (Richmond FED)
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 2.0 in August 2026, the same as in July.
Sample. In the monthly series shown in the chart, there are 354 records. The series covers the period extending from January 1997 to August 2026.
History. Here’s a quick look at a few summary statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index reached its highest level of 31.0 in March 2004; it reached its lowest level of -55.0 in April 2020; it had a mean of -0.8.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-06-30 | -1.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | 2.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | 2.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did capacity utilization increase or decrease in the past month? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Coincident indicator of the business cycle |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Seasonally adjusted | Yes |
| Rescaling | None |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Unit | Percentage points |
| Source | Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond |
| Source type | Central bank |
| Data licence | Not copyrightable under U.S. law |
| Measure type | Diffusion index (share of respondents reporting an increase minus share reporting a decrease) |
Series in the same data set
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