Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: Current (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally unadjusted) - 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. Based on a sample of manufacturing firms surveyd by the FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -10.0 in February 2026, compared to -11.0 in January.
Sample. This monthly series has 348 observations in total. The span of time covered by the series stretches from January 1997 to February 2026.
History. Take a look at some descriptive statistics computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean of -0.9; it recorded a bottom of -43.0 in January 2009; it reached a maximum of 32.0 in March 2004.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | -14.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | -11.0 |
| 2026-02-28 | -10.0 |
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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 | No |
| 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) |
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