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. According to survey data about manufacturers collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -11.0 in January 2026, compared to -14.0 in December 2025.
Sample. There are 347 records overall in the monthly time series displayed in the graph above. The series covers the time range stretching from January 1997 to January 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of a few simple statistics computed on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean value of -0.9; it registered a minimum of -43.0 in January 2009; it achieved a maximum of 32.0 in March 2004.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | -20.0 |
| 2025-12-31 | -14.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | -11.0 |
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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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