Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: Future (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. Based on firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 19.0 in July 2026, compared to 25.0 in the previous month.
Sample. There are 353 records in the monthly time series presented in the graph above. The time range covered by the series stretches from January 1997 to July 2026.
History. Have a look at a few simple statistics calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index was equal on average to 22.6; it reached its lowest level of -10.0 in April 2020; it achieved a maximum of 52.0 in June 2020.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-05-31 | 29.0 |
| 2026-06-30 | 25.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | 19.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will capacity utilization increase or decrease over the next six months? |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Business survey response |
| Data type | Leading 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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