Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: Capacity utilization: Future (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 firms' responses to the Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity carried out by the Richmond FED, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 20.0 in January 2026, compared to 15.0 in December 2025.
Sample. There are 347 observations overall in the monthly time series displayed in the chart above. The series covers the time span extending from January 1997 to January 2026.
History. Here's a snapshot of some statistics computed on the whole sample: the diffusion index averaged 22.6; it reached its lowest level of -12.0 in October 2022; it hit a peak of 50.0 in February 2017.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-30 | 9.0 |
| 2025-12-31 | 15.0 |
| 2026-01-31 | 20.0 |
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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 | 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) |
Series in the same data set
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