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. According to recent survey data about manufacturing firms in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for capacity utilization (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share reporting a decrease) was 12.0 in April 2026, versus 23.0 in March 2026.
Sample. There are 350 data points overall in the monthly time series displayed in the plot above. The series covers the time period extending from January 1997 to April 2026.
History. Check out some simple statistics calculated on the whole sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 22.6; it reached a trough of -12.0 in October 2022; it recorded its highest level of 50.0 in February 2017.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-02-28 | 22.0 |
| 2026-03-31 | 23.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 12.0 |
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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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