Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: New orders: 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 new orders (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) was -1.0 in August 2026, compared to 1.0 in July.
Sample. The monthly series plotted above has 396 data points in total. The time span covered by the series is from January 1993 to August 2026.
History. Here's a peek at a few simple statistics we computed on the full sample: the diffusion index reached its highest level of 45.0 in April 2010; it reached its lowest level of -56.0 in December 2008; it had a mean value of 1.6.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-06-30 | 6.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | 1.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | -1.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Did new orders 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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