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 15.0 in May 2026, the same as in April.
Sample. There are 393 observations overall in the monthly series presented in the chart above. The series covers the span of time going from January 1993 to May 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of some statistics we computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 1.6; it achieved a maximum of 45.0 in April 2010; it reached a trough of -56.0 in December 2008.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 8.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 15.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | 15.0 |
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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) |
Series in the same data set
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