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. According to survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for new orders (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at 15.0 in April 2026, compared to 8.0 in March.
Sample. There are 392 data points overall in the monthly time series shown in the plot above. The series covers the time period extending from January 1993 to April 2026.
History. Have a look at some simple statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index reached a maximum of 45.0 in April 2010; it reached its minimum of -56.0 in December 2008; it averaged 1.6.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-02-28 | -5.0 |
| 2026-03-31 | 8.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 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) |
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