Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: New orders: Future (increase vs decrease; diffusion index; percentage points; seasonally adjusted) - 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 collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for new orders (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) stood at 31.0 in July 2026, compared to 33.0 in the previous month.
Sample. The monthly time series shown in the plot has a total of 353 data points. The time period covered by the series is from January 1997 to July 2026.
History. Check out some simple statistics computed on the entire sample: the diffusion index recorded its highest level of 62.0 in February 2002; it reached its lowest level of -20.0 in April 2025; it had a mean of 29.1.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-05-31 | 34.0 |
| 2026-06-30 | 33.0 |
| 2026-07-31 | 31.0 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Diffusion index for the question: Will new orders 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 | Yes |
| 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
Discover the other time series included in this data set.