Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: New orders: 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 survey data about manufacturers based in the Fifth District, the seasonally unadjusted diffusion index for new orders (share of CEOs seeing a future increase minus share forecasting a decrease) was 33.0 in May 2026, compared to 29.0 in April 2026.
Sample. In the monthly time series displayed in the plot, there are a total of 351 data points. The period covered by the series goes from January 1997 to May 2026.
History. Here's a glimpse of a few simple statistics computed on the full sample: the diffusion index had a mean of 29.1; it hit a peak of 64.0 in February 2002; it registered a minimum of -20.0 in October 2022.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 33.0 |
| 2026-04-30 | 29.0 |
| 2026-05-31 | 33.0 |
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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 | 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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