Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity: New orders: Current (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 based in the Fifth District, the seasonally adjusted diffusion index for new orders (share of CEOs seeing a recent increase minus share reporting a decrease) stood at -6.0 in September 2026, versus 3.0 in August.
Sample. There are 395 data points overall in the monthly time series shown in the figure above. The time span covered by the series is from November 1993 to September 2026.
History. Check out some simple statistics calculated on the full sample: the diffusion index recorded a maximum of 38.0 in June 2021; it reached its lowest level of -62.0 in April 2020; it was equal on average to 1.7.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Percentage points |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-31 | 5.00000 |
| 2026-08-31 | 3.00000 |
| 2026-09-30 | -6.00000 |
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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 | 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) |
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