Downloading Historical Data for the Business Outlook Survey

Historical data for the Business Outlook Survey were revised to account for new seasonal adjustment factors as of January 10, 2008.

More information about the revisions

Summary of revisions for 2007 (xls file)

Press Release announcing revisions

If you are interested in the history of the published seasonally adjusted diffusion indexes (May 1968 to present), use the following links. Data are available for download in various formats: ascii tab delimited (.txt), comma delimited text (.csv), or Excel workbook (.xls).

Diffusion index data only: .txt file | .csv file | .xls file (incorporating revisions)

Data definitions: readme_diffusionindexes.txt

Revised historical monthly data for all diffusion indexes AND aggregate proportions series (percentage of firms reporting increases, decreases, and no change) are available from May 1968 to the most current release month. Data definitions are outlined in the accompanying "readme.txt" file. The historical data file contains both seasonally adjusted and nonseasonally adjusted diffusion indexes.

Download all historical data series: .txt file | .csv file | .xls file (incorporating revisions)

Historical Charts (new)

Download documentation, including data definitions -- 'readme.txt'