Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Notes for Capacity and Capacity Utilization Source and Description Tables PDF

1. Description of Columns

Groups and Series: Series marked with either an asterisk (*) or a dagger (†) are included in the published totals but are not published separately. Series marked with an asterisk are available upon request. The following abbreviations are used: ex. = excluding; eq. = equipment; misc. = miscellaneous; pt. = part.

Classification:

NAICS: North American Industry Classification System, 2017 edition, published by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

SOP: Stage of process classification: Crude processing (C), Primary & semifinished processing (P), Finished processing (F).

Type: Basis for capacity estimates.

• Phys: Capacity estimates are based on physical data.
• SPC: Capacity estimates are based on measures of capital services from the Federal Reserve Board and on utilization rate data for the fourth quarter of each year from the Survey of Plant Capacity (1974 to 2006) and from the Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity (after 2006), both conducted by the Census Bureau.
• TTP: Capacity estimates are based on trends through peaks in output.

Value-added proportion, 2021: This proportion is compiled from information contained in the Census of Manufactures, Annual Survey of Manufactures, and Census of Mineral Industries and in reports from the Department of Energy, the Edison Electric Institute, and the American Gas Association. The figures may not add to totals because of rounding.

Beginning date: Denotes beginning dates for series. Underlying physical data for some series may start at different dates.

2. Series beginning prior to 1972 are based, in part, on the McGraw-Hill/DRI survey that was available from 1955-88. In those industries where the McGraw-Hill/DRI survey is used at an aggregate level and the Census's Survey of Plant Capacity is used for more detailed components, the level of estimated capacity based on the Census survey has been adjusted to achieve consistency with the McGraw-Hill/DRI survey.

3. Manufacturing (SIC) consists of those industries included in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) definition of manufacturing plus those industries—logging and newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishing—that traditionally have been considered to be manufacturing and included in the industrial sector.