Secular trend

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In statistics, a secular trend in a time series is the long-term upward or downward trend in the numbers, as opposed to a smaller cyclical variation with a periodic and short-term duration.

For example, in the business operating cycle, revenue might fluctuate during the fiscal year. Experienced management could ignore the cyclical fluctuation in revenue and concentrate instead on the larger trend from year to year, hoping to see a secular trend upward.