The latest National Statistics on forestry produced by the Forest Research were released on 29 September 2022 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.
Detailed statistics are published in the online publication Forestry Statistics 2022, with an extract in Forestry Facts & Figures 2022. They include UK statistics on woodland area, planting, timber, trade, carbon, environment, social, employment and finance & prices as well as some statistics on international forestry. Where possible, figures are also provided for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Key findings
- The area of woodland in the United Kingdom at 31 March 2022 is estimated to be 3.24 million hectares; 1.42 million hectares (44%) are independently certified as sustainably managed.
- Around 14 thousand hectares of new woodland were created in the UK in 2020/21.
- 11.2 million green tonnes of UK roundwood (softwood and hardwood) were delivered to primary wood processors and others in 2021, representing a 4% increase from the previous year.
- Wood products imported into the UK in 2021 were valued at £8.5 billion and included 8.2 million cubic metres of sawnwood, 3.8 million cubic metres of wood-based panels, 9.1 million tonnes of wood pellets and 4.2 million tonnes of paper.
- Around two thirds (69%) of respondents to the UK Public Opinion of Forestry Survey 2021 had visited forests or woodlands in the last few years. Of those, 36% reported an increase in the number of visits in the last 12 months.
- The Business Register and Employment Survey reported average employment in 2020 of 19 thousand in forestry, 8 thousand in sawmilling and 5 thousand in panel mills.
- Gross Value added (GVA) in primary wood processing (sawmilling, panels and pulp & paper) was £1.53 billion in the UK in 2020. GVA in forestry was £0.74 billion.
- The UK was the second largest net importer (imports less exports) of forest products in 2020, behind China.
Documents
Forestry Statistics 2022
PDFs of individual chapters can also be downloaded below:
Forestry Facts & Figures 2022 can be downloaded or a hard copy ordered (free) from Forestry Facts and Figures 2022.
Accompanying data sets
All data tables from Forestry Statistics are available to download. In addition, longer time series data for some topics are available from Data Downloads.
Details
Coverage: United Kingdom
Geographical breakdown: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Statistician: Simon Maxwell
Contact:
Tel: 0300 067 5997
Email: statistics@forestresearch.gov.uk
Next update: 28 September 2023
Pre-release access: Information on pre-release access to this publication can be found at Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics.
