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:

• Introduction and Glossary
• Chapter 1 – Woodland Area & Planting
• Chapter 2 – UK-Grown Timber
• Chapter 3 – Trade
• Chapter 4 – Carbon
• Chapter 5 – Environment
• Chapter 6 – Social
• Chapter 7 – Employment & Businesses
• Chapter 8 – Finance & Prices
• Chapter 9 – International Forestry

Forestry Facts & Figures 2022

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.

Additional resources

Previous releases

Earlier publications are also available, but please note that figures are subject to revision in subsequent releases.

Forestry Statistics

Forestry Statistics 2021

Forestry Statistics 2020

Forestry Statistics 2019

Forestry Statistics 2018

Forestry Statistics 2017

Forestry Statistics 2016

Forestry Statistics 2015 (PDF)

Forestry Statistics 2014 (PDF)

Forestry Facts & Figures

Forestry Facts & Figures 2021 – PDF booklet

Forestry Facts & Figures 2020 – EXCEL; PDF booklet

Forestry Facts & Figures 2019 – Excel; PFD fold-up (for A3 printing)

Forestry Facts & Figures 2018: Excel; PDF fold-up (for A3 printing)

Forestry Facts & Figures 2017 – EXCEL; PDF Fold-up (for A3 printing only)

Forestry Facts & Figures 2016 – EXCEL; PDF fold-up  (for A3 printing only)

Forestry Facts & Figures 2015 – EXCEL; PDF fold-up  (for A3 printing only)

Forestry Facts & Figures 2014 – EXCEL; PDF fold-up  (for A3 printing only)

Experimental Statistics

Experiment statistics on softwood removals and deliveries by country, UK, 2015 to 2016 were released on 8 February 2018. The release provides a further analysis of wood production statistics that were released in Chapter 2 of Forestry Statistics 2017. An accompanying data set is available in Excel format.