Forestry Statistics and Forestry Facts & Figures

The latest National Statistics on forestry produced by the Forestry Commission were released on 24 September 2020 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Detailed statistics are published in the online publication Forestry Statistics 2020, with an extract in Forestry Facts & Figures 2020. 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.

The key points from the latest releases are:

• The woodland area in the United Kingdom in 2020 is 3.2 million hectares; 1.39 million hectares (43%) are independently certified as sustainably managed.
• 13.7 thousand hectares of new woodland were created in the UK in 2019-20.
• 11.1 million green tonnes of UK roundwood (softwood and hardwood) were delivered to primary wood processors and others in 2019, representing a 3% decrease from the previous year.
• Wood products imported into the UK in 2019 were valued at £8.3 billion and included 7.0 million cubic metres of sawnwood, 3.7 million cubic metres of wood-based panels, 8.9 million tonnes of wood pellets and 5.2 million tonnes of paper.
• The total area of native woodland in Great Britain is estimated to be around 1.51 million hectares.
• The Annual Business Survey reported average employment in 2018 of 16 thousand in forestry, 10 thousand in sawmilling and 6 thousand in panel mills.
• Gross Value added (GVA) in primary wood processing (sawmilling, panels and pulp & paper) was £1.88 billion in the UK in 2018. GVA in forestry was £0.67 billion.
• The UK was the second largest net importer (imports less exports) of forest products in 2018, behind China. 

Coverage: United Kingdom

Geographical breakdown: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Publications:

Forestry Statistics 2020

PDFs of individual chapters can also be dowloaded below:

• Introduction and Glossary
• Chapter 1 - Woodland area and planting
• Chapter 2 - 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 2020: can be downloaded or a hard copy ordered (free) from Forestry Facts and Figures 2020. Tables are also available in EXCEL format. 

Data: All tables are available to download from the Forestry Statistics publication. In addition, longer time series data for some topics are available from Data Downloads.

Statistician: Sheila Ward 

Contact: Robert Stagg

tel: 0300 067 5238

e-mail: statistics@forestresearch.gov.uk

Next update: 30 September 2021

Pre-release access: Information on pre-release access to this publication can be found at Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics.