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Home / Tools and Resources / Statistics / Forestry Statistics and Forestry Facts & Figures / Forestry Statistics 2016 / 2016 – International Forestry
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The FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) is a collation of forest data undertaken by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) at the global level every five years.

At around 13% forest cover in 2015, the UK is one of the least densely forested countries in Europe (Table 9.1, Figure 9.1). This compares with 38% for the EU as a whole and 31% worldwide.

Table 9.1 Forest cover: international comparisons, 2015
Country Forest area
(million ha)		 Total land area
(million ha)		 Forest as %
of land area
Europe
United Kingdom 3 24 13
Finland 22 30 73
France 17 55 31
Germany 11 35 33
Italy 9 29 32
Spain 18 50 37
Sweden 28 41 68
Other EU 52 159 32
Total EU-281 161 424 38
Russian Federation 815 1 638 50
Total Europe 1 015 2 214 46
Africa 624 2 987 21
Asia 593 3 118 19
North & Central America 751 2 134 35
Oceania 174 850 20
South America 842 1 747 48
World 3 999 13 049 31

Source: FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015.

Notes:

1. Cyprus is included in EU-28 total but is part of FAO’s Asia region.

These figures are outside the scope of National Statistics

Figure 9.1 Forest cover: international comparisons, 2015

fs2016fig9-1.png

Source: FAO.

These figures are outside the scope of National Statistics

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