Skip to main content
Contact Us

Public Opinion of Forestry survey – woodland visitors

The Public Opinion of Forestry Survey is carried out every two years and obtains people’s attitudes to forestry and forestry-related issues, including visits to woodland. Copies of reports and detailed data tables are available at www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-5zyl9w.

The results shown in Tables 6.5 and 6.6 and Figure 6.1 have been taken from the UK and country reports on the latest surveys in 2014 and 2015, and from surveys in earlier years. The reports also include other recreation-related results, such as whether the woodlands visited were in towns or the countryside and any reasons given by survey respondents for not visiting woodlands.

In the UK 2015 survey, over one half (56%) of respondents said that they had visited woodland in the last few years for walks, picnics or other recreation (Table 6.5). This is significantly lower than the results for earlier years.

Table 6.5 Woodland visitors1
Year England Wales Scotland Northern
Ireland
UK
per cent of respondents
2003 66 62 64 77 67
2005 65 69 50 67 65
2007 76 79 75 62 77
2009 77 .. 57 .. 77
2010 .. .. .. 72 ..
2011 68 68 75 .. 67
2013 65 64 76 .. 66
2014 .. .. .. 75 ..
2015 55 64 78 .. 56

Source: UK/GB, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Public Opinion of Forestry Surveys

Base: UK/GB = 4,000 respondents (2003 to 2007), 2,000 respondents (2009 to 2015);
Scotland and Wales = 1,000 respondents each;
Northern Ireland = 120 respondents (2003), 1,000 respondents (2005, 2007, 2010, 2014).

Notes:

1. Those stating that they had visited woodland in the last few years.

.. Denotes data not available (survey not run that year or question not asked)

These figures are outside the scope of National Statistics

Survey respondents were asked how frequently they had visited during the previous summer and winter. Figure 6.1, which presents aggregated UK results for the 2011 to 2015 surveys, shows that respondents visited much more often during the summer, with around two fifths of respondents (44%) visiting at least once a month in the summer compared to around one quarter (26%) in the winter.

Figure 6.1 Frequency of visits to woodlands

fs2016fig6-1.png

Source: UK Public Opinion of Forestry Surveys, 2011 to 2015.

Base: Average visit frequencies from last three UK surveys: 2,000 respondents per survey.

These figures are outside the scope of National Statistics

Tools & Resources
In this section
Tools & Resources