Woodland Statistics

The latest National Statistics on woodland produced by Forest Research were released on 11 June 2020 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

The First Release 'Provisional Woodland Statistics: 2020 Edition' contains provisional statistics for the year to March 2020 on:

  • UK woodland area;
  • certified woodland area;
  • areas of new planting and publicly funded restocking; and
  • projects registered under the Woodland Carbon Code.

The main findings are:

  • The area of woodland in the UK at 31 March 2020 is estimated to be 3.21 million hectares. This represents 13% of the total land area in the UK, 10% in England, 15% in Wales, 19% in Scotland and 9% in Northern Ireland.
  • Of the total UK woodland area, 0.86 million hectares is owned or managed by Forestry England , Forestry and Land Scotland, Natural Resources Wales or the Forest Service (in Northern Ireland).
  • The total certified woodland area in the UK at 31 March 2020 is 1.39 million hectares, including all Forestry England/Forestry and Land Scotland/Welsh Government Woodland Estate/Forest Service woodland. Overall, 43% of the UK woodland area is certified.
  • Around thirteen thousand hectares of newly created woodland were reported in the UK in 2019-20.
  • Around fifteen thousand hectares of publicly-funded woodland restocking were reported in the UK in 2019-20.
  • Woodland Carbon Code projects in the UK that were validated (including those that were also verified) were predicted to sequester a total of 4.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over their lifetime of up to 100 years . This represents 3.8 million tonnes in Scotland, 711 thousand tonnes in England, 175 thousand tonnes in Wales and 11 thousand tonnes in Northern Ireland.

     

Coverage: United Kingdom

Geographical breakdown: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

     

First Release:

Provisional Woodland Statistics: 2020 Edition

Data:

Tables in Excel / ODS format.

Longer time series data:

  • New Planting and Restocking - Excel / ODS
  • Certified Woodland Area - Excel / ODS

Quality:

Quality report: Provisional Woodland Statistics

    

Statistician: Sheila Ward

Contact: Robert Stagg

Tel: 0300 067 5238

Email: statistics@forestresearch.gov.uk

    

Next update:

24 September 2020 - Final results for (the year to) March 2020 will be published in Forestry Statistics 2020 and Forestry Facts & Figures 2020.

17 June 2021 - Provisional figures for (the year to) March 2021 will be published in the 2021 Edition of this release.

     

Pre-release access:

Information on pre-release access to this publication can be found in the pre-release access page.

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Additional Resources

Methodology

More detailed information on the methodology for estimating woodland area is provided in the sources chapter of Forestry Statistics 2019.  The estimates make use of the National Forest Inventory data.  Further information (including reports) on the National Forest Inventory is avaliable on the Inventory pages.

Previous releases

Prior to the 2019 edition of Provisional Woodland Statistics, the reported figues were published in two seperate releases:

  • Woodland Area, Planting and Publicly Funded Restocking; and
  • Woodland Carbon Code Statistics (previously released on a quarterly basis).

Early provisional results for UK woodland area, certified woodland area and areas of new planting and publicly funded restocking were provided in the First Release Woodland Area, Planting and Publicly Funded Restocking published every June:

Woodland Carbon Code releases provided statistics for projects registered under the Woodland Carbon Code and were released quarterly until Spring 2018:

User engagement

In order to improve the statistics that we produce and to ensure that they remain relevant, we are interested in hearing from people who use our statistics. More information on how we consult users and contact details can be found on our user engagement page.