The latest National Statistics on forestry produced by the Forest Research were released on 28 September 2023 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Detailed statistics are published in the online publication Forestry Statistics 2023, with an extract in Forestry Facts & Figures 2023. 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 2023 is estimated to be 3.25 million hectares; 1.44 million hectares (44%) are independently certified as sustainably managed.
• 12.96 thousand hectares of new woodland were created in the UK in 2022/23.
• 10.1 million green tonnes of UK roundwood (softwood and hardwood) were delivered to primary wood processors and others in 2022, representing a 10% decrease from the previous year.
• Wood products imported into the UK in 2022 were valued at £10.7 billion and included 6.5 million cubic metres of sawnwood, 3.2 million cubic metres of wood-based panels, 7.5 million tonnes of wood pellets and 5.0 million tonnes of paper.
• Around three-quarters (74%) of respondents to the UK Public Opinion of Forestry Survey 2023 had visited forests or woodlands in the last few years. Of those, 22% reported an increase in the number of visits in the last 12 months.
• The Business Register and Employment Survey reported average employment in 2021 of 20 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 £2.09 billion in the UK in 2021. GVA in forestry was £0.76 billion.
• The UK was the third-largest net importer (imports less exports) of forest products in 2021, behind China and the USA.

Chapters

PDFs of individual chapters can be downloaded from the chapter landing pages linked 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 2023

Forestry Facts & Figures 2023 can be downloaded or a hard copy ordered (free) online.

Accompanying data sets

The tables within each chapter (including data for charts) are available on the landing page for each chapter. Longer time series (for some topics) are available to download in spreadsheet format from Time Series

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: 26 September 2024

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