Introduction

This chapter contains statistics on:

• UK woodland area;
• certified woodland area;
• areas of new planting and restocking; and
• felling.

Estimates for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are included in addition to UK totals. International comparisons are provided in the International Forestry chapter. Further information on the data sources and methodology used to compile the figures is provided in the Sources chapter.

Statistics on woodland area and certified woodland area at March 2023 and on new planting and restocking for the period 2022/23 were previously published in Provisional Woodland Statistics 2023, released on 15 June 2023. For further details on revisions, see the Woodland Areas and Planting section of the Sources chapter.

A copy of all woodland area and planting data sets, along with longer time series (where available) can be accessed in spreadsheet format from the Data Downloads page.

Key findings

The main findings are:

• The area of woodland in the UK at 31 March 2023 is estimated to be 3.25 million hectares. This represents 13% of the total land area in the UK, 19% in Scotland, 15% in Wales, 10% in England, 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 2023 is 1.44 million hectares, including all Forestry England/Forestry and Land Scotland/Welsh Government Woodland Estate/Forest Service woodland. Overall, 44% of the UK woodland area is certified.
• 12.96 thousand hectares of newly created woodland were reported in the UK in 2022/23.
• Canopy cover in England was 1.94 million hectares (15% of land area) at 31 March 2022.

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