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.

Figures on woodland area and certified woodland area at March 2020 and on new planting and restocking for the period 2019-20 were previously published in “Provisional Woodland Statistics: 2020 edition”, released on 14 June 2020. Some figures for new planting in 2019-20 and for Statutory Plant Health Notices in Scotland have been revised from those previously published. For further details on revisions, see the Woodland Areas and Planting: Felling section of the Sources chapter.

A copy of all woodland area and planting tables, along with longer time series (where available) can be accessed in spreadsheet format from the Data Downloads web page at Time Series Data – Forest Research.

Key findings

The main findings are:

• The area of woodland in the UK at 31 March 2020 is estimated to be 3.2 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 (27%) 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/Natural Resources Wales/Forest Service woodland. Overall, 43% of the UK woodland area is certified.
• 13.7 thousand hectares of new woodland were created in the UK in 2019-20, with conifers accounting for 57% of this area.

Downloads

Additional resources

FS2020 Introduction & Glossary

Sources Chapter: Woodland Area and Planting