The UK had an estimated 3.29 million hectares of woodland at 31 March 2025, covering 14% of its land area. The latest figures also show a woodland system that supports timber production, stores carbon, attracts hundreds of millions of visits and remains unevenly accessible across England. This guide brings together the main UK woodland statistics, with dates, units and geographic coverage kept explicit.
Contents
- UK woodland area and composition
- Ownership, certification and woodland management
- Planting, felling and UK-grown timber
- Wood-product trade and consumption
- Forest carbon stocks and future accumulation
- Woodland visits and public access
- Forestry, employment and public attitudes
UK woodland area and composition
Forestry Statistics 2025 estimates that UK woodland area increased by 265 thousand hectares, or 9%, between 2005 and 2025. At 31 March 2025, broadleaves covered 1.710 million hectares, compared with 1.576 million hectares of conifers. Conifers therefore accounted for 48% of UK woodland overall, although the balance differed sharply between countries. These figures use the UK forestry definition of woodland: land under tree stands of at least 0.5 hectares with at least 20% canopy cover, or the potential to achieve that cover. Forestry Statistics 2025: Chapter 1 Woodland Area & Planting
The country breakdown at 31 March 2025 was:
| Country | Woodland area | Share of UK total | Conifer share where reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 1.51 million ha | 46% | 71% |
| England | 1.35 million ha | 41% | 23% |
| Wales | 313 thousand ha | 10% | Not stated here |
| Northern Ireland | 119 thousand ha | 4% | Not stated here |
The published country percentages are rounded, so they do not necessarily sum exactly to 100%. Scotland contained the largest area and had the strongest conifer predominance in the figures reported. England had a much lower conifer share, with broadleaved woodland making up the larger component.
Ownership, certification and woodland management
The four main public forestry bodies owned or managed 860 thousand hectares, equal to 26% of UK woodland, at 31 March 2025. Their total landholding was larger: 1.091 million hectares, consisting of 860 thousand hectares of woodland and 232 thousand hectares of other land. The distinction matters because public forestry land is not identical to public woodland area. Forestry Statistics 2025: Chapter 1 Woodland Area & Planting
Certified woodland totalled 1.439 million hectares, or 44% of UK woodland. Certification was most widespread in Scotland, where it covered 60% of woodland, followed by Northern Ireland at 56%, Wales at 48% and England at 23%. The certified total comprised 860 thousand hectares of public-sector woodland and 579 thousand hectares of private-sector woodland. These are certification and ownership measures for 31 March 2025, not estimates of all woodland managed to the same standards.
The latest figures also record 171 Scottish sites, 72 English sites and 25 Welsh sites receiving Statutory Plant Health Notices in the year to 31 March 2025. The figures describe notices served, rather than a direct count of all diseased trees or all affected woodland. Forestry Statistics 2025 is the source for the area, ownership, certification and plant-health measures.
Planting, felling and UK-grown timber
The UK reported 15.58 thousand hectares of newly created woodland in 2024/25. In the year to March 2025, unconditional felling licences without a restocking requirement covered 0.5 thousand hectares of Great Britain woodland. These measures describe different parts of the forestry system: newly created woodland records establishment, while the felling figure concerns licences without a restocking requirement and does not represent all felling activity.
UK roundwood removals in 2024 comprised 9.9 million green tonnes of softwood and 0.8 million green tonnes of hardwood. Processors and other users received 10.4 million green tonnes of UK roundwood, 6% more than in 2023. Sawmills received 5.5 million green tonnes, up 13%, while wood-based panel manufacturers received 1.3 million tonnes, down 8%. Integrated pulp and paper mills received 0.4 million tonnes, down 15%.
Woodfuel accounted for 2.4 million green tonnes of deliveries in 2024, unchanged from 2023. Other uses, including fencing, shavings and roundwood exports, received 0.8 million green tonnes, 16% more than in 2023. The different directions of change show why a single roundwood total cannot explain how UK-grown timber is being used. Forestry Statistics 2025 – Chapter 2: UK-Grown Timber
UK production in 2024 included 3.3 million cubic metres of sawnwood, 2.9 million cubic metres of wood-based panels and 3.3 million cubic metres of paper and paperboard. These output measures use cubic metres, whereas roundwood deliveries use green tonnes, so the units should not be added together.
Wood-product trade and consumption
The UK imported 6.3 million cubic metres of sawnwood in 2024, 2% more than in 2023, and 3.1 million cubic metres of wood-based panels, 2% less than in 2023. Wood-pellet imports reached 9.3 million tonnes, 46% more than in 2023. Pulp and paper imports reached 5.1 million tonnes, 8% higher than the previous year. Forestry Statistics 2025 – Chapter 3: Trade
The value of UK wood-product imports was £9.2 billion in 2024, including £4.3 billion of pulp and paper. UK wood-product exports were worth £1.8 billion, of which £1.5 billion was pulp and paper. The trade values cover products rather than woodland itself, and the source reports them for calendar year 2024.
UK apparent wood consumption was 48.5 million cubic metres of Wood Raw Material Equivalent underbark in 2024, up 14% from 2023. In the same measure, UK production supplied 10.1 million cubic metres, imports supplied 42.5 million and exports removed 4.0 million. Wood Raw Material Equivalent underbark is a conversion measure used for comparing wood flows; it is not the same unit as the product-specific tonnes and cubic metres listed above.
Forest carbon stocks and future accumulation
The estimated carbon stock in UK forests was 4.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025, compared with about 3.2 billion tonnes in 1990. Soils held 2.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025, while living woody biomass held 0.9 billion tonnes. The components are reported in carbon-dioxide-equivalent terms and should not be treated as a direct measure of annual emissions savings. Forestry Statistics: Chapter 4 Carbon
Scotland held 1.9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or 46% of UK forest carbon stock, in 2025. England held 1.7 billion tonnes, or 41%. The country values are stock estimates for 2025, not annual sequestration totals.
The projected net annual carbon-dioxide accumulation rate for UK forests is about 16.5 million tonnes in 2025 and 10.0 million tonnes by 2050. These are projections, so they describe an expected future path rather than an independently observed 2050 result. The lower projected rate by 2050 indicates that the stock and the annual rate are different measures: a forest can continue to hold carbon while its additional annual accumulation changes.
By 31 March 2025, 762 UK Woodland Carbon Code projects had been validated, covering more than 38,705 hectares. Their projected lifetime sequestration was 13.0 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is a lifetime projection for validated projects, not a claim that the full amount had already been sequestered by that date.
Woodland visits and public access
Woodlands received an estimated 507 million visits in England and 237 million visits in Scotland during 2023/24. The figures are estimates of visits, not unique visitors, and the country survey coverage differs. In England, about 66% of woodland visits in 2024/25 were within 2 miles of the journey’s starting point. Forestry Statistics: Chapter 6 Social
The 2025 UK survey found that 70% of respondents who had visited woodlands in the last few years said they had visited at least once a month during the previous summer, April to September 2024. Among UK woodland visitors surveyed in 2025, 32% reported more visits in the previous 12 months, 49% reported no change and 17% reported fewer visits. These are survey responses, not population counts. Public Opinion of Forestry 2025: UK and England
Access remains uneven in England. The 2025 access assessment indicated that 27% of England’s woodland area had statutory or permissive public access, leaving 73% with no known public access. At household level, 66% of English households had a publicly accessible woodland larger than 20 hectares within 4 km. For smaller distances and woodland sizes, 39% had access to woodland larger than 2 hectares within 1 km, and 14% within 500 metres. Across English local authority districts, an average 53% of the population had access to publicly accessible woodland larger than 20 hectares within 4 km. New research on public access to woodlands released
The access release also described EWCO additional contributions of up to £3,700 per hectare for public access and up to £600 per hectare for woodland close to homes. These are stated offers, not payments that every qualifying hectare necessarily received. The access figures describe England rather than the whole UK.
Forestry, employment and public attitudes
Forestry contributed an estimated £0.88 billion of UK gross value added in 2023, while primary wood processing contributed £1.93 billion. Public forests managed by Forestry England, Forestry and Land Scotland and Natural Resources Wales had net expenditure of £55.4 million in 2024/25. Forestry grants paid by UK forestry authorities totalled £98.0 million in the same financial year. Forestry Statistics 2025 – Chapter 8: Finance & Prices
The ONS Business Register and Employment Survey estimated 21 thousand people employed in UK forestry in 2022, in the October 2023 survey release. Primary UK wood processors employed an estimated 7.5 thousand full-time-equivalent staff in 2024, 4% more than in 2023. There were 186 UK establishments using UK-grown roundwood in primary wood processing in 2024. The forestry and processing figures use different definitions and periods, so they should not be combined into one employment total. Forestry Statistics 2025 – Chapter 7: Employment & Businesses
Prices also moved differently across product categories. The Great Britain Coniferous Standing Sales Price Index was 0.6% lower in real terms in the year to March 2025. Over the six months to March 2025, the Great Britain Softwood Sawlog Price Index was 32.7% higher in real terms than in the corresponding prior period, while the Small Roundwood Price Index was 15.6% higher. These are index movements for Great Britain and are not UK-wide price averages. Forestry Statistics 2025 – Chapter 8: Finance & Prices
Public views of woodland health were also measured in 2025. In the UK Public Opinion of Forestry survey, 76% agreed that authorities and woodland managers should act to protect trees from damaging pests and diseases, while 30% agreed that little could be done. On self-reported knowledge of tree health and disease, 8% reported high knowledge, 29% reasonable knowledge and 57% low knowledge. These percentages are survey results, not a measurement of the condition of UK woodland. Forestry Statistics: Chapter 5 Environment