Forestry Statistics 2007 - Woodland Areas and Planting

NIWT: woodland area by age

Two thirds of woodland area in GB consists of trees planted after 1950. Conifers tend to have a shorter rotation with 87% of conifers, but just 39% of broadleaves planted after 1950.

Table 1.8 Area of woodland¹ in GB by planting year classes²

Planting year	England	Scotland	Wales	GB
thousand hectares
Conifers
pre-1861	2	4	0	6
1861-1900	5	9	0	14
1901-1910	1	1	0	3
1911-1920	6	7	0	13
1921-1930	7	13	1	22
1931-1940	16	17	4	37
1941-1950	36	43	10	89
1951-1960	67	129	33	228
1961-1970	74	203	38	314
1971-1980	59	234	24	317
1981-1990	36	215	21	273
1991-	32	41	17	89
Total conifers	340	916	149	1 406
Broadleaves
pre-1861	34	12	1	46
1861-1900	89	31	24	144
1901-1910	19	5	4	27
1911-1920	55	11	9	75
1921-1930	60	16	9	85
1931-1940	56	15	20	91
1941-1950	85	25	16	126
1951-1960	80	27	15	121
1961-1970	59	22	8	90
1971-1980	42	17	4	63
1981-1990	33	15	4	52
1991-	36	11	3	50
Total broadleaves	648	206	118	971
Total
pre-1861	35	16	1	52
1861-1900	94	40	24	157
1901-1910	21	6	4	30
1911-1920	61	18	9	88
1921-1930	67	29	10	107
1931-1940	72	31	25	128
1941-1950	121	69	26	215
1951-1960	146	156	47	350
1961-1970	133	225	46	404
1971-1980	101	251	28	380
1981-1990	70	230	26	325
1991-	68	52	20	140
Total	988	1 123	266	2 377

Not National Statistics.

Source: 1995-99 National Inventory of Woodland and Trees.

Notes:

1. Excluding felled, coppice and open space.

2. Age is determined from records where these are available. Where records were not available or were clearly inaccurate, age-class was assigned by reference to similar crops of known age in the locality.

Figure 1.2 Age profile of woodland in Great Britain

Forestry Statistics 2007 - Woodland Areas and Planting

NIWT: woodland area by age

Links