Forest Products Data Provider · Head-to-head
UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures vs USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output (TPO)
Which forest products data provider data fits your job: UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures, or USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures
USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output (TPO)
Where the fields line up
No shared field names. These two answer different questions.
| Field | UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures | USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output |
|---|---|---|
Year | Calendar or financial reference year of the observation, depending on the table - the compendium states which convention each chapter uses. | not in this set |
Country | Geographic level of the row: the United Kingdom total or one of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A minority of tables flag partial country coverage, and that flag stays on the row rather than being silently imputed away. | not in this set |
Woodland Area | Area of woodland in thousand hectares. The series opens in 1998, and certified woodland area is carried as its own series from 2004 so sustainability claims can be tested against the certified subset directly. | not in this set |
New Planting | Hectares of newly created woodland in the reference year - the afforestation signal policy delivery is measured against. Series opens in 1971. | not in this set |
Restocking | Hectares of replanted or regenerated woodland following harvest, reported alongside new planting so gross planting headlines can be decomposed into creation versus replacement. | not in this set |
Roundwood Removals | Volume of wood removed from the woodland, in thousand cubic metres over bark. The physical supply curve every downstream number hangs off; series opens in 1976. | not in this set |
Sawnwood Output / Sawmill Deliveries | Production volumes from the UK and English sawmill surveys, coniferous sawnwood included - the processing-base read on how much harvested wood became lumber at home. This is the chapter where a 9 April 2026 correction to UK coniferous sawnwood production landed, which is why revision state rides on the delivered row. | not in this set |
Imports / Exports Value and Volume | Trade in wood products by partner region, quantities and money side by side, with EU partner detail deep enough that a 3 October 2025 correction could add Spain to Other EU import totals retroactively. | not in this set |
Coniferous Standing Sales Price Index | Index of prices achieved for coniferous standing timber - the longest continuous UK softwood price series in the shelf, opening in 1985 and stepping more finely than annual in places. | not in this set |
PLOT.INVYR | not in this set | Inventory year of the plot observation. |
PLOT.STATECD / UNITCD / COUNTYCD / PLOT | not in this set | Location keys: FIPS state code, FIA survey unit within the state, FIPS county, and plot number within county. |
PLOT.PLOT_STATUS_CD | not in this set | Plot status code indicating sampled versus nonsampled status. |
Coverage, side by side
| UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures | USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic | `Country / UK total` - United Kingdom total or England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland | `PLOT.STATECD` / `UNITCD` / `COUNTYCD` / `PLOT`; `TPO Statecd` / `Survey_statecd` / `Countycd` |
What each contains
Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures | USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output | |
|---|---|---|
| Observation year | `Year` | `PLOT.INVYR`; `TPO Year` |
| Geography key | `Country / UK total` - United Kingdom total or England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland | `PLOT.STATECD` / `UNITCD` / `COUNTYCD` / `PLOT`; `TPO Statecd` / `Survey_statecd` / `Countycd` |
| Roundwood volume | `Roundwood removals` - thousand cubic metres standing or over-bark, series from 1976 | `TPO MCFVOL` / `RPA_STD_AMOUNT` under `Remclasscd` 1 (roundwood product) |
| Mill output | `Sawnwood output / sawmill deliveries` - UK and English sawmill volumes | `TPO Prodcd` - 1 sawlogs, 2 veneer logs, 3 pulpwood, 4 composite products, 5 bioenergy/fuelwood |
| Tree biology | None - commodities only | `TREE.SPCD` / `SPGRPCD`; `TREE.STATUSCD` / `DIA` / `HT` / `CR`; `PLOT.LAT` / `LON` / `ELEV` (fuzzed) |
What each does better
UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures
Long runs. New planting and restocking reach back to 1971 - fifty-five years - roundwood removals to 1976, sawmill deliveries to 1994, certified woodland area to 2004, woodland area itself to 1998. Few national forestry estates anywhere publish series that long in one place.
The four-nation cut. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland break out wherever data permit, with partial-coverage tables labelled as such - the natural frame for country-level comparison inside one market.
USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output
Micro-data at scale. The inventory database carries plot- and tree-level rows across all 50 states plus Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the Pacific islands, with annualized statewide inventories since roughly 2004 and remeasurement cycles of five to ten years. Species, diameter, height, crown ratio and status for every measured tree: growth-and-drain modeling starts where any yearbook stops.
The removals ledger. Timber Products Output merges mill surveys with inventory data to split harvested roundwood into sawlogs, veneer logs, pulpwood, composite products and bioenergy, crossed by removal class, owner class - National Forest, other public, forest industry, other private - species group and source, down to state-county cells across survey years 1997-2024. Roughly 4.2 GB of workbooks across 18 survey-year folders, with the national tables running to multiple gigabytes.
Estimation discipline. Population estimates ship with sampling errors attached, and the whole apparatus is documented in a 1,016-page user guide - the deepest documentation bench in the slice.
The verdict
Verdict: sample both, pick by fit - they are different instruments pointed at the same raw material.
Take UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures when the question is economic: how large the wooded estate is, where planting trends, what standing coniferous timber fetched, how much wood product moved through trade, who employs whom. Accept indicator-level granularity and inferred field definitions.
Take USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output (TPO) when the question is physical: standing volume by species group and owner, removals split between products, logging residue and mill residue, county-level supply sheds, tree-level inputs to a growth model.
If your question starts with 'how much is it worth' - Britain. If it starts with 'how much is standing' - America.
Sample both, pick by fit. See UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures · See USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output
Fair questions
Is UK Forestry Statistics and Facts & Figures better than USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output (TPO)?
Better at different jobs - both score 9/10. The American record wins physical ones: tree-level plots across 50 states, removals split by product and owner, county mill cells. Many analysts keep both and let the question choose.
Which dataset reaches further back in time?
The American side counters with survey years from 1997 and annualized statewide inventories since about 2004, on plots remeasured over longer cycles.
Do the two datasets overlap anywhere?
On roundwood. The British tables publish national removals in thousand cubic metres over-bark from 1976; the American record codes every US removal into roundwood product, logging residue, other removals, residential fuelwood or mill residue by county, owner and species group. Sawnwood output and sawlog product codes describe the same mills at two zoom levels.
Which one should a timber analyst sample first?
Sample both, pick by fit - the currency of your question decides. For supply-shed mapping, residue utilization or species-by-ownership inventory on American timber, start with [USDA Forest Service FIA DataMart and Timber Products Output (TPO)](/datasets/forest-products/usda-forest-service-fia-datamart-and-timber-products-output-). Samples are cut to your geographies and years either way.
Can Datadory deliver both datasets together?
Yes. Either record arrives alone or merged onto one delivery calendar, aligned on volume units and geography so the join is done before it reaches you - delivered daily, weekly, or hourly, your call. Name the countries, states, species groups and windows when you request the sample and it lands pre-cut, with field definitions and coverage profiles attached.