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Afforestation Area 2023

Afforestation area decreased by 27% in 2023

Online ISSN: 2811-5597

CSO statistical publication, 25 June 2024, 11am

Key Findings

Area afforested in 2023 was 1,651 hectares, a 27% decrease from the 2,273 hectares afforested in 2022 (See Table 1).
Afforested area declined from 6,947 hectares in 2007 to 1,651 hectares afforested in 2023 (See Figure 1).
Broadleaf species comprised 54% of the 2023 afforestation area, which is the first year in the series that broadleaf species have comprised the majority of species planted (See Table 1 and Figure 2).
Sitka spruce accounted for 39% of the 2023 afforestation area (See Table 1 and Table 3B).
Area planted by farmers accounted for 47% of the total afforested area in 2023 (See Table 2).
Average afforestation parcel in 2023 was at the lowest in the series at 5.8 hectares (See Table 1).
Roscommon accounted for 11% of the total afforested area in 2023 (See Table 4 and Figure 3).

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (25 June 2024) released Afforestation Area 2023.

Commenting on the release, Niamh Shanahan, Statistician in the Environment Division, said: "The report shows the area afforested in 2023 was 1,651 hectares (ha) which was 24% of the area planted in 2007. The area afforested in 2023 was a 27% decrease on the area afforested in 2022. The proportion of broadleaf species planted in 2023 was 54%, which is the highest share in the 2007-2023 series and is the first year that their share has been higher than the proportion of conifer species planted (See Table 1).

The share of afforested area planted by farmers in 2023 was 47% which was a large increase on their 2022 share of 23%, but a sharp decline from their 2014 share of 97% (See Table 2).

Alder and Ash were the main broadleaf species planted during 2007 to 2013 while Alder and Birch were the main species from 2015 to 2023. Sitka Spruce was the dominant conifer species and comprised 84% of coniferous species in 2023 (See Tables 3A and 3B).

Roscommon had the highest county share of the total afforested area in 2023 at 11% followed by Galway (8.4%), Mayo (7.9%), and Cork (7.7%) (See Table 4 and Figure 3).

The highest average parcel size of afforested area over the 2007-2023 period was 8.4 ha in 2009. In 2023 it was 5.8 ha which was the lowest average parcel size across the 2007-2023 period (See Table 1)."

Editor's Note

This release contains an analysis of the area afforested under Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine afforestation schemes. Afforestation is the planting of trees on land not previously under forest.

Tables and Graphs

	Afforestation Area
2007	6.947
2008	6.249
2009	6.648
2010	8.314
2011	6.653
2012	6.652
2013	6.252
2014	6.156
2015	6.293
2016	6.5
2017	5.536
2018	4.025
2019	3.55
2020	2.434
2021	2.016
2022	2.273
2023	1.651

Afforestation Area	Conifer	Broadleaf
2007	4.765	2.182
2008	4.022	2.227
2009	4.175	2.473
2010	5.165	3.149
2011	4.206	2.447
2012	4.607	2.045
2013	4.76	1.492
2014	4.808	1.348
2015	5.03	1.263
2016	5.23	1.27
2017	4.375	1.161
2018	2.956	1.07
2019	2.657	0.893
2020	1.616	0.819
2021	1.187	0.829
2022	1.314	0.959
2023	0.753	0.899

	Afforestation Area
Carlow	24
Cavan	77
Clare	117
Cork	127
Donegal	21
Dublin	0
Galway	139
Kerry	98
Kildare	28
Kilkenny	59
Laois	21
Leitrim	102
Limerick	29
Longford	64
Louth	34
Mayo	131
Meath	54
Monaghan	10
Offaly	31
Roscommon	189
Sligo	49
Tipperary	98
Waterford	19
Westmeath	76
Wexford	14
Wicklow	41

Table 1 Afforestation Area by Species Type 2007-2023

Table 2 Afforestation Area by Applicant Type 2007-2023

Table 3A Afforestation Area by Broadleaf Species 2007-2023

Table 3B Afforestation Area by Conifer Species 2007-2023

Table 4 Afforestation Area by County 2007-2023

Table 5A Number of Afforestation Parcels by Size Class 2007-2023

Table 5B Afforestation Area by Parcel Size Class 2007-2023

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Table 1 Afforestation Area by Species Type 2007-2023
	Hectares				Number
Year	Broadleaf	Conifer	Total area	% Broadleaf	Afforestation Parcels	Average ha per Parcel
2007	2,182	4,765	6,947	31%	935	7.4
2008	2,227	4,022	6,249	36%	782	8.0
2009	2,473	4,175	6,648	37%	791	8.4
2010	3,149	5,165	8,314	38%	1,008	8.2
2011	2,447	4,206	6,653	37%	895	7.4
2012	2,045	4,607	6,652	31%	990	6.7
2013	1,492	4,760	6,252	24%	964	6.5
2014	1,348	4,808	6,156	22%	1,004	6.1
2015	1,263	5,030	6,293	20%	988	6.4
2016	1,270	5,230	6,500	20%	1,019	6.4
2017	1,161	4,375	5,536	21%	901	6.1
2018	1,070	2,956	4,025	27%	635	6.3
2019	893	2,657	3,550	25%	508	7.0
2020	819	1,616	2,434	34%	361	6.7
2021	829	1,187	2,016	41%	284	7.1
2022	959	1,314	2,273	42%	309	7.4
2023	899	753	1,651	54%	287	5.8

Table 2 Afforestation Area by Applicant Type 2007-2023
Hectares
Year	Farmer	Non-Farmer	Public Sector	Total Area
2007	6,469	478	-	6,947
2008	5,835	347	67	6,249
2009	6,217	396	35	6,648
2010	7,929	381	4	8,314
2011	6,254	337	62	6,653
2012	6,237	355	60	6,652
2013	6,009	240	3	6,252
2014	5,978	178	-	6,156
2015	5,390	894	9	6,293
2016	4,156	2,344	-	6,500
2017	3,242	2,294	-	5,536
2018	2,009	2,016	-	4,025
2019	1,292	2,258	-	3,550
2020	579	1,855	-	2,434
2021	360	1,657	-	2,016
2022	520	1,705	48	2,273
2023	773	877	2	1,651

Table 3A Afforestation Area by Broadleaf Species 2007-2023
Hectares
Year	Alder	Ash	Beech	Birch	Downy birch	Hazel	Norway maple	Red oak	Silver birch	Sessile oak	Sycamore	Other broadleaves	Total broadleaves
2007	559	652	41	–	–	–	6	2	–	12	24	887	2,182
2008	675	569	52	–	–	–	5	1	–	10	30	886	2,227
2009	670	615	67	–	–	–	2	12	–	58	29	1,022	2,473
2010	793	865	35	–	–	–	11	6	–	36	45	1,359	3,149
2011	544	762	44	–	–	–	1	0	–	16	23	1,057	2,447
2012	347	605	20	–	–	–	0	1	–	3	28	1,040	2,045
2013	285	52	25	–	–	–	–	0	–	16	49	1,066	1,492
2014	243	11	34	–	–	–	2	0	–	12	23	1,023	1,348
2015	263	4	12	217	1	1	6	1	75	9	32	643	1,263
2016	200	1	31	160	1	6	7	3	–	18	21	821	1,270
2017	242	1	8	142	5	3	1	2	0	33	17	707	1,161
2018	162	6	15	145	17	6	2	3	–	18	8	687	1,070
2019	110	6	2	143	22	3	0	4	2	24	4	572	893
2020	85	–	0	118	43	8	5	5	0	49	6	498	819
2021	77	–	1	128	44	17	0	2	1	32	6	522	829
2022	85	–	1	130	54	25	–	1	1	30	5	627	959
2023	97	0	2	124	70	13	0	0	1	49	0	541	899

Table 3B Afforestation Area by Conifer Species 2007-2023
Hectares
Year	Douglas fir	European larch	Hybrid larch	Japanese larch	Lodgepole pine	Norway spruce	Serbian spruce	Scots pine	Sitka spruce	Western red cedar	Other conifers	Total conifers
2007	36	61	81	674	150	472	18	192	2,993	2	88	4,765
2008	29	56	78	583	106	426	14	255	2,413	1	61	4,022
2009	12	46	71	572	66	389	31	276	2,565	2	143	4,175
2010	10	33	55	806	108	539	32	189	3,267	0	125	5,165
2011	34	42	67	89	25	535	–	115	3,200	0	100	4,206
2012	56	23	97	41	30	570	12	113	3,576	3	87	4,607
2013	23	16	95	5	26	523	6	76	3,903	1	86	4,760
2014	23	7	116	0	37	485	21	52	3,992	2	72	4,808
2015	7	10	73	1	23	521	13	72	4,231	10	69	5,030
2016	13	5	46	1	21	449	8	50	4,554	0	82	5,230
2017	23	13	7	0	3	333	9	58	3,855	5	69	4,375
2018	1	1	4	0	3	196	–	42	2,644	6	58	2,956
2019	6	0	1	3	2	152	2	48	2,377	4	63	2,657
2020	6	1	1	2	3	64	9	63	1,422	2	44	1,616
2021	7	–	–	–	1	62	4	57	1,018	1	37	1,187
2022	1	–	–	–	0	69	2	63	1,116	–	63	1,314
2023	0	0	0	0	0	37	0	55	636	2	23	753

Table 4 Afforestation Area by County 2007-2023
Hectares
Year	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Carlow	43	49	47	100	21	73	44	15	82	46	62	26	22	6	9	4	24
Cavan	300	197	260	243	204	171	210	241	277	425	317	321	167	185	160	115	77
Clare	669	695	564	521	484	480	347	420	568	552	518	262	352	168	174	211	117
Cork	1,024	1,006	799	1,157	1,035	1,041	672	690	663	608	420	297	423	293	343	400	127
Donegal	321	197	172	147	59	96	40	28	72	36	54	64	45	40	22	21	21
Dublin	18	11	–	–	1	20	–	12	8	3	11	4	35	13	–	3	–
Galway	403	263	318	561	300	336	419	387	432	331	400	287	279	96	144	209	139
Kerry	549	478	556	736	641	366	490	574	435	405	378	332	301	289	121	122	98
Kildare	79	17	111	86	141	220	48	90	29	13	33	79	25	32	42	32	28
Kilkenny	229	199	203	523	292	294	218	231	260	181	90	136	89	21	55	38	59
Laois	144	178	100	178	95	193	112	168	198	163	99	71	49	26	5	26	21
Leitrim	191	167	179	176	325	278	356	272	513	434	536	299	289	160	98	152	102
Limerick	373	441	329	411	381	281	243	122	177	329	99	81	156	66	60	100	29
Longford	124	86	87	243	174	178	255	225	286	272	201	171	62	124	70	69	64
Louth	55	65	65	46	19	51	26	–	22	40	22	10	1	2	–	15	34
Mayo	402	344	474	548	289	293	346	453	455	429	532	256	239	208	119	161	131
Meath	42	89	130	252	90	203	192	67	73	105	122	106	51	33	44	27	54
Monaghan	70	56	88	140	70	107	93	137	38	89	61	87	59	31	17	7	10
Offaly	135	242	324	279	268	263	174	128	156	136	166	72	76	38	25	53	31
Roscommon	309	352	398	360	311	252	431	449	343	435	431	399	315	273	190	176	189
Sligo	205	132	233	82	87	180	354	382	268	302	190	139	119	106	92	93	49
Tipperary	546	465	455	532	494	486	410	330	341	305	162	128	158	12	32	77	98
Waterford	310	156	245	264	204	128	138	122	125	240	163	43	49	46	33	3	19
Westmeath	141	145	200	203	251	271	241	236	204	281	207	175	77	45	49	34	76
Wexford	178	102	182	426	308	201	229	160	128	89	114	60	59	77	15	18	14
Wicklow	89	115	128	100	109	188	164	219	139	251	148	121	49	46	98	107	41

Total	6,947	6,249	6,648	8,314	6,653	6,652	6,252	6,156	6,293	6,500	5,536	4,025	3,550	2,434	2,016	2,273	1,651

Afforestation Area 2023