Who owns the Swedish forest? How old are the forest owners and where in the country do they live? Here you find statistics about the ownership of the Swedish forest.
The statistics are based on agricultural units from the property tax assessment and the basis for the information is thus based on the information that the property owners themselves provide in the declaration. The area reported in the statistics therefore refers to submitted productive forest land. The statistics are included in the Official Statistics of Sweden and have product number JO1405.
Property and ownership structure in 2022
New forest owners
New figures from the Swedish Forest Agency show that there were 10,554 new forest owners (individuals), who were not already registered forest owners, in 2022 compared to the previous year. Of these, 47 percent were women and 53 percent men. The most common counties for these new owners were the counties of Västra Götaland and Stockholm with 1,478 and 1,270 new forest owners respectively. The average age for new forest owners was 47 year old, with the average for men 46, and for women 48. The highest average age for new forest owners was in the county of Stockholm, with an average age of 51, and the lowest was in the county of Kronoberg, with an average age of 44.
Continued trend of a falling number of forest owners and management units
The number of management units decreased with 397 units, or 0.2 percent. At the same time the number of forest owners (natural persons) reduced with 730 individuals, or 0.2 percent, between the property assessments of 2021 and 2022. Another trend is the increase in owners that are resident outside of Sweden. This has increased again, following a slight decrease in 2021. Forest owners who are resident in EU/EES excluding Norway increased with 247 individuals between 2021 and 2022.
