Ownership of forest land 2016

• On the basis of the Tax Administration’s data, private persons owned 344,000 forest property entities of at least two hectares of forest land at the end of 2016. These property entities had an average size of 30.5 hectares and 620,000 forest owners.

• Private persons held three-fifths of Finland’s total forest land area. Of this, 74 per cent were owned by private persons alone or with their spouse (i.e. 252,000 forest property entities of at least two hectares), 17 per cent were owned by partnerships (54,000) and nine per cent were owned by undistributed estates of deceased persons (39,000).

• Between 2013 and 2016, the number of undistributed entities of deceased persons decreased by 1,500 forest property entities (-4%), and their area decreased by 49,000 hectares. Undistributed forest entities of deceased persons have been transformed so as to be deemed partnerships. Their number increased by 2,300 forest property entities (+4%) and their area by 76,000 hectares during the same period. 

• Starting from 2013, other private ownership, in which at least one owner has died, formed a new group included in the statistics. In 2016, one of two owners had died in four per cent of all forest property entities owned by private persons alone or with their spouse, and at least one partner had died in one-fifth of all partnerships. These proportions decreased clearly during the 2013–2016 review period.

• At the end of 2016, the state owned 26 per cent of all forest land. Limited liability companies owned eight per cent, jointly owned forests three per cent and municipalities two per cent.

• Between 2013 and 2016, the number of jointly owned forests increased to 356 forest property entities (+36%), and their area increased to 455,000 hectares (+13%).

• The ownership of forest land by forest funds is not directly indicated in the Tax Administration’s data, as they own forest land through four different legal entities: limited liability companies, limited partnerships, non-UCITS funds and jointly owned forests. However, they were identified on the basis of other data sources. Between 2013 and 2016, the area of the forest land in forest property entities owned at least in half by forest funds increased tenfold from 26,000 hectares to more than 260,000 hectares (+900%).

Data of year 2014 was added to the statistics in June 25, 2019.

The data for the reference year 2016 are the latest published. During 2024, The publication needs, the possibilities for publication and the data content of the statistics will be assessed.