Facts about the statistics on property and ownership structure
Here we describe definitions used in the statistics and how the statistics are produced. The statistics are included in Sweden's official statistics and have product number JO1405.
In the property taxation of agricultural units, land is divided into different categories as prescribed in the Property Taxation Act (1979:1152). The statistics are based on the two categories that include productive forest land, during the period 1999 to 2016. In the property taxation in 2017, the category productive forest land was divided into two categories, one with and one without harvesting restrictions. Productive forest land in these statistics is therefore based on a sum of these two categories.
Definitions and explanations
Declared productive forest land in these statistics is the sum of what in the Property taxation Act is referred to as productive forest land without harvesting restrictions and productive forest land with harvesting restrictions. The definitions in the Property Taxation Act, Chapter 2, §2, are as follows for productive forest land:
Productive forest land without harvesting restrictions
Produktiv skogsmark som inte omfattas av avverkningsrestriktioner. Productive forest land not subject to harvesting restrictions.
Productive forest land with harvesting restrictions
Productive forest land subject to harvesting restrictions. Productive forest land refers to the same as in 2 § in The Forestry Act of the (1979:429). Harvesting restrictions refers to harvesting bans, requirements on retention, maximization of clearing size or timber harvest or coniferous forest bans according to regulation in nature reserves or biotope protection areas.
Rounding
In property taxation, owners submit productive forest land in whole hectares, which results in rounding effects. The area of productive forest land must therefore be at least one hectare per taxation unit to be included in the statistics.
2 hectares rule
In the property taxation, a 2-hectares rule is applied which means that for example the land for a small house, whose total area of plot of land and productive forest land is less than 2 hectares, is classified as a plot. An agricultural unit with only one hectare productive forest land is included in the statistics if the total area of the unit exceeds two hectares.
Ownership classes in forestry statistics
To describe the ownership structure of productive forest land in Sweden, the ownership classification below is used. Sometimes the ownership class "Unknown" is used for owners whose ownership could not be classified or if the area could not be linked to an owner.
State
Swedish state-owned institutions, funds and foundations whose assignment includes managing Swedish state forest property, for example the Swedish Forest Agency.
State owned companies/corporations
Companies/corporations more than 50 percent administrated by the Swedish government, for example Sveaskog AB.
Other public owners
Swedish local and county councils including limited companies, foundations and funds owned to 50 percent or more by local and county councils.
Private-sector companies/corporations
Company/corporation that is more than 50 percent privately owned.
Individual owners
Natural persons, estates and companies that are not limited companies.
Other private owners
Religious associations including the Swedish Church, privately owned foundations and funds, profit and non-profit associations, profit driven community groups.
Forest owner
The concept forest owner (natural persons) used in the statistics refers to someone who owns at least 1,0 hectare of productive forest land, either on their own or with someone else.
Foreign ownership
Foreign ownership is defined as the owner not having a Swedish address and the country reported as the country is the owner's country of address.
Taxation and management units
In the Swedish Tax Agency's property tax register, a forest property is classified as a tax unit, while the definition of a management unit is used in the Swedish Forest Agency's processing. The reason that the concept of management unit is used is its connection to the Forestry Act (1979:429). There are differences between the definitions:
A taxation unit must be within a municipality and may not include property with different tax conditions. This means that natural persons and companies, can own one or more taxation units in the same municipality and taxation units in other municipalities.
A management unit consists of the productive forest land within a municipality that belongs to the same owner.
Owned by non-resident, locally owned or owned partly by non-resident
Management units are divided into three different classes based on where they are in relation to the owner's residential address. The management unit is
- owned by non-resident if one or all the forest owners lives in a municipality other than the municipality in which the management unit is located.
- locally owned if all the forest owners resides in the same municipality as their management unit is located.
- owned partly by non-resident if at least one owner lives elsewhere than in the municipality where the management unit is located.