A SUMMARY OF THE TIMBER RESOURCE REVIEW 



13 



TOTAL— 12.3 billion cubic feet 

 1952 



Figure 5 



includes Coastal Alaska 



Per capita consumption of industrial wood de- 

 creased from 116 cubic feet in 1900 to 46 in 1935, 

 but has since increased to about 66 cubic feet in 

 1952. This increase of about 40 percent in the 

 per capita consumption of industrial wood in the 

 past 20 years is a significant change and shows 

 that wood, contrary to the popular belief, is more 

 than holding its own in the general economy. 



The long-term trends in lumber consumption 

 and pulpwood consumption, which are the two 

 principal timber product items per capita, are sum- 

 marized in table 3. Per capita consumption of 

 lumber has gradually dropped over the past half 

 century from 539 board-feet in 1900, with various 

 ups and downs to about half that in 1952 (264 

 board-feet) and down to 248 in 1955. This is still 

 high in relation to numerous other nations of the 



world. However, Canada and New Zealand con- 

 sume more board-feet par capita than the United 

 States, their average being in the neighborhood of 

 280 board-feet. Norway and Sweden consume 

 about 210 and 150 board-feet per capita, respec- 

 tively; USSR, 130 board-feet per capita; United 

 Kingdom, 68; France, 42; Brazil, 25. 



In contrast to the downward per capita trend 

 in lumber consumption in the United States, the 

 trends in per capita consumption of pulpwood and 

 total pulpwood consumption have both been 

 strongly upward. Since 1920 the per capita con- 

 sumption of pulpwood has increased about three- 

 fold. 



Although long-term consumption trends are 

 available for industrial wood and for certain com- 

 ponents such as lumber and pulpwood, there are 



