Estimating the size of the hardwood sawmill industry in Pennsylvania

The size of the hardwood sawmill industry in Pennsylvania in 1999 is estimated at 1.311 BBF by 556 mills. Study results show an 11 percent higher estimate of the volume of hardwood lumber produced and a 60 percent greater number of Pennsylvania sawmills in 1999 as compared to the 1.186 BBF of hardwood lumber by 339 sawmills estimated by the USDC Census Bureau for the same year (USDC 2001). The difference between our estimates and those of the USDC Census Bureau is believed to be the result of the difficulty in defining and locating small sawmills. Compared with Census, our study found 73 percent more sawmills with less than 20 employees (n = 473 in this study vs. 273 in USDC) in 1999.