And that's why the US market is eating most of Europe's construction wood supply at the moment? Which, by the way, is sourced to a significant degree from the former Soviet Union. So comparing EU forest surface with the US is somewhat misleading.

If "at the moment" is the past year and a half then it's because lumber prices have tripled or quadrupled so of course it makes sense to buy far afield and ship if the price is lower.

Prices increased because the US and China are buying up everything, not the other way round.

Yes increased demand drives increases in price if the supply is limited. Production has been constrained everywhere for the past year and a half so buyers have had to source material from further away than usual.

Didn't check the numbers but I'd guess including European Russia or non-EU Balkans or Norway would totally change your results.

Then again, including Canada would probably as well.

I just used the parent comment numbers converted to same unit with the first DDGed population result. Comparing pct land forested seemed an odd ratio to me. Population seemed to be a better proxy for housing demand. Pop density and other factors would probably confound but tree per capita seems to matter than tree per surface area.

Canada is right next door as well, with trees that can just float down the river