D4: Relative abundance and/or distribution of widespread species

Figure Table

Figure D4ai: Trends in abundance of breeding wild birds in woodland in England, 1970 to 2019

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV08 - Wild bird populations in England

Unit of Measurement

Index (1970 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the breeding wild birds in woodland index (based on 34 species of birds); the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

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Table D4ai: Trends in abundance of breeding wild birds in woodland in England, 1970 to 2019

Year	95% confidence interval lower bound	95% confidence interval upper bound	Smoothed index	Unsmoothed index
1970	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00
1971	102.07	104.52	103.20	106.10
1972	103.72	108.76	105.88	112.48
1973	104.11	110.94	107.10	110.99
1974	102.97	111.48	106.96	110.60
1975	101.48	111.37	105.86	110.89
1976	99.48	110.17	104.13	103.94
1977	97.49	108.41	102.06	110.21
1978	95.39	106.22	99.67	101.63
1979	94.02	104.54	98.06	93.59
1980	93.37	104.05	97.91	104.52
1981	93.73	104.15	98.08	105.70
1982	93.39	103.89	97.90	96.31
1983	92.69	103.94	97.67	102.86
1984	91.77	103.40	96.92	102.76
1985	90.19	102.14	95.41	101.53
1986	88.80	100.44	93.78	90.28
1987	88.28	99.91	93.21	92.74
1988	88.01	100.08	93.33	98.22
1989	87.25	99.74	92.57	100.42
1990	85.11	97.45	90.14	94.78
1991	81.97	93.84	86.79	86.19
1992	79.09	90.48	83.88	83.70
1993	76.87	88.66	82.00	84.03
1994	75.68	87.37	80.90	84.30
1995	74.69	86.42	80.29	80.05
1996	73.93	85.72	79.86	84.26
1997	73.70	85.96	79.60	79.21
1998	74.07	86.61	79.79	81.61
1999	74.29	87.16	80.05	82.56
2000	74.02	87.38	79.73	83.95
2001	73.05	86.59	78.64	81.04
2002	71.25	85.11	77.38	77.32
2003	70.51	84.21	76.64	77.59
2004	70.50	83.81	76.59	77.88
2005	71.06	83.95	76.98	79.83
2006	71.49	84.59	77.32	80.47
2007	71.52	84.97	77.39	79.67
2008	71.25	85.25	77.46	79.30
2009	71.16	85.82	77.88	73.59
2010	71.80	87.07	78.79	79.67
2011	72.26	87.28	79.33	86.13
2012	71.82	86.60	78.58	81.47
2013	70.48	85.06	77.08	72.77
2014	69.62	84.35	75.96	78.00
2015	68.92	83.07	75.11	78.55
2016	68.09	81.93	74.24	76.51
2017	67.05	80.80	73.34	73.74
2018	66.13	79.24	72.45	72.77
2019	64.00	78.22	71.27	73.23

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV08 - Wild bird populations in England

Unit of Measurement

Index (1970 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the breeding wild birds in woodland index (based on 34 species of birds); the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

Download CSV

Assessment of change

Indicators for breeding wild birds in England are also reported in the England Biodiversity Indicators, which presents a short and long-term assessment for the same time periods used in this Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. These assessment results were reused here as the England Biodiversity Indicators method is tailored to the datasets of the specific taxonomic group (birds) and factors-in information on confidence. The assessment found a decrease (deterioration) in the abundance of breeding wild birds in woodland in England over the short and long-term periods. No medium-term assessment results are available for this indicator using the England Biodiversity Indicators methodology and it cannot be used to assess change since 2018.

Details on the England Biodiversity Indicators assessment methododology for this indicator can be found in sections 5 and 6 of the latest England Biodiversity Indicators report. Further information on the standard assessment used in the Outcome Indicator Framework, along with details on the methodology, is provided in the Assessment background page. Summaries by 25 Year Environment Plan goal and information on indicator links are presented in the Assessment results pages.

Table D4ai: Assessment of change

Note that smoothed data presented in Figure D4ai were used for percentage change calculations. The smoothing method is specific to this indicator and differs from the default Loess smoothing approach adopted for most indicators for the Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. Percentage change figures in Table D4ai may differ from unsmoothed values quoted elsewhere. Percentage change refers to the difference seen between the first and last years in the specified date range.

Figure Table

Figure D4aii: Trends in abundance of breeding wild birds on farmland in England, 1970 to 2019

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV08 - Wild bird populations in England

Unit of Measurement

Index (1970 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the breeding wild birds on farmland index (based on 19 species of birds); the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

Download CSV Download Figure Image

Table D4aii: Trends in abundance of breeding wild birds on farmland in England, 1970 to 2019

Year	95% confidence interval lower bound	95% confidence interval upper bound	Smoothed index	Unsmoothed index
1970	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00
1971	97.27	100.58	98.97	103.74
1972	95.33	101.55	98.59	104.32
1973	93.95	103.16	98.87	101.12
1974	94.18	105.30	100.16	101.93
1975	95.36	108.37	102.16	105.97
1976	96.18	110.56	103.60	109.95
1977	95.55	110.28	103.25	111.96
1978	92.26	107.60	100.70	103.75
1979	88.72	103.66	96.77	97.91
1980	84.14	98.85	92.26	97.18
1981	79.60	93.84	87.32	92.20
1982	74.26	88.91	82.29	81.66
1983	70.06	84.55	77.90	80.63
1984	66.42	80.53	73.97	80.03
1985	62.55	76.55	70.12	73.56
1986	59.04	73.35	66.69	67.58
1987	56.73	71.65	64.36	64.60
1988	55.31	70.42	63.25	64.59
1989	54.85	69.41	62.76	66.55
1990	53.91	68.04	61.93	68.23
1991	51.76	66.11	60.16	63.35
1992	49.67	63.91	57.81	59.14
1993	47.92	61.56	55.70	53.50
1994	47.01	60.23	54.51	56.18
1995	46.68	59.61	53.99	58.13
1996	45.97	58.65	53.44	56.84
1997	45.09	57.90	52.57	55.32
1998	44.45	56.95	51.59	52.58
1999	43.89	56.12	50.89	52.01
2000	43.74	55.55	50.63	52.85
2001	43.80	55.54	50.69	52.99
2002	43.95	55.77	50.88	53.02
2003	43.99	55.93	51.03	52.99
2004	43.87	56.18	50.97	53.29
2005	43.49	55.72	50.51	53.60
2006	42.72	54.62	49.56	52.83
2007	41.71	53.25	48.36	48.29
2008	40.92	52.08	47.38	49.72
2009	40.21	51.38	46.67	47.32
2010	39.66	50.70	46.18	47.78
2011	39.10	49.96	45.65	48.19
2012	38.34	49.05	44.82	48.65
2013	37.46	48.00	43.79	43.62
2014	36.79	47.29	43.00	43.91
2015	36.35	46.72	42.49	45.52
2016	36.09	46.29	42.02	42.95
2017	35.54	45.48	41.56	44.36
2018	34.98	44.78	40.98	41.94
2019	34.29	44.34	40.35	42.23

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV08 - Wild bird populations in England

Unit of Measurement

Index (1970 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the breeding wild birds on farmland index (based on 19 species of birds); the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

Download CSV

Assessment of change

Indicators for breeding wild birds in England are also reported in the England Biodiversity Indicators, which presents a short and long-term assessment for the same time periods used in this Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. These assessment results were reused here as the England Biodiversity Indicators method is tailored to the datasets of the specific taxonomic group (birds) and factors-in information on confidence. The assessment found a decrease (deterioration) in breeding wild birds on farmland in England over the short and long-term periods. No medium-term assessment results are available for this indicator using the England Biodiversity Indicators methodology and it cannot be used to assess change since 2018.

Details on the England Biodiversity Indicators assessment methodology for this indicator can be found in sections 5 and 6 of the latest England Biodiversity Indicators report. Further information on the standard assessment used in the Outcome Indicator Framework, along with details on the methodology, is provided in the Assessment background page. Summaries by 25 Year Environment Plan goal and information on indicator links are presented in the Assessment results pages.

Table D4aii: Assessment of change

Note that smoothed data presented in Figure D4aii were used for percentage change calculations. The smoothing method is specific to this indicator and differs from the default Loess smoothing approach adopted for most indicators for the Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. Percentage change figures in Table D4aii may differ from unsmoothed values quoted elsewhere. Percentage change refers to the difference seen between the first and last years in the specified date range.

Figure Table

Figure D4bi: Trends in abundance of widespread butterflies in woodland in England, 1990 to 2021

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV09 - England biodiversity indicators

Unit of Measurement

Index (1990 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the widespread butterflies in woodland index; the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

This indicator includes individual measures for 24 species of butterflies in woodland; the index, however, only includes 23 trends. This is because an aggregate trend is used for small skipper (Thymelicus lineola) and Essex skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris); these 2 species have been combined due to historical difficulties with distinguishing between them in the field.

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Table D4bi: Trends in abundance of widespread butterflies in woodland in England, 1990 to 2021

Year	95% confidence interval lower bound	95% confidence interval upper bound	Smoothed index	Unsmoothed index
1990	81.61	106.03	93.82	100.00
1991	79.93	100.76	90.34	90.36
1992	77.86	95.92	86.89	110.40
1993	75.42	91.52	83.47	55.72
1994	72.75	87.59	80.17	65.16
1995	69.95	84.07	77.01	86.90
1996	67.04	80.82	73.93	85.11
1997	64.12	77.76	70.94	94.62
1998	61.25	74.86	68.06	58.21
1999	58.57	72.17	65.37	49.89
2000	56.14	69.75	62.94	50.00
2001	54.00	67.60	60.80	48.19
2002	52.13	65.71	58.92	56.23
2003	50.46	64.03	57.25	70.79
2004	48.94	62.49	55.71	73.45
2005	47.53	61.07	54.30	55.72
2006	46.26	59.80	53.03	56.23
2007	45.16	58.72	51.94	36.81
2008	44.28	57.85	51.07	35.16
2009	43.62	57.21	50.41	55.21
2010	43.12	56.72	49.92	62.95
2011	42.76	56.36	49.56	55.72
2012	42.53	56.13	49.33	29.24
2013	42.46	56.06	49.26	57.54
2014	42.48	56.12	49.30	50.81
2015	42.55	56.33	49.44	49.20
2016	42.60	56.74	49.67	35.56
2017	42.55	57.41	49.98	46.77
2018	42.25	58.39	50.32	66.99
2019	41.57	59.69	50.63	58.48
2020	40.44	61.35	50.90	58.61
2021	38.86	63.39	51.13	39.72

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV09 - England biodiversity indicators

Unit of Measurement

Index (1990 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the widespread butterflies in woodland index; the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

This indicator includes individual measures for 24 species of butterflies in woodland; the index, however, only includes 23 trends. This is because an aggregate trend is used for small skipper (Thymelicus lineola) and Essex skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris); these 2 species have been combined due to historical difficulties with distinguishing between them in the field.

Download CSV

Assessment of change

Indicators for widespread butterflies in England are also reported in the England Biodiversity Indicators, which presents a short, medium and long-term assessment for the same time periods used in this Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. These assessment results were reused here as the England Biodiversity Indicators method is tailored to the datasets of the specific taxonomic group (butterflies) and factors-in information on confidence. There was little or no change in the abundance of widespread butterflies in woodland over the short and medium-term assessment periods. Over the long-term period, decreases in widespread butterflies in woodland were recorded.

Change since 2018 has also been assessed using the England Biodiversity Indicators methodology. Little or no change was seen since 2018 for woodland butterflies. However, this is based on 4 data points so should be considered as indicative and not evidence of a clear trend.

Details on the England Biodiversity Indicators assessment methodology for this indicator can be found in sections 5 and 6 of the latest England Biodiversity Indicators report. Further information on the standard assessment used in the Outcome Indicator Framework, along with details on the methodology, is provided in the Assessment background page. Summaries by 25 Year Environment Plan goal and information on indicator links are presented in the Assessment results pages.

Table D4bi: Assessment of change

Note that smoothed data presented in Figure D4bi were used for percentage change calculations. The smoothing method is specific to this indicator and differs from the default Loess smoothing approach adopted for most indicators for the Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. Percentage change figures in Table D4bi may differ from unsmoothed values quoted elsewhere. Percentage change refers to the difference seen between the first and last years in the specified date range.

Figure Table

Figure D4bii: Trends in abundance of widespread butterflies on farmland in England, 1990 to 2021

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV09 - England biodiversity indicators

Unit of Measurement

Index (1990 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the widespread butterflies on farmland index; the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

This indicator includes individual measures for 22 species of butterflies on farmland; the index, however, only includes 21 trends. This is because an aggregate trend is used for small skipper (Thymelicus lineola) and Essex skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris); these 2 species have been combined due to historical difficulties with distinguishing between them in the field.

Download CSV Download Figure Image

Table D4bii: Trends in abundance of widespread butterflies on farmland in England, 1990 to 2021

Year	95% confidence interval lower bound	95% confidence interval upper bound	Smoothed index	Unsmoothed index
1990	95.21	123.05	109.13	100.00
1991	95.82	120.04	107.93	119.94
1992	96.06	117.37	106.72	125.31
1993	95.94	115.04	105.49	75.33
1994	95.53	113.04	104.29	89.74
1995	94.85	111.33	103.09	104.95
1996	93.94	109.80	101.87	116.41
1997	92.81	108.35	100.58	132.73
1998	91.52	106.92	99.22	99.77
1999	90.14	105.50	97.82	89.54
2000	88.75	104.11	96.43	94.41
2001	87.38	102.76	95.07	87.30
2002	86.07	101.48	93.77	85.90
2003	84.83	100.26	92.55	105.92
2004	83.67	99.11	91.39	103.99
2005	82.61	98.05	90.33	91.41
2006	81.68	97.12	89.40	92.26
2007	80.93	96.37	88.65	68.55
2008	80.41	95.84	88.12	64.86
2009	80.13	95.54	87.84	93.11
2010	80.08	95.47	87.77	95.72
2011	80.23	95.59	87.91	87.30
2012	80.57	95.93	88.25	53.70
2013	81.10	96.50	88.80	104.23
2014	81.71	97.26	89.48	101.15
2015	82.35	98.22	90.28	93.33
2016	82.93	99.43	91.18	70.63
2017	83.39	100.94	92.17	89.33
2018	83.63	102.77	93.20	109.90
2019	83.54	104.92	94.23	109.90
2020	83.08	107.39	95.24	101.15
2021	82.27	110.20	96.23	86.90

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV09 - England biodiversity indicators

Unit of Measurement

Index (1990 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the widespread butterflies on farmland index; the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

This indicator includes individual measures for 22 species of butterflies on farmland; the index, however, only includes 21 trends. This is because an aggregate trend is used for small skipper (Thymelicus lineola) and Essex skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris); these 2 species have been combined due to historical difficulties with distinguishing between them in the field.

Download CSV

Assessment of change

Indicators for widespread butterflies in England are also reported in the England Biodiversity Indicators, which presents a short, medium and long-term assessment for the same time periods used in this Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. These assessment results were reused here as the England Biodiversity Indicators method is tailored to the datasets of the specific taxonomic group (butterflies) and factors-in information on confidence. The assessment found little or no change in the abundance of widespread butterflies on farmland over the short, medium term and long term.

Change since 2018 has also been assessed using the England Biodiversity Indicators methodology. Little or no change was seen since 2018 for farmland butterflies. However, this is based on 4 data points so should be considered as indicative and not evidence of a clear trend.

Details on the England Biodiversity Indicators assessment methodology for this indicator can be found in sections 5 and 6 of the latest England Biodiversity Indicators report. Further information on this assessment, along with details on the methodology, is provided in the Assessment background page. Summaries by 25 Year Environment Plan goal and information on indicator links are presented in the Assessment results pages.

Table D4bii: Assessment of change

Note that smoothed data presented in Figure D4bii were used for percentage change calculations. The smoothing method is specific to this indicator and differs from the default Loess smoothing approach adopted for most indicators for the Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. Percentage change figures in Table D4bii may differ from unsmoothed values quoted elsewhere. Percentage change refers to the difference seen between the first and last years in the specified date range.

Figure Table

Figure D4c: Trends in abundance of bats in England, 1999 to 2020

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV09 - England biodiversity indicators

Unit of Measurement

Index (1999 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the bats index; the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

The indicator includes individual measures for 11 species of bats, the index, however, only includes 10 trends. This is because an aggregate trend is used for the whiskered bat and Brandt’s bat; these 2 species have been combined due to difficulties distinguishing between them in the field.

Download CSV Download Figure Image

Table D4c: Trends in abundance of bats in England, 1999 to 2020

Year	95% confidence interval lower bound	95% confidence interval upper bound	Smoothed index	Unsmoothed index
1999	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00
2000	99.98	104.51	102.62	97.19
2001	100.50	108.90	105.18	103.91
2002	101.01	112.60	107.20	96.01
2003	102.49	116.78	110.03	105.29
2004	104.80	121.96	113.65	106.60
2005	108.11	126.82	117.69	113.31
2006	110.75	130.87	121.32	115.47
2007	113.53	134.00	124.11	116.57
2008	115.32	136.48	125.91	122.60
2009	116.16	137.07	126.48	121.18
2010	116.51	137.33	126.41	116.55
2011	117.22	137.43	126.65	122.08
2012	117.71	138.74	127.40	115.74
2013	119.02	140.65	129.28	126.32
2014	120.85	143.51	131.90	118.73
2015	123.57	147.16	135.18	134.10
2016	125.74	150.24	137.69	129.79
2017	127.43	153.24	139.61	131.57
2018	129.09	155.37	141.60	134.10
2019	129.98	159.02	143.88	137.07
2020	131.08	162.88	146.48	139.64

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ENV09 - England biodiversity indicators

Unit of Measurement

Index (1999 = 100)

Footnotes

The graph shows the unsmoothed and smoothed trends for the bats index; the shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval (measure of uncertainty) for the smoothed trend.

The indicator includes individual measures for 11 species of bats, the index, however, only includes 10 trends. This is because an aggregate trend is used for the whiskered bat and Brandt’s bat; these 2 species have been combined due to difficulties distinguishing between them in the field.

Download CSV

Assessment of change

Indicators for breeding wild birds in England are also reported in the England Biodiversity Indicators, which presents a short and long-term assessment for the same time periods used in this Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. These assessment results were reused here as the England Biodiversity Indicators method is tailored to the datasets of the specific taxonomic group (bats) and factors-in information on confidence. There was an increase (improvement) in the abundance of widespread bats over the short and long-term assessment periods. No medium-term assessment results are available for this indicator using the England Biodiversity Indicators methodology and it cannot be used to assess change since 2018.

Details on the England Biodiversity Indicators assessment methodology for this indicator can be found in sections 5 and 6 of the latest England Biodiversity Indicators report. Further information on the standard assessment used in the Outcome Indicator Framework, along with details on the methodology, is provided in the Assessment background page. Summaries by 25 Year Environment Plan goal and information on indicator links are presented in the Assessment results pages.

Table D4c: Assessment of change

Note that smoothed data presented in Figure D4c were used for percentage change calculations. The smoothing method is specific to this indicator and differs from the default Loess smoothing approach adopted for most indicators for the Outcome Indicator Framework assessment. Percentage change figures in Table D4c may differ from unsmoothed values quoted elsewhere. Percentage change refers to the difference seen between the first and last years in the specified date range.