Official Statistics: Butterflies in the wider countryside England

These statistics on widespread butterflies on farmland and in woodland in England, contribute to a suite of indicators due to be updated later this year (the Biodiversity 2020 indicators for England); earlier data availability allows their release ahead of that publication. The measures for butterflies on farmland and in woodland are multi-species indices compiled by Butterfly Conservation (BC) and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) from data collated through the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) and the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey (WCBS). The indicators use data from butterfly transect sites on farmland and in woodland from the UKBMS and additionally randomly selected farmland plots from the WCBS. Further details of the methods used to compile the indicators and assess change can be found on the UK BMS website. More information about farmland and woodland indicators is available on the England biodiversity indicators homepage.