Birch and maple are both pale, fine-textured northern hardwoods, often used interchangeably in cabinets and furniture, and both are common faces on hardwood plywood. This page compares yellow birch, the main commercial birch, with hard (sugar) maple and red (soft) maple.
Birch vs Maple: the numbers
| Property | Yellow birch | Sugar maple | Red maple |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% MC | 1,260 lbf | 1,450 lbf | 950 lbf |
| Density at 12% MC | 43.4 lb/ft³ | 44.1 lb/ft³ | 37.8 lb/ft³ |
| Weight per board foot | 3.61 lb | 3.67 lb | 3.15 lb |
| Bending strength (MOR), 12% MC | 16,600 psi | 15,800 psi | 13,400 psi |
| Stiffness (MOE), 12% MC | 2.01 million psi | 1.83 million psi | 1.64 million psi |
| Crushing strength parallel to grain | 8,170 psi | 7,830 psi | 6,540 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry, tangential | 9.5% | 9.9% | 8.2% |
| Shrinkage, radial | 7.3% | 4.8% | 4.0% |
| Shrinkage, volumetric | 16.8% | 14.7% | 12.6% |
| Tangential / radial ratio (cupping tendency) | 1.3 | 2.06 | 2.05 |
| Width change per 1% MC, flatsawn (Table 13-5) | 0.338% | 0.353% | 0.289% |
| Heartwood decay resistance (Table 14-1) | slightly or nonresistant | slightly or nonresistant | slightly or nonresistant |
What the numbers mean
- Hardness: Sugar maple is 15% harder than Yellow birch (1,450 against 1,260 lbf), so it resists dents from furniture feet, dropped tools and wear correspondingly better.
- Weight: Sugar maple is 2% heavier. A 1 x 6 board 8 feet long (4 board feet nominal) weighs about 14.7 lb in sugar maple and 14.4 lb in yellow birch at 12% moisture content.
- Strength and stiffness: Yellow birch is 5% stronger in bending and 10% stiffer. Stiffness is what decides how much a shelf of the same size sags under the same load.
- Movement: a flatsawn board 10 in wide that goes from 6% to 12% moisture content (a dry winter to a humid summer indoors) swells about 0.203 in (3/16 in) in yellow birch and 0.212 in (7/32 in) in sugar maple, from Handbook Eq. 13-2 and the Table 13-5 coefficients. Allow for this in table tops, panels and floors.
- Decay resistance of the heartwood: Yellow birch: slightly or nonresistant; Sugar maple: slightly or nonresistant; Red maple: slightly or nonresistant. Sapwood of every species has low decay resistance.
- The percentages above compare the first two columns; the table also lists Red maple for comparison.
Appearance, working and what to watch for
In the Handbook numbers yellow birch sits between the two maples in hardness and is the strongest and stiffest of the three in bending. Birch heartwood is light reddish brown with pale sapwood; plywood faces are usually rotary-cut and show a wilder, wavier figure than maple. Maple is more uniformly creamy white. Yellow birch has more radial and volumetric shrinkage than either maple, so it needs to be properly dried and acclimatised before building.
For plywood the choice is often price and look: birch plywood is common and economical, maple plywood is usually a little more expensive with a calmer face. Both blotch under some stains. Baltic birch plywood is a different product, made from many thin birch plies with no voids, and is prized for jigs and drawers because of its strength and void-free edges.
Plywood and veneer notes
Most cabinet-grade birch and maple plywood has a thin hardwood face over a softer core, so the face species matters more for looks and finishing than for strength. Check the face grade and whether it is rotary-cut or plain-sliced; rotary faces show broader, wilder grain. “White birch” and “white maple” faces are sapwood only, sorted for a pale colour. In solid wood, yellow birch is less common at retail than hard maple but is often cheaper where it is stocked.
Which to choose: verdict by use
| Use | Better choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinets with a clear finish | Maple | More uniform face and colour. |
| Painted cabinets | Birch | Economical and smooth. |
| Bending strength, chair parts, dowels | Yellow birch | Highest bending strength and stiffness of the three. |
| Floors and counters | Hard maple | Hardest of the three. |
| Shop jigs and drawer boxes | Baltic birch plywood | Void-free plies and strong screw holding. |
Frequently asked questions
Is birch harder than maple?
Yellow birch (1,260 lbf Janka) is a little softer than hard maple (1,450 lbf) and harder than red maple (950 lbf).
Is birch or maple plywood better?
Both are good. Maple faces are more uniform and usually cost a little more; birch is common and economical. For structural strength and clean edges, Baltic birch is a separate, higher-grade product.
Does birch stain well?
Like maple, birch can blotch with penetrating stains. Use a pre-stain washcoat, gel stain or dye, and test on scrap first.
Sources and method
All property values are read from our parsed copy of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-190, 2010), a US Government publication in the public domain, the same data as the wood species database. The percentages and the board examples above are our arithmetic on those values. The values describe small, clear, straight-grained specimens: real boards with knots or sloping grain differ, and structural lumber is sized from graded design values in your local building code, not from this table.
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-190, 2010. Chapter 2 (species descriptions), Chapter 4 (Tables 4-3, 4-4 shrinkage; Eq. 4-7, 4-9, 4-12 density), Chapter 5 (Tables 5-3b, 5-5b strength and hardness), Chapter 13 (Table 13-5 dimensional change coefficients), Chapter 14 (Table 14-1 decay resistance)
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook, 2021 edition (FPL-GTR-282)
Last reviewed: 24 October 2026. How we build and check our data: methodology and corrections. Spotted an error? Please let us know.