Yellow Birch Wood: Hardness, Weight and Shrinkage

Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) in numbers: hardness, weight, strength, shrinkage, movement and decay resistance, taken from the tables of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory’s Wood Handbook, followed by what the wood is like to work and what it is used for. The values are averages from small, clear, straight-grained test specimens; real boards with knots, sloping grain or a different moisture content will differ.

Property	Yellow birch
Janka side hardness, 12% moisture	1,260 lbf (5,605 N)
Janka side hardness, green	780 lbf
Hardness rank	harder than 107 of the 168 woods with a 12% hardness value in our database
Density at 12% moisture	43.4 lb/ft³ (694 kg/m³)
Weight per board foot (12%)	3.61 lb
Specific gravity (ovendry weight, green volume)	0.55
Specific gravity at 12% moisture	0.62
Bending strength (modulus of rupture), 12%	16,600 psi
Stiffness (modulus of elasticity), 12%	2.01 million psi
Crushing strength (compression parallel to grain), 12%	8,170 psi
Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial / tangential / volumetric	7.3% / 9.5% / 16.8%
Tangential / radial shrinkage ratio	1.3
Dimensional change per 1% moisture (radial / tangential)	0.00256 / 0.00338
Impact bending (drop height to failure), 12%	55 in.
Heartwood decay resistance	slightly or nonresistant

The species in this group

Lumber is often sold under a group name. These are the species the Wood Handbook reports for this group, with the same properties side by side.

Species	Janka (lbf)	Density (lb/ft³)	Bending (psi)	Stiffness (Mpsi)	Crushing (psi)	Shrink T/R (%)	Decay resistance
Yellow birch Betula alleghaniensis	1,260	43.4	16,600	2.01	8,170	9.5 / 7.3	slightly or nonresistant
Sweet birch Betula lenta	1,470	45.4	16,900	2.17	8,540	9.0 / 6.5	slightly or nonresistant
Paper birch Betula papyrifera	910	38.5	12,300	1.59	5,690	8.6 / 6.3	slightly or nonresistant

All values at 12% moisture content except shrinkage (green to ovendry). Where the Handbook gives one shrinkage value for a group, it is repeated for each species. Source: USDA Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-190).

What it is

Most birch lumber and veneer comes from three species: yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), sweet birch (B. lenta) and paper birch (B. papyrifera). River birch and gray birch are of lesser commercial importance. Yellow and sweet birch grow mainly in the Northeast and the Lake States and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia; paper birch grows right across the continent.

Yellow birch has white sapwood and light reddish-brown heartwood. Sweet birch has light-colored sapwood and dark brown heartwood tinged with red. Paper birch is the odd one out: it is lighter in weight, softer and lower in strength than the other two, and it goes into quite different products.

Working properties

Yellow and sweet birch are heavy, hard and strong, with good shock-resisting ability, and the wood is fine and uniform in texture. Birch shrinks considerably during drying: yellow birch shrinks 9.5% tangentially from green to ovendry, and in service a flatsawn board changes width by about 0.338% for each 1% change in moisture content, against about 0.256% for a quartersawn board.

Weight and density

At 12% moisture content yellow birch weighs about 43.4 lb per cubic foot, so one board foot (144 cubic inches) weighs about 3.61 lb. An 8 ft board of actual size 3/4 × 5-1/2 in. (a 1×6) holds 0.229 cubic feet and weighs about 9.9 lb; an 8 ft piece 1-1/2 × 3-1/2 in. (a 2×4 size) weighs about 12.7 lb. Green wood is much heavier because of the water it holds.

Density here is ovendry weight plus 12% water, divided by volume at 12% moisture content (Wood Handbook Eq. 4-12: density = specific gravity at 12% × 62.43 lb/ft³ × 1.12).

Wood movement

The Wood Handbook gives dimensional change coefficients for each species: the fraction of its width a board gains or loses for every 1% change in moisture content, between about 6% and 14%. For yellow birch they are 0.00338 across a flatsawn face (tangential) and 0.00256 across a quartersawn face (radial).

Worked example: a flatsawn board 7-1/4 in. wide (a nominal 1×8) that goes from 6% moisture content in a heated winter house to 12% in a humid summer changes width by 7.25 × 0.00338 × 6 = 0.147 in. (about 5/32 in.). The same board quartersawn moves 0.111 in. (about 1/8 in.). Allow for this in panels, tabletops and floors; the wood movement calculator works it out for any size and moisture range.

How it compares

Species	Janka (lbf)	Density (lb/ft³)	Bending (psi)	Stiffness (Mpsi)	Tangential shrink (%)	Decay resistance
Yellow birch	1,260	43.4	16,600	2.01	9.5	slightly or nonresistant
Sugar maple	1,450	44.1	15,800	1.83	9.9	slightly or nonresistant
Red maple	950	37.8	13,400	1.64	8.2	slightly or nonresistant
Black cherry	950	35.0	12,300	1.49	7.1	moderately resistant
American beech	1,300	44.7	14,900	1.72	11.9	slightly or nonresistant
Northern red oak	1,290	44.1	14,300	1.82	8.6	slightly or nonresistant

At 12% moisture content; shrinkage is green to ovendry. * density estimated from specific gravity; † density as stated in the Handbook text.

Uses

Yellow and sweet birch: furniture, interior woodwork and doors; boxes, baskets, crates, wooden ware and cooperage; and veneer plywood for doors, furniture, paneling, cabinets, aircraft and other specialty uses. Paper birch: toothpicks, tongue depressors, ice cream sticks and turned products such as spools, bobbins, small handles and toys.

Frequently asked questions

How hard is yellow birch?

Yellow birch averages 1,260 lbf (5,605 N) on the Janka side-hardness test at 12% moisture content and 780 lbf green. Sweet birch is harder at 1,470 lbf, and paper birch softer at 910 lbf.

Is birch harder than maple?

Yellow birch (1,260 lbf) is a little softer than hard (sugar) maple at 1,450 lbf but harder than red maple at 950 lbf. Sweet birch, at 1,470 lbf, is about as hard as sugar maple.

How much does yellow birch weigh?

About 43.4 lb per cubic foot at 12% moisture content, or 3.61 lb per board foot.

Can birch be used outdoors?

Not untreated. The Wood Handbook puts birch heartwood in the slightly or nonresistant decay class, so it needs preservative treatment or a protected location outside.

Sources

Last reviewed: 24 October 2026. Numbers are generated from our parsed copy of the Handbook tables, so every page uses the same data. Values marked * are estimates computed with the Handbook’s own equations. Spotted an error? Please let us know.