Some key statistics about quarrying:

• There are over 1,300 quarries in Britain supported by a fleet of 25 marine aggregate dredgers. Together, they produce some 210 million tonnes of aggregates a year
  
  
• The balance of our needs comes from recycled and secondary aggregates. Annual sales have grown to around 67 million tonnes a year
  
  
• Of the 281 million tonnes of aggregates produced in the UK in 2004, 76 per cent was from land and marine primary sources and 24 per cent recycled and secondary
  
  
• The industry provides employment for an estimated 88,000 people - 38,000 directly and 50,000 indirectly
  
  
• We consume some 4.8 tonnes of aggregates per head in Britain, which is substantially less than the European average of 6.9 tonnes
  
  
• A typical house requires 60 tonnes of aggregate
  
  
• Latest figures show around 14,300 hectares of land being quarried, 434 hectares prepared for quarrying and over 860 hectares restored in a typical year
  
  
• The area of the seabed licensed for marine aggregate dredging in 2005 totalled 1,179km2 - 0.136 per cent of the UK seabed. Of this, only 11.7 per cent was actually dredged
  
  
• QPA members plant over 195,000 trees and nearly 20,000 metres of hedgerow in a typical year
  
  
• More than 700 of the UK’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) have their origins in quarrying
  
  
• Latest figures show 120 archaeological investigations underway at QPA member sites
  
  
• Around 36 million tonnes of aggregates a year are now moved by non-road modes
  
  
• The aggregates and quarry products industry emitted 9.98kg of carbon per tonne of total production in 2004 - 0.6 per cent of the UK’s total
  
  
• Aggregates and quarry products are key contributors to the £100 billion pa value of construction output which is 7 per cent of the economy.

For more facts and figures download two new QPA publications.