In recent years there has been increasing interest in monitoring social dimensions of primary industries in Australia, however there has been no regular reporting of social data in the forestry sector. This discussion paper proposes a methodology for including social indicators in ABARES Australian forest and wood products statistics (AFWPS) series. The methodology was developed based on a desktop review of social research examining Australia's forest and wood products industries, available data on the social dimensions of the industries, and a workshop with industry stakeholders in 2012. The AFWPS series is the principal source of regularly published data on trends in Australia's forest and wood products industries. Forest and Wood Products Australia provided funding to expand coverage of the AFWPS series to include social data. Key Issues The paper proposes social indicators in four categories: direct employment; contributions of forest and wood products industries to the community; adaptive capacity of communities with high dependence on the industries; and human dimensions of industry sustainability (workers' wellbeing and diversity). Examples of the indicators using Tasmania as a case study are presented and possible adjustments to improve estimates of industry employment are discussed. The paper identifies 11 regions for AFWPS reporting at regional scale, based on clusters of forestry sector employment. Since the development of the proposed methodology, a selection of indicators data has been included in AFWPS issues (November 2012 and June 2013). The range has also been further reviewed by industry representatives through the project steering committee, and ABARES, and may updated further for future issues of AFWPS