The Ural owl is not a densely populated bird but can be locally not uncommon. The IUCN estimates that there are between 350,000 and 1,200,000 individuals living in the wild globally. Most decreases in recent history have been reported from areas where hollow and broken trees were removed from forests. In Estonia, managed forest almost invariably have fewer Ural owls than undisturbed forest has because of reduction of snags and other natural cavities to use. However, the general trends are positive for most European Ural owl populations. The erection of nest boxes has caused population increases in several parts of the range, especially Finland. In eastern Europe, it is one of the more stable owl species, though it is far less numerous overall than some (i.e. tawny, long-eared, and little owls (Athene noctua)). Several population increase and expansions have been detected in central and eastern Europe for Ural owls in recent history, in sync with other owls considered boreal species (i.e. great grey, boreal, Eurasian pygmy). Previous records indicated staple populations in the 1980s for Ural owls in the western Carpathian mountains (estimated at about 1000 pairs) and northern Belarus (at 50-100 pairs). By the 1990s, the number had grown to 1000-1500 pairs in the western Carpathians and to 220-1350 pairs in northern Belarus. By 2005, the numbers were up to 3500 pairs in Carpathians and a drastic increase to 2700-4300 pairs in Belarus. In the Czech Republic, partially due to deliberate reintroductions, the numbers went from 1-5 pairs in 1985-89 to 25-40 pairs by 2001-2003. In selected plots of southeastern Poland, Belarus and Latvia, densities went from 1-2 pairs per to 10 pairs per . In these three countries, northern population now much higher density than southern ones, i.e. 5-8.1 pairs per in north to 3.1-3.6 pairs per in the south. A range expansion of Ural owls was detected in western Ukraine (in the general region of Roztochya Biosphere Reserve and Yavorivskyi National Park). in 2005-07 up to 1.7-2 pair per whereas in the past (i.e. to the 1990s) the species was a rare vagrant to this area. This density of this Ukrainian population is higher than seemingly most in Scandinavia and Belarus but lower than in southwestern Poland and Slovenia; while whether this represents a population increase or merely a population shift is unknown nor its relation to forestry. In some parts of Slovakia, such as Slanské vrchy, Vihorlat and the Ondavská Highlands the density of pairs may be up to a pair per square kilometer, perhaps the highest known specieswide. 400-500 Slovenian pairs from 1973-1994 is as of 2006 is estimated at 1400-2500 pairs. In the Orava region of Slovakia, the population may have increased fivefold during the above stated years. While many owl species (eagle-owl, long-eared, boreal) have appeared to have generally declined in period of 1982-2007 in Finland, to the contrary Ural owls increased by about 1% (excluded from these estimates were too difficult to analyze northerly nomadic owl species). In every regard but number of nestlings that were ringed (in which it also trails the Eurasian pygmy), it has been observed the Ural is the 2nd commonest detected breeding owl after the boreal owl in Finland with 2545 territories found, 1786 nests observed and 4722 nestlings ringed. An increase of the population was found in the Moscow region where tall stands remained despite the rather developed environment nearby.