The risk for damage associated with spruce bark beetle attacks on living trees was estimated in 12 forest districts in the Nordic countries during three years. Pheromone‐baited traps and trees were used. Five groups of three traps were deployed annually on fresh spruce clear‐fellings in each district. The mean catches within districts and years ranged from 950 to 46000 beetles per trap group. The standard error averaged 15%of the mean catch. One tree was baited annually at each of five other sites in each district. The mean number of trees colonized byIps typographusin each district and year ranged from 0 to 5 per site. The standard error was high, averaging 44% of the mean. Inventories of tree mortality within the districts yielded values ranging from 0 to 150 killed trees per km of spruce forest edge. There was a strong linear correlation between mean catches in traps and log‐transformed tree mortality (r=0.82). The correlation between colonization success at tree‐baiting sites and tree mortality was weaker (r=0.59), owing to one deviant observation. The results indicate that pheromone traps and baited trees may be used to assess the risk for damage caused by Ips typographus.