Background:Araucaria angustifolia has high-quality wood, variability and ecological adaptation to environmental conditions. In most cases, the crown efficiency expresses the capacity of tree growth and can be described by the ratio between the increment in basal area with its crown projection area. This measure allows determining the growth capacity of each tree to be removed during a thinning. Objective: This study evaluated the crown efficiency of Araucaria angustifolia trees, according to the sociological position: dominant, codominant, dominated and open grown trees. Results: The relationship between crown efficiency and crown projection area for trees of three social positions in the forest and open growth trees shows the reduction of efficiency with the increase of crown projection area. Open grown trees are more efficient, followed by dominant, codominant and dominated. The inclusion of variable of the crown length in model of efficiency provided best values of the adjustment and accuracy, except in model the dominated trees, that did not alter in reason of the higher competition, low vigor and luminosity to which the crown is submitted. In open growth trees, the increase in value R² was of 51.6%, confirming the dependence of the variable of crown length on the explanation of the crown efficiency. Conclusion: Trees with better sociological position in stand have more efficient crown, as the crown length increases. Narrow and long crowns are more productive, grow in smaller spaces, and permit greater number of trees per area unit. For maximize the production per area unit, the forest management should be based on specific conditions of the trees. This specie needs light for its development and silvicultural activities are necessary to be conserved in nature. This research will improve silvicultural activities and economic planning of araucaria in southern Brazil.