Are Pergo floors real wood?

Are Pergo floors real wood? No, Pergo floors are not real wood, Pergo is laminate flooring made from high-density fiberboard HDF core with photographic wood image layer and melamine wear layer, not solid hardwood, though some Pergo products include real wood veneer in Pergo hardwood line, but main Pergo laminate is not real wood. Pergo invented laminate flooring in 1977 in Sweden, with structure of 4 layers: wear layer transparent melamine protecting against scratches, design layer photographic image of wood grain, HDF core made from compressed wood fibers, and backing layer for stability, so not real wood but looks like wood. Pergo also makes engineered hardwood and vinyl, but Pergo laminate is synthetic wood look, not real wood. Pergo hardwood line does have real wood veneer but laminate is not real wood. So Pergo floors not real wood, they are laminate with wood image, costing 2 to 4 dollars per square foot versus hardwood 5 to 12 dollars, with advantage of being more scratch resistant and waterproof in some lines like Pergo Outlast, but not real wood, though high-quality Pergo looks realistic with embossed texture mimicking wood grain, making it affordable alternative to real hardwood with easier maintenance.