In 2024, there were ***** Albanians imprisoned in England and Wales, the highest foreign nationality in that year. Additionally, there were *** Polish nationals in jail, and *** Romanians, the second, and third-highest among foreign nationalities.

In 2024, there were approximately ****** white prisoners in England and Wales, compared with ****** Black prisoners, and ***** Asian prisoners.

In 2024, there were 87,869 men and 3,635 women in prisons in England and Wales. Compared with the previous year, this represented an increase for both men and women. This represented a peak in the number of prisoners during this provided time period, and was also the peak for the United Kingdom as a whole.
Demographics of prisoners There were 29,339 prisoners in their 30s in England and Wales in 2024, the most of any age group. In this year, there were also 3,354 prisoners who were aged between 15 and 20, with a further 21,381 prisoners who were in their 20s. In terms of the ethnicity of prisoners in England and Wales, 63,103 people in jail were White, 10,624 were Black, and 7,067were Asian. As of the same year, the most common religious faith of prisoners was Christianity, at 39,068 inmates, followed by 27,122 who identified as having no religion, with a further 15,909 who were Muslims. Increase in prison officers since 2017 The 23,614 prison officers working in England and Wales in 2024 was almost as high as 2011 when there were 24,369 officers. From 2010 onwards, the number of prison officers fell from 24,830 to 18,251 by 2014, and stayed at comparably low levels until 2018. Low government expenditure on Prisons during the same time period suggests this was a result of the austerity policies implemented by the UK government at that time. The government has steadily increased spending on prisons since 2019/20, with spending on prisons reaching 6.09 billion in 2022/23. This has however not been enough to avert a possible overcrowding crisis in England and Wales, which had just 768 spare prison places in September 2023.

There were estimated to be approximately 14,400 probation officers working in the United Kingdom as of the first quarter of 2025, compared with 14,100 in the previous quarter.

As of 2023, there were approximately 2,527 prisoners in Scotland aged between 25 and 34, the highest among the provided age groups. By contrast, there were just 248 prisoners aged 65 or over.

In 2023, there were 599 people aged between 30 and 39 imprisoned in Northern Ireland, the most of any group during this year. By comparison, there were just 43 people aged between 18 and 20 in this year.

The release (generally annual) gives the projected monthly prison population in England and Wales for the next six years. Sub-population (such as gender) estimates are presented alongside the effects of legislation, sentencing activity, and so on relevant to the prison population.

Source agency: Justice

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Prison population projections

Weekly report on the total population in prison and useable operational capacity of prisons. Published on the HMPS website.

Source agency: Justice

Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Prison Accomodation

In 2022/23 there were approximately 7,426 male prisoners in Scotland, compared with 282 female ones. During the provided time period, male prisoner numbers in Scotland peaked during 2019/20, when there were 7,796, while the number of female prisoners was highest in 2011/12, at 469.

Between 2012 and 2020, the number of self-inflicted deaths among white prisoners in public prisons in England and Wales went up from 49 to 57.

In 2024, there were ****** prisoners in their 30s in custody in England and Wales, compared with ****** in their 20s, ****** in their 40s, ****** aged 50 or over, and ***** aged between 15 and 20.

Weekly report on the total population in prison and useable operational capacity of prisons.

Source agency: Justice

Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Prison population and accommodation weekly bulletin

White offenders had the highest reoffending rate out of all ethnic groups (26.6%) in the year to March 2022.

The dataset provides detailed, standardised records of prisoners, including demographic, physical, and judicial information such as age, height, offence, birthplace, residence, occupation, religion, and literacy.

The dataset offers a comprehensive resource for studying social, economic, demographic, and anthropometric history of Ireland under British rule. Prisoners' names are anonymised to comply with data-sharing agreements. Recidivists are only included in this dataset the first time they are entered into the prison register.

Year of conviction ranges from 1858 to 1910, and the year of birth is from 1840 to 1859. The average age of the prison population is 34, and ages range from 16 to 70.

Data are described in more detail in E. McLaughlin, C. L. Colvin and M. Blum, 'Anthropometric History: Revisiting What’s in it for Ireland', Irish Economic and Social History (2021).

Occupations are classified into five categories using the Armstrong scale: W. A. Armstrong, ‘The use of information about occupation, part I: a basis for social stratification’, in E. A. Wrigley (ed.), Nineteenth-century society: essays in the use of quantitative methods for the study of social data (Cambridge, 1972).

Famine-era mortality is appended to this dataset, denoting excess mortality in a prisoner's county of birth during the Great Irish Famine. This is calculated by comparing the 1841 and 1851 censuses, as calculated by Joel Mokyr, Why Ireland starved (2nd ed., London, 1985).

This project presents a hand-collected dataset of over 18,620 individuals incarcerated in Kilmainham Gaol (1837–1910) or Clonmel Gaol (1848–1929), derived from surviving General Prison Registers for these two prisons held at the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin (NAI/Pris1/3 and NAI/Pris1/33).

Sentenced prisoners by court sentencing area, received into prison establishments, by ethnicity

Source: Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

Publisher: Ministry of Justice

Geographies: Police Force Area

Geographic coverage: England and Wales

Time coverage: 2007

Type of data: Administrative data

As of 2024, there were approximately 97,800 prisoners in custody in the United Kingdom, with the vast majority of these being prisoners in the jurisdiction of England and Wales at 87,900 prisoners, with a further 8,000 in Scotland, and 1,900 in Northern Ireland.