Ministry of Justice · Offender management statistics quarterly: prison population
Prison population by sex
85,858people
Prison population by sex were 85,858 people at 30 June 2026, down 1.7% (1,476) from 87,334 at 30 June 2025.
▼ 1.7% · −1,476 against June 2025 (year on year)
- Ministry of Justice snapshot
- June 2026
- published 30 July 2026
- Table 1.Q.1
- row “Sex=Male and female; Age group=All ages; Custody type group=All custody types”
- column “30 June 2026”
- cell value 85858
June 2025 to June 2026
What this measures
The prison population of England and Wales at the end of each month, split by sex, from the Ministry of Justice's quarterly official statistics.
What this doesn’t measure
People in immigration removal centres or secure children's homes, or the weekly management figure published on Mondays; this is the official statistics count as at the last day of the month.
Important caveat
These are Ministry of Justice accredited official statistics from Prison-NOMIS and the Digital Prison Service, counted as at the last day of the month shown. They differ slightly from the weekly management bulletin, which counts the population on a Monday. Ethnicity and nationality are as recorded on the prison system and a small share is not stated or not recorded; religion codes were streamlined in June 2025 so earlier religion figures are not comparable. The offence group table (Table 1.Q.5) counts prisoners under an immediate custodial sentence and its total differs by a small number from the Sentenced custody type group in Table 1.Q.1. Figures for secure children's homes and secure training centres may not match the youth custody publication because of different methodologies and snapshot dates.
Revision history
No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.
Source
- Publisher
- Ministry of Justice
- Publication
- Offender management statistics quarterly: prison population
- Release
- Prison population as at 30 June 2026, published 30 July 2026
- Source file
- prison-population-30-June-2026.ods
- File SHA-256
- 9f832c04e75831f86a60287515833feb4504b6a871037542a6d7319cbe8e4c96
- Retrieved
- 2 September 2026
- Sheet
- Table_1_Q_1
- Table
- Table 1.Q.1
- Row
- Sex=Male and female; Age group=All ages; Custody type group=All custody types
- Column
- 30 June 2026
- Cell value
- 85858
- Geography
- England and Wales
- Unit
- people
- API
- /api/metrics/prison_population_by_sex · /series · /vintages
Government periods
Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.
- Release
- Prison population as at 30 June 2026 · publication page
- Last updated
- 30 July 2026
- Next release expected
- October 2026 (estimated from the usual cadence)