Ministry of Justice · Offender management statistics quarterly: prison population

Foreign national prison population

June 2026 Final

10,134people

Foreign national prison population were 10,134 people at 30 June 2026, down 5.9% (638) from 10,772 at 30 June 2025.

▼ 5.9% · −638 against June 2025 (year on year)

Ministry of Justice snapshot
June 2026
published 30 July 2026
Table 1.Q.9
row “Nationality group=Foreign nationals; Custody type group=All custody types”
column “30 June 2026”
cell value 10134

June 2025 to June 2026

Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The number of foreign nationals held in prisons in England and Wales, across all custody types, at the end of each quarter.

People often confuse this with

Foreign-born ≠ Foreign nationalForeign-born means born outside the UK, whatever passport a person holds now; many are British citizens. Foreign national means not a British citizen, and includes people born in the UK. The census measures country of birth; prison and immigration statistics measure nationality.

What this doesn’t measure

People whose nationality is not recorded, immigration status, or people detained only under immigration powers.

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_9
Table: Table 1.Q.9
Row: Nationality group=Foreign nationals; Custody type group=All custody types
Column: 30 June 2026
Cell value: 10134
Geography: England and Wales
Unit: people
API: /api/metrics/prison_population_foreign_nationals · /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.

Full comparison with chart

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)