Civometry

Ministry of Justice · custody type: Life sentences

Prison population: Life sentences

at 30 June 2026

7,617people

Prison population for Life sentences was 7,617 people at 30 June 2026, up 0.3% (22) on the period before.

  1. Ministry of Justice dataset
  2. Table_1_Q_2
  3. Sex=Male and female; Age group=All ages; Custody type=Life sentences
  4. column “30 June 2026”
  5. 7617 per period
  6. published 30 July 2026

June 2025 to June 2026

Prison population by custody type and sentence length: June 2025 to June 2026LabourLabour02k4k6k20252026June 2025: 7,513 people · published 30 July 2026July 2025: 7,526 people · published 30 July 2026August 2025: 7,535 people · published 30 July 2026September 2025: 7,547 people · published 30 July 2026October 2025: 7,552 people · published 30 July 2026November 2025: 7,556 people · published 30 July 2026December 2025: 7,570 people · published 30 July 2026January 2026: 7,565 people · published 30 July 2026February 2026: 7,591 people · published 30 July 2026March 2026: 7,590 people · published 30 July 2026April 2026: 7,594 people · published 30 July 2026May 2026: 7,595 people · published 30 July 2026June 2026: 7,617 people · published 30 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The prison population of England and Wales at the end of each month, split by custody type as the Ministry of Justice publishes it, that is remand status (untried, convicted unsentenced), determinate sentence length band, extended, IPP and life sentences, recalls, fine defaulters and non-criminal prisoners.

Time served or time left to serve; sentence length is the length imposed by the court.

Source

Dataset
Offender management statistics quarterly: prison population
Release
Prison population as at 30 June 2026, published 30 July 2026 · sha256 9f832c04e75831f8…
All values
Prison population by custody type