Sentenced prison population: record highs and lows
The extremes of sentenced prison population as published by Ministry of Justice, across the 13 periods held here (June 2025 to June 2026). Each record is a published figure, not a computed one, and the scope is this series — not “ever”.
Highest published
70,829March 2026
Lowest published
68,599December 2025
The full series
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value
A record is the extreme of the periods this site holds for the current series, at each period’s newest published release. Earlier series measured under different methods are not compared against it. Money is in cash terms: a record set years ago stands against the money of its own year.