This data may be out of date — the source may have published a newer figure.
Check Ministry of Justice →
Historical trend
Trend summary
The prison population of England and Wales reached 87,500 in early 2025, the highest on record.
Trend
- The prison population has risen from around 45,000 in 1990 to its current record level.
- Growth accelerated following legislative changes in the 1990s and 2000s; the rate of increase has been more moderate since 2015.
- England and Wales has one of the highest incarceration rates in Western Europe at around 145 per 100,000 population.
Context
- Ministry of Justice publishes prison population statistics weekly; the figures cover prisons in England and Wales only.
- Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate prison systems with separate statistics published by their respective governments.
Trend summary generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 on 14 February 2025. Contains no editorial judgement — describes direction, magnitude, and official projections only.
OECD comparison
🇳🇴 Norway
43 prisoners
🇩🇪 Germany
69 prisoners
🇫🇷 France
109 prisoners
🇺🇸 United States
531 prisoners
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
86,811 prisoners
About this indicator
- Source
- Ministry of Justice
- Update frequency
- Quarterly
- Last updated
- 17 January 2025 Data may be out of date
- Licence
- OGL v3
- Rising trend is…
- Negative
Statistics
- Latest
- 86811.0 prisoners
- Period high
- 86811.0
- Period low
- 85100.0
- Period average
- 85790.1