prisoners - Source frequency: annual · Methodology · Corrections
Australia's prisoners in custody was 47k prisoners as of June 2025. People held in Australian prisons at 30 June each year — sentenced and unsentenced, males and females combined. Australia's prison population has grown faster than the population for decades. The number reflects both crime and the justice system's use of custody, including growing numbers on remand. Data is sourced from ABS Prisoners in Australia (Cat. 4512.0) - Table 2, males plus females and updated annually.
People held in Australian prisons at 30 June each year — sentenced and unsentenced, males and females combined.
Australia's prison population has grown faster than the population for decades. The number reflects both crime and the justice system's use of custody, including growing numbers on remand.
Context-dependent
Source: ABS Prisoners in Australia (Cat. 4512.0) - Table 2, males plus females
This data is sourced programmatically from official statistical APIs and data feeds (ABS Prisoners in Australia (Cat. 4512.0) - Table 2, males plus females), updated annually. Our pipeline fetches the machine-readable version automatically and converts it to the standardised format shown here.
See all sources and methodology on the data sources page.
