Prisoners in Australia

Latest release

Contains annual national information on prisoners in custody at 30 June, including demographic information, imprisonment rates, most serious offence.

Reference period

2023

Released

25/01/2024

Next release Unknown

Key statistics

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, Australian prisoners increased by 3% (1,338) to 41,929. The imprisonment rate also increased by 1% to 202 from 201 prisoners per 100,000 adult population.

Percentage movement in prisoners 2022 to 2023, Selected characteristics
	Percentage movement (%)
All prisoners	3.3
Males	3.1
Females	6.4
Sentenced	1
Unsentenced	7.2
Prior imprisonment	4.9
No prior imprisonment	1

Percentage movement in prisoners 2022 to 2023, Selected characteristics

["","Percentage movement"]

[["All prisoners","Males","Females","Sentenced","Unsentenced","Prior imprisonment","No prior imprisonment"],[[3.2999999999999998],[3.1000000000000001],[6.4000000000000004],[1],[7.2000000000000002],[4.9000000000000004],[1]]]

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Prisoners, Selected legal status, 2018 to 2023
	Sentenced (no.)	Unsentenced (no.)	All prisoners (no.)
2018	29,030	13,856	42,974
2019	28,721	14,210	43,028
2020	27,849	13,097	41,060
2021	27,680	15,182	42,970
2022	25,624	14,864	40,591
2023	25,888	15,937	41,929

Prisoners, Selected legal status, 2018 to 2023

["","Sentenced","Unsentenced","All prisoners"]

[["2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023"],[[29030],[28721],[27849],[27680],[25624],[25888]],[[13856],[14210],[13097],[15182],[14864],[15937]],[[42974],[43028],[41060],[42970],[40591],[41929]]]

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From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023:

Sentenced prisoners increased by 1% (264) to 25,888. Unsentenced prisoners increased by 7% (1,073) to 15,937.
Male prisoners increased by 3% (1,152) to 38,757. Female prisoners increased by 6% (191) to 3,168.
Prisoners with prior adult imprisonment increased by 5% (1,192) to 25,608. Prisoners without prior adult imprisonment increased by 1% (167) to 16,318.

There were increases in total prisoners in Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory; and decreases in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory.

There were various government restrictions implemented across states and territories due to COVID-19 from early 2020 to 2022. These restrictions may be continuing to have an impact on criminal activity and the justice system.

Prisoner characteristics, Australia

Sex

Percentage movement in prisoners 2022 to 2023, Sex and selected most serious offence/charge(a)
	Males (%)	Females (%)
Acts intended to cause injury	6.3	12.8
Sexual assault and related offences	5.9	-1
Unlawful entry with intent	7.6	19.5
Illicit drug offences	-4.7	-11.4
All prisoners	3.1	6.4

Percentage movement in prisoners 2022 to 2023, Sex and selected most serious offence/charge(a)

["","Males","Females"]

[["Acts intended to cause injury","Sexual assault and related offences","Unlawful entry with intent","Illicit drug offences","All prisoners"],[[6.2999999999999998],[5.9000000000000004],[7.5999999999999996],[-4.7000000000000002],[3.1000000000000001]],[[12.800000000000001],[-1],[19.5],[-11.4],[6.4000000000000004]]]

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(a) For a definition of most serious offence/charge, see Methodology, Most serious offence/charge section.

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, male prisoners increased by 3% (1,152) to 38,757. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence/charge were:

Acts intended to cause injury, up 6% (624)
Sexual assault and related offences, up 6% (375)
Unlawful entry with intent, up 8% (233)
Illicit drug offences, down 5% (233)

Female prisoners increased by 6% (191) to 3,168. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence/charge were:

Acts intended to cause injury, up 13% (94)
Illicit drug offences, down 11% (67)
Robbery, extortion and related offences, up 30% (52)

Age

As at 30 June 2023, the median age was:

36.2 years for all prisoners
36.3 years for males
35.5 years for females
Highest at 44.5 for Sexual assault and related offences
Lowest at 30.4 years for Robbery, extortion, and related offences

Country of birth

As at 30 June 2023, around four in every five prisoners were born in Australia (83% or 34,626). Prisoners born overseas accounted for 6,053 prisoners.

The most common countries of birth for prisoners born overseas were:

New Zealand (2% of total prisoners or 958)
Vietnam (1% or 513)
The United Kingdom (1% or 497)

Legal status

Numerical movement in prisoners 2022 to 2023, Selected legal status and selected most serious offence/charge(a)
	Sentenced (no.)	Unsentenced (no.)
Acts intended to cause injury	109	603
Sexual assault & related offences	183	193
Unlawful entry with intent	119	167
Illicit drug offences	-259	-42

Numerical movement in prisoners 2022 to 2023, Selected legal status and selected most serious offence/charge(a)

["","Sentenced","Unsentenced"]

[["Acts intended to cause injury","Sexual assault & related offences","Unlawful entry with intent","Illicit drug offences"],[[109],[183],[119],[-259]],[[603],[193],[167],[-42]]]

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(a) For a definition of most serious offence/charge, see Methodology, Most serious offence/charge section.

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, sentenced prisoners increased by 1% (264) to 25,888. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence were:

Illicit drug offences, down 7% (259)
Sexual assault and related offences, up 4% (183)
Theft and related offences, up 17% (122)

Over the same period, unsentenced prisoners increased by 7% (1,073) to 15,937. The largest numerical changes by most serious charge were:

Acts intended to cause injury, up 11% (603)
Sexual assault and related offences, up 11% (193)
Unlawful entry with intent, up 18% (167)

The proportion of prisoners who were unsentenced increased from 37% to 38%.

Most serious offence/charge

Prisoners, Selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023
	Acts intended to cause injury (no.)	Sexual assault & related offences (no.)	Unlawful entry with intent (no.)	Illicit drug offences (no.)
2018	9,659	5,283	4,378	6,779
2019	9,824	5,671	4,164	6,573
2020	9,467	5,798	3,886	6,124
2021	10,775	6,187	3,717	6,325
2022	10,557	6,446	3,305	5,515
2023	11,272	6,821	3,594	5,205

Prisoners, Selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023

["","Acts intended to cause injury","Sexual assault & related offences","Unlawful entry with intent","Illicit drug offences"]

[["2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023"],[[9659],[9824],[9467],[10775],[10557],[11272]],[[5283],[5671],[5798],[6187],[6446],[6821]],[[4378],[4164],[3886],[3717],[3305],[3594]],[[6779],[6573],[6124],[6325],[5515],[5205]]]

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(a) For a definition of most serious offence/charge, see Methodology, Most serious offence/charge section.

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, prisoners increased 3% (1,338) to 41,929. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence/charge were:

Acts intended to cause injury, up 7% (715)
Sexual assault and related offences, up 6% (375)
Illicit drug offences, down 6% (310)
Unlawful entry with intent, up 9% (289)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023
	Acts intended to cause injury (no.)	Sexual assault & related offences (no.)	Unlawful entry with intent (no.)
2018	4,071	1,019	1,679
2019	4,105	1,082	1,681
2020	4,157	1,118	1,557
2021	4,842	1,223	1,526
2022	4,951	1,311	1,431
2023	5,441	1,441	1,556

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023

["","Acts intended to cause injury","Sexual assault & related offences","Unlawful entry with intent"]

[["2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023"],[[4071],[4105],[4157],[4842],[4951],[5441]],[[1019],[1082],[1118],[1223],[1311],[1441]],[[1679],[1681],[1557],[1526],[1431],[1556]]]

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(a) For a definition of most serious offence/charge, see Methodology, Most serious offence/charge section.

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners increased by 7% (950) to 13,852. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence/charge were:

Acts intended to cause injury, up 10% (490)
Sexual assault and related offences, up 10% (130)
Unlawful entry with intent, up 9% (125)

After accounting for population growth, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate increased by 5% from 2,330 to 2,442 prisoners per 100,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adult population.

At 30 June 2023:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners accounted for 33% of all prisoners
91% (12,540) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners were male, 9% (1,309) were female
The median age was 33.2 years
78% (10,828) had experienced prior adult imprisonment

State/territory

New South Wales

New South Wales prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023
	Sexual assault and related offences (no.)	Illicit drug offences (no.)	Offences against justice (no.)
2018	1,815	2,366	1,259
2019	1,987	2,124	1,462
2020	2,108	1,987	1,374
2021	2,210	2,010	1,297
2022	2,228	1,883	1,193
2023	2,311	1,749	1,301

New South Wales prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023

["","Sexual assault and related offences","Illicit drug offences","Offences against justice"]

[["2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023"],[[1815],[1987],[2108],[2210],[2228],[2311]],[[2366],[2124],[1987],[2010],[1883],[1749]],[[1259],[1462],[1374],[1297],[1193],[1301]]]

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(a) For a definition of most serious offence/charge, see Methodology, Most serious offence/charge section.

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, total prisoners decreased by 56 to 12,316. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence/charge were:

Illicit drug offences, down 7% (134)
Offences against justice, up 9% (108)
Sexual assault and related offences, up 4% (83)

After accounting for population growth, the imprisonment rate decreased by 3%, from 195 to 190 prisoners per 100,000 adult population.

Male prisoners decreased by 1% (61) to 11,497. Female prisoners were stable (decreased by 1) at 819.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners decreased 3% (96) to 3,510.

Sentenced prisoners decreased by 3% (233) to 7,499. Unsentenced prisoners increased by 4% (172) to 4,818.

Victoria

Victoria prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023
	Acts intended to cause injury (no.)	Unlawful entry with intent (no.)	Illicit drug offences (no.)
2018	1,548	825	1,102
2019	1,627	833	1,162
2020	1,405	760	1,051
2021	1,612	721	1,051
2022	1,496	576	891
2023	1,401	677	740

Victoria prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023

["","Acts intended to cause injury","Unlawful entry with intent","Illicit drug offences"]

[["2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023"],[[1548],[1627],[1405],[1612],[1496],[1401]],[[825],[833],[760],[721],[576],[677]],[[1102],[1162],[1051],[1051],[891],[740]]]

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(a) For a definition of most serious offence/charge, see Methodology, Most serious offence/charge section.

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, total prisoners decreased by 2% (129) to 6,440. This was the largest numerical decrease for any of the states and territories. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence/charge were:

Illicit drug offences, down 17% (151)
Unlawful entry with intent, up 18% (101)
Acts intended to cause injury, down 6% (95)

After accounting for population growth, the imprisonment rate decreased by 5%, from 127 to 121 prisoners per 100,000 adult population.

Male prisoners decreased by 1% (76) to 6,142. Female prisoners decreased by 12% (42) to 299.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners increased by 17% (117) to 812.

Sentenced prisoners increased by 6% (233) to 4,031. Unsentenced prisoners decreased by 13% (357) to 2,406.

Queensland

Queensland prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023
	Acts intended to cause injury (no.)	Sexual assault & related offences (no.)	Unlawful entry with intent (no.)
2018	2,051	1,049	1,008
2019	2,043	1,085	935
2020	1,987	1,042	993
2021	2,483	1,205	1,043
2022	2,416	1,329	933
2023	2,895	1,418	1,031

Queensland prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023

["","Acts intended to cause injury","Sexual assault & related offences","Unlawful entry with intent"]

[["2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023"],[[2051],[2043],[1987],[2483],[2416],[2895]],[[1049],[1085],[1042],[1205],[1329],[1418]],[[1008],[935],[993],[1043],[933],[1031]]]

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(a) For a definition of most serious offence/charge, see Methodology, Most serious offence/charge section

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, total prisoners increased by 9% (850) to 10,226. This was the largest numerical increase for any of the states and territories. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence/charge were:

Acts intended to cause injury, up 20% (479)
Unlawful entry with intent, up 11% (98)
Sexual assault and related offences, up 7% (89)

After accounting for population growth, the imprisonment rate increased by 6%, from 229 to 243 prisoners per 100,000 adult population.

Male prisoners increased by 9% (725) to 9,248. Female prisoners increased by 15% (129) to 979.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners increased by 11% (391) to 3,801.

Sentenced prisoners increased by 5% (327) to 6,488. Unsentenced prisoners increased by 17% (533) to 3,686.

South Australia

South Australia prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023
	Sexual assault and related offences (no.)	Unlawful entry with intent (no.)	Theft (no.)
2018	416	290	121
2019	406	284	89
2020	426	288	73
2021	494	267	91
2022	527	242	192
2023	558	183	235

Western Australia

Western Australia prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023
	Acts intended to cause injury (no.)	Sexual assault and related offences (no.)	Unlawful entry with intent (no.)
2018	1,309	686	1,048
2019	1,282	745	1,022
2020	1,354	775	947
2021	1,435	846	899
2022	1,344	873	859
2023	1,513	958	960

Western Australia prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023

["","Acts intended to cause injury","Sexual assault and related offences","Unlawful entry with intent"]

[["2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023"],[[1309],[1282],[1354],[1435],[1344],[1513]],[[686],[745],[775],[846],[873],[958]],[[1048],[1022],[947],[899],[859],[960]]]

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(a) For a definition of most serious offence/charge, see Methodology, Most serious offence/charge section

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, total prisoners increased by 7% (442) to 6,718. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence/charge were:

Acts intended to cause injury, up 13% (169)
Unlawful entry with intent, up 12% (101)
Sexual assault and related offences, up 10% (85)

After accounting for population growth, the imprisonment rate increased by 4%, from 293 to 304 prisoners per 100,000 adult population.

Male prisoners increased by 6% (339) to 6,051. Female prisoners increased by 19% (104) to 665.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners increased by 14% (346) to 2,867.

Sentenced prisoners decreased by 1% (57) to 4,315. Unsentenced prisoners increased by 26% (495) to 2,378.

Tasmania

Tasmania prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge(a), 2018 to 2023
	Acts intended to cause injury (no.)	Sexual assault and related offences (no.)
2018	137	64
2019	160	82
2020	166	88
2021	154	82
2022	169	87
2023	207	135

Northern Territory

Northern Territory prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge, 2018 to 2023
	Acts intended to cause injury (no.)	Sexual assault and related offences (no.)	Dangerous and negligent acts (no.)
2018	851	194	68
2019	745	195	84
2020	692	195	70
2021	891	216	80
2022	996	220	73
2023	1,134	241	96

Northern Territory prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge, 2018 to 2023

["","Acts intended to cause injury","Sexual assault and related offences","Dangerous and negligent acts"]

[["2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023"],[[851],[745],[692],[891],[996],[1134]],[[194],[195],[195],[216],[220],[241]],[[68],[84],[70],[80],[73],[96]]]

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(a) For a definition of most serious offence/charge, see Methodology, Most serious offence/charge section

From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, total prisoners increased by 9% (172) to 2,106. The largest numerical changes by most serious offence/charge were:

Acts intended to cause injury, up 14% or 138 prisoners
Dangerous and negligent acts, up 23 prisoners
Sexual assault and related offences, up 21 prisoners

After accounting for population growth, the imprisonment rate increased by 8%, from 1,027 to 1,107 prisoners per 100,000 adult population.

Male prisoners increased by 10% (175) to 1,991. Female prisoners were stable at 114.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners increased by 11% (177) to 1,860.

Sentenced prisoners were stable (down 5) at 1,241. Unsentenced prisoners increased by 24% (169) to 861.

Australian Capital Territory

Australian Capital Territory prisoners by selected most serious offence/charge, 2018 to 2023
	Acts intended to cause injury (no.)
2018	134
2019	145
2020	131
2021	78
2022	104
2023	80

Federal Offender characteristics

Federal prisoners, States and territories, 2022 to 2023
	2022 (no.)	2023 (no.)
NSW	653	650
Vic.	381	372
Qld	147	136
SA	39	35
WA	124	126
Tas.	13	8
NT	20	22
ACT	10	12

Federal prisoners, States and territories, 2022 to 2023

["","2022","2023"]

[["NSW","Vic.","Qld","SA","WA","Tas.","NT","ACT"],[[653],[381],[147],[39],[124],[13],[20],[10]],[[650],[372],[136],[35],[126],[8],[22],[12]]]

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From 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, federal prisoners nationally decreased by 2% (34) to 1,356.

At 30 June 2023, a higher proportion of federal prisoners were held in New South Wales (48% of total federal prisoners) compared with the total prisoner population (29%). Similarly, 27% of federal prisoners were held in Victoria compared with 15% of the total prisoner population.

On average, federal prisoners were older than the total prisoner population with a median age of 41 years compared to 36 years.

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