The Northern Ireland Prison Population 2024/25

Date published: 23 October 2025

The report presents key data relating to the average daily prison population, receptions and discharges for Northern Ireland during 2024/25.

The key findings were as follows:

Average Daily Prison Population

• The overall average daily prison population increased by 1.8% during 2024/25 to 1,911. The male population increased from 1,787 to 1,803 while the female population increased from 90 to 108.
• During 2024/25, the average daily immediate custody population increased by 2.5% to 1,205. This was the highest the immediate custody population has been since the beginning of the reporting period in 2015/16.
• The remand population increased by 1.3% to 695 during 2024/25 from 686 the previous year and was at the highest level it has been over the previous ten years.
• Prisoners aged between 30 and 39 years made up the largest proportion (38.0%) of the average daily immediate custody prison population and the remand population (37.6%).
• In terms of custodial sentence length, 25.7% of the average daily population during 2024/25 had custodial sentences of less than or equal to one year, a decrease from 27.7% during 2023/24.
• Violence Against the Person offences continued to account for the largest proportion (35.4%) of all principal offence categories for the daily immediate custody prison population and for the remand population (37.7%).
• During 2024/25, those identifying as Catholic represented the largest proportion of the average daily prison population at 50.0% (956), while Protestant denominations and Other Christians accounted for 32.2% (615).

Receptions and Discharges

• At 4,228, the number of receptions during 2024/25 was higher than 4,163 the previous year, an increase of 1.6%. This was the highest the number of receptions has been over the ten year reporting period.
• Receptions into immediate custody decreased by 2.9% during 2024/25 to 790, down from 814 when compared to 2023/24. There had been large increases in receptions in 2022/23 (up 21.8% to 816) and 2021/22 (up 47.3% to 670) following the first full financial year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Remand receptions increased by 3.5% over the year, up from 3,267 in 2023/24 to 3,381 during 2024/25.
• The number of receptions for fine default and non-criminal decreased by 30.5% from 82 during 2023/24 to 57 during 2024/25. This continued a steep downward trend since 2022/23.
• 30 to 39 year olds accounted for the largest number of immediate custody receptions (338; 42.8%) (Figure 11 and Table 17c). They also accounted for the largest number of remand receptions (1,275; 37.7%).
• The majority of immediate custody receptions had a custodial sentence length of less than one year (71.8%) a decrease from 76.5% during 2023/24.
• Public Order and Violence Against the Person offences accounted for the largest proportion of immediate custody receptions, at 29.2% (231) and 20.6% (163) respectively, while Violence Against the Person offences accounted for 34.8% of remand receptions (1,178).
• The number of discharges increased by 0.8%, from 4,104 during 2023/24 to 4,137 during 2024/25.