What we can tell you · Available
What is the prison population by religion?
Available An official publication answers the question directly. Where it is not yet on this site, the entry says so.
Why
Offender management statistics quarterly publishes the prison population by religion at each quarter end (table 1_Q_8) and each 30 June (table 1_A_23). From end-June 2025 the Ministry of Justice moved to streamlined religion and belief codes (for example "Christian - Anglican", "Christian - other", "Other faith or belief", "Agnostic, Atheist, Humanist") and states that breakdowns before and after that date are not comparable; both groupings are published side by side for four quarters.
What is known
What is not known
- Religion by offence group or by ethnicity in the standard tables (see the FOI entry)
- Not yet ingested as a metric on this site
Who holds the data
- Ministry of Justice
- HM Prison and Probation Service
Would a Freedom of Information request help?
Unlikely. The table is published quarterly.
Privacy and disclosure restrictions
Religion is self-declared at reception; "not recorded" is a published category. The June 2025 code change is a break in series.
Official sources checked
- https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2025/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2025
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6903487ecc6b3272b3913123/Changes_to_Religion_Codes.pdf
Last reviewed 2026-09-02. Availability changes; if a publication now answers this question, challenge the classification below.