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Sentenced prisoners by main offence: NZ data and downloads

All offences was 7,665 in 2025, up 2.1% on a year earlier.

Updated

Source: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa. Last retrieved 11 October 2026.

Sentenced prisoners by main offence
All offencesActs intended to cause injuryOffences against justice procedures (e.g. breaches of orders)Burglary, break and enterTheftSexual assaultIllicit drug offencesRobbery and extortionTraffic and vehicle offences
Sentenced prisoners by main offence. All offences, 1998 to 2025, latest 7,665. Acts intended to cause injury, 1998 to 2025, latest 1,776. Offences against justice procedures (e.g. breaches of orders), 1998 to 2025, latest 1,200. Burglary, break and enter, 1998 to 2025, latest 1,026. Theft, 1998 to 2025, latest 864. Sexual assault, 1998 to 2025, latest 534. Illicit drug offences, 1998 to 2025, latest 495. Robbery and extortion, 1998 to 2025, latest 300. Traffic and vehicle offences, 1998 to 2025, latest 294.02,0004,0006,0008,00010,0001998200320082013201820232025
Show the figures
PeriodAll offences (number)Acts intended to cause injury (number)Offences against justice procedures (e.g. breaches of orders) (number)Burglary, break and enter (number)Theft (number)Sexual assault (number)Illicit drug offences (number)Robbery and extortion (number)Traffic and vehicle offences (number)
20257,6651,7761,2001,026864534495300294
20247,5091,6741,296912831492441273324
20236,4441,4461,029840663453345252315
20225,1751,197879549486396291252237
20215,4361,278978621510378318201291
20206,9241,5841,383819681288411255369
20197,2001,5481,401822744345423309447
20188,0401,6411,623831777453522396555
20179,2671,8031,8691,152921480615402696
20168,9581,7161,8451,119927420591357738
20157,7491,5421,5631,017708402549300633
20147,6591,4221,4311,089696441540330696
20137,7011,5091,3081,080717483558309789
20127,9861,5631,3531,167741438573348825
20118,4361,5541,5451,236759396603327957
20108,8891,5751,5151,2906934027114441,128
20098,9371,5961,4551,2517264085644531,278
20088,0671,4641,1881,2037413875613841,113
20079,0781,4731,2241,2788704207114021,485
20069,3361,4011,1311,3749034507564291,602
Full data: prisoners sentenced
2025All offences 7,665Acts intended to cause injury 1,776Offences against justice procedures (e.g. breaches of orders) 1,200Burglary, break and enter 1,026Theft 864Sexual assault 534Illicit drug offences 495Robbery and extortion 300Traffic and vehicle offences 294
Sentenced prisoners by main offence. All offences: 7,665 in 2025. Acts intended to cause injury: 1,776 in 2025. Offences against justice procedures (e.g. breaches of orders): 1,200 in 2025. Burglary, break and enter: 1,026 in 2025. Theft: 864 in 2025. Sexual assault: 534 in 2025. Illicit drug offences: 495 in 2025. Robbery and extortion: 300 in 2025. Traffic and vehicle offences: 294 in 2025.

Lines break at accounting-basis changes and missing periods. Source: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa.

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Sentenced prisoners by main offence: NZ data and downloads: definitions

Stats NZ's annual sentenced prisoner population (people held in prison as a result of a custodial sentence), by calendar year and the offence type of their sentence, from Department of Corrections data.

Sentenced prisoners by main offence: NZ data and downloads: comparison limits

These affect how the figures can be compared.

  • An annual count, not the number in prison on a given day (Corrections' prison muster), which is a different measure.
  • Excludes people held on remand (not yet sentenced), who are a large and growing share of the prison population.
  • Stats NZ randomly rounds these figures to protect confidentiality, so small numbers are approximate.
  • Rises or falls reflect policing, sentencing law and court practice as well as offending.

Sentenced prisoners by main offence: NZ data and downloads: data by period

The latest ten periods for up to the first six series. Downloads contain every published observation.

PeriodAll offencesActs intended to cause injuryOffences against justice procedures (e.g. breaches of orders)Burglary, break and enterTheftSexual assault
20257,6651,7761,2001,026864534
20247,5091,6741,296912831492
20236,4441,4461,029840663453
20225,1751,197879549486396
20215,4361,278978621510378
20206,9241,5841,383819681288
20197,2001,5481,401822744345
20188,0401,6411,623831777453
20179,2671,8031,8691,152921480
20168,9581,7161,8451,119927420

Sentenced prisoners by main offence: NZ data and downloads: questions for your AI

Download the file, attach it in the assistant you use, then paste the prompt. Whatever it tells you is its reading of the data, not ours.

  1. 1Download prisoners-sentenced.csv
  2. 2Attach it in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another assistant
  3. 3
    Paste this prompt

    The attached CSV is Sentenced prisoners by main offence (prisoners-sentenced), from Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Sentenced prisoner population by offence (calendar years). Describe how each measure has changed, naming its unit and period. Treat changes in basis and missing periods as breaks. Distinguish observation from explanation. Limitations: An annual count, not the number in prison on a given day (Corrections' prison muster), which is a different measure. Excludes people held on remand (not yet sentenced), who are a large and growing share of the prison population. Stats NZ randomly rounds these figures to protect confidentiality, so small numbers are approximate. Rises or falls reflect policing, sentencing law and court practice as well as offending.. Do not infer causation from changes during government terms.

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Sentenced prisoners by main offence: NZ data and downloads: sources

The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.

Organisation
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Sentenced prisoner population by offence (calendar years)
Licence
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This work is based on Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Reuse limits
Photos, graphics and logos are excluded. Stats NZ logos and government emblems must not be used.
Snapshot
data/raw/statsnz-prisoners/2026-10-11_0c17e123eb18.csv
SHA256
0c17e123eb18fc9b877a9645bf537b0bf8544eee0a7ea08c02d256abbc23a50e
Retrieved
11 October 2026