How many people are imprisoned in Ireland?

Ireland's prison population is 5,826 people. This figure aggregates all forms of detention counted by the source: sentenced prisoners, pre-trial detainees, and administrative detentions.

What is the incarceration rate in Ireland?

Ireland's incarceration rate is approximately 105 people per 100,000 population.

How many prisons are there in Ireland?

World Prisons indexes 27 individual facilities in Ireland. Each entry links to a detail page with contact information, capacity, oversight reports, and known conditions.

All countries

Europe · Northern Europe

Ireland

Q: Does Ireland have the death penalty?

Ireland's death-penalty status is: abolitionist. Seeded from Amnesty International 2024 categorisation + Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.

High confidence

Verified 20 May 2026 · Data dated 30 Apr 2026

Fresh · 2mo ago

Persistent overcrowding at Mountjoy and Cloverhill; population at record high mid-2024.

Compare Ireland World Prison Brief page

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

Prison population

5,826

Year: 2026

Rate per 100,000

105

Per 100,000 residents

Occupancy

123%

Above design capacity

Pre-trial / remand

18.9%

Share not yet sentenced

Female prisoners

5.6%

Foreign nationals

15.8%

Figures from official sources · verified 20 May 2026 · methodology

Conditions risk — across 27 facilities

Average of our computed Conditions Risk Score across the country's facilities. Methodology · Browse highest-risk

—

national average

27 unknown

abolitionist on capital punishment since 1990. Last known execution: 1954.ICCPR-OP2 (death-penalty abolition protocol): signatory

Seeded from Amnesty International 2024 categorisation + Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.

Source: Amnesty International + Cornell Death Penalty Worldwide.

10 documented human-rights cases →

How Ireland compares

vs Europe (16) & global averages

Rate per 100,000this: 105 · region: 108 · global: 214

Occupancy ratethis: 123% · region: 95% · global: 125%

Pre-trial sharethis: 19% · region: 28% · global: 32%

The vertical ticks mark the global (grey) and regional (amber) means. Bars are clipped at the high end for readability.

Prison population over time

Annual figures, latest survey year

2000: 2,948+73.5% over 25y2025: 5,116

Source: World Prison Brief / unodc / eurostat / Council of Europe SPACE I

Health & mortality

Custodial mortality + prison-health indicators aggregated from national statistics offices, UCLA custodial mortality dataset, and Marshall Project COVID tracking.

Indicators (latest by source)

Tb Incidence
1count
2020 · source: who-hiped

Reform in Ireland

All reform →

Laws, programmes, and pilots changing how Ireland incarcerates — plus relevant research.

Mandatory community-service consideration for short sentences2011–ongoing
alternatives · active
Since the Criminal Justice (Community Service) Amendment Act 2011, Irish judges must consider community service for any custodial sentence of 12 months or less. The Probation Service supervises the orders.

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Held

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See all 27 prisons in Ireland →

Data completeness

100%

Score based on how many fields are populated. We surface this so you know where the gaps are.

National population: 5,560,0002026
Source-verified: 20 May 2026
Source links: 1 cited

Sources

Direct citations for the figures on this page.

Primary reference
World Prison Brief (ICPS, Birkbeck) — Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research
See /data-sources for our methodology.

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3: IRL

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA

World Prisons. (2026). Ireland — prison statistics. Retrieved July 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/countries/ireland

Chicago

"Ireland — prison statistics." World Prisons. Accessed July 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/countries/ireland.

BibTeX

@misc{worldprisons-ireland,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Ireland — prison statistics},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/countries/ireland},
  urldate = {2026-07-20}
}