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Adults convicted, by most serious sentence: NZ data and downloads

All convicted adults was 50,476 in 2025, down 0.2% on a year earlier.

Updated

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

Adults convicted, by most serious sentence
All convicted adultsImprisonment sentences (incl. life and preventive detention)Community sentencesMonetary (fines, reparation)Home detention
Adults convicted, by most serious sentence. All convicted adults, 1980 to 2025, latest 50,476. Imprisonment sentences (incl. life and preventive detention), 1980 to 2025, latest 7,741. Community sentences, 1980 to 2025, latest 22,634. Monetary (fines, reparation), 1980 to 2025, latest 13,464. Home detention, 2000 to 2025, latest 3,438.050,000100,000150,0001980198819962004201220202025
Show the figures
PeriodAll convicted adults (number)Imprisonment sentences (incl. life and preventive detention) (number)Community sentences (number)Monetary (fines, reparation) (number)Home detention (number)
202550,4767,74122,63413,4643,438
202450,5787,03422,34515,0783,124
202349,2406,20321,57415,7762,823
202247,4115,00620,61516,6602,652
202145,7625,28220,60814,5012,490
202051,8346,56523,06815,8972,752
201956,9576,87124,75018,3112,699
201860,6187,63125,81220,3502,949
201764,3508,68927,33221,2523,036
201664,5658,56127,20821,5322,844
201563,6807,61227,03721,7782,704
201468,7767,56029,16224,3492,833
201374,7177,53730,80327,6502,961
201281,1517,96333,83529,6473,022
201187,1408,38834,93433,2432,802
201095,4048,97336,57438,8243,302
200999,7669,06636,18243,0462,758
200895,0678,13032,34943,7272,631
200788,4018,99026,41843,259448
200681,9739,14623,10840,53433
Full data: convictions by sentence
2025All convicted adults 50,476Imprisonment sentences (incl. life and preventive detention) 7,741Community sentences 22,634Monetary (fines, reparation) 13,464Home detention 3,438
Adults convicted, by most serious sentence. All convicted adults: 50,476 in 2025. Imprisonment sentences (incl. life and preventive detention): 7,741 in 2025. Community sentences: 22,634 in 2025. Monetary (fines, reparation): 13,464 in 2025. Home detention: 3,438 in 2025.

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

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Adults convicted, by most serious sentence: NZ data and downloads: definitions

Adults convicted in court each calendar year since 1980, by their most serious sentence: imprisonment, community sentences (such as community work, supervision, home and community detention), or fines and other monetary penalties.

Adults convicted, by most serious sentence: NZ data and downloads: comparison limits

These affect how the figures can be compared.

  • Each person is counted once per year, by their most serious sentence.
  • Sentence types changed over time: home detention became a sentence in 2007 (before that it was a way of serving a prison sentence), and community detention and intensive supervision began in 2007.
  • Ministry of Justice data published by Stats NZ.

Adults convicted, by most serious sentence: NZ data and downloads: data by period

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

PeriodAll convicted adultsImprisonment sentences (incl. life and preventive detention)Community sentencesMonetary (fines, reparation)Home detention
202550,4767,74122,63413,4643,438
202450,5787,03422,34515,0783,124
202349,2406,20321,57415,7762,823
202247,4115,00620,61516,6602,652
202145,7625,28220,60814,5012,490
202051,8346,56523,06815,8972,752
201956,9576,87124,75018,3112,699
201860,6187,63125,81220,3502,949
201764,3508,68927,33221,2523,036
201664,5658,56127,20821,5322,844

Adults convicted, by most serious sentence: 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 convictions-by-sentence.csv
  2. 2Attach it in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another assistant
  3. 3
    Paste this prompt

    The attached CSV is Adults convicted, by most serious sentence (convictions-by-sentence), from Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Adults convicted in court by most serious sentence (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: Each person is counted once per year, by their most serious sentence. Sentence types changed over time: home detention became a sentence in 2007 (before that it was a way of serving a prison sentence), and community detention and intensive supervision began in 2007. Ministry of Justice data published by Stats NZ.. Do not infer causation from changes during government terms.

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Adults convicted, by most serious sentence: NZ data and downloads: sources

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Organisation
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Adults convicted in court by most serious sentence (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.
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Photos, graphics and logos are excluded. Stats NZ logos and government emblems must not be used.
Snapshot
data/raw/statsnz-convictions-sentence/2026-10-11_7a3dec9a97ef.csv
SHA256
7a3dec9a97ef4dc96283f17c55ffaa90bb6ba7b13518c6bb832cb6dfd3e861c8
Retrieved
11 October 2026