The UK does not publish a national crime rate by immigration or asylum status.
The UK publishes prison population by nationality (11.8% foreign national). It does not publish a national crime rate by immigration or asylum status. Those are different questions — here is why the gap matters.
The claim
Migrants or asylum seekers commit a disproportionate share of crime in the UK (or: they commit less crime than everyone else).
What is true
10,134 foreign nationals — 11.8% of the prison population in England and Wales — is a real, published figure. Anyone citing it as a fact about the prison population is citing something real.
Put it in scale
11.8%
What is published: prison population by nationality
10,134 of 85,858 people in custody — a snapshot of the prison population (a STOCK), not a rate, and not broken down by immigration or asylum status.
Not the same measure
The invalid leap: nationality is not status
A foreign national in prison may have lived in the UK since childhood, arrived on a work visa, be a student, have a live asylum claim, be a recognised refugee, or have no leave at all — one figure covers all of them.
Not published
What does not exist: a national offending rate by status
Neither the Crime Survey for England and Wales nor police-recorded crime statistics record a suspect's or offender's immigration or asylum status.
What we know / don’t know
Is there ANY official UK series linking offending or conviction to immigration or asylum status?
If you want to know whether asylum seekers commit more or less crime than anyone else in the UK, the published national statistics cannot tell you. That is not a hedge and it is not a refusal: the series that would answer it does not exist. Anyone quoting a figure that does answer it is either using a different country’s data, a local or partial dataset that cannot be generalised, or a calculation with a denominator they have chosen themselves.
The verdict
Anyone giving you a definitive national crime rate for migrants or asylum seekers is using data that cannot establish it — in either direction.
Every number on this card
| Figure | What it counts | Geography · period | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11.8% | Foreign nationals in the prison population10,134 of 85,858 people in custody — a snapshot of the prison population (a STOCK), not a rate, and not broken down by immigration or asylum status. | England and Wales · As at 30 June 2026 | KNOWN | Ministry of Justice, Offender management statistics quarterly: January to March 2026 |
| Not the same measure | Nationality ≠ immigration status ≠ asylum statusA foreign national in prison may have lived in the UK since childhood, arrived on a work visa, be a student, have a live asylum claim, be a recognised refugee, or have no leave at all — one figure covers all of them. | England and Wales · As at 30 June 2026 | NOT COLLECTED | Ministry of Justice, Offender management statistics quarterly: January to March 2026 |
| Not published | National offending/conviction rate by immigration or asylum statusNeither the Crime Survey for England and Wales nor police-recorded crime statistics record a suspect's or offender's immigration or asylum status. | United Kingdom · Checked 2026-08-31 | NOT COLLECTED | ONS, Crime and justice collection |
- This applies equally to claims that immigrants or asylum seekers commit MORE crime and to claims they commit LESS — the missing series cannot support either direction.
- Figures from a single police force, local authority or FOI request occasionally circulate: they can be accurate for what they cover and still not support a national claim — see /immigration/crime for why.
- Do not compute a rate by dividing the prison figure by any population estimate — no denominator published anywhere makes that division valid (see /immigration/crime's three-reasons explanation).
Verified against primary sources: 2026-08-31.