how many convicts were sent to australia

Historians estimate that roughly 162,000–165,000 convicts were transported from Britain and Ireland to Australia between 1788 and 1868.

Quick Scoop

Big picture number

• Most modern estimates cluster around about 164,000 convicts in total sent to the Australian colonies over the 80‑year transportation period.

• Some references round this to “about 165,000” because exact ship lists and records are incomplete or differ slightly by source.

Timeframe and where they went

• Transportation began with the First Fleet arriving in New South Wales in 1788 and officially ended in 1868, when the last convict ship reached Western Australia.

• Convicts were sent mainly to New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), and later Western Australia, with smaller numbers to other Australian colonies.

A couple of extra facts

• Around 25,000 of those transported were women, meaning men made up the large majority of transported convicts.

• In peak years like 1833, up to about 7,000 convicts arrived in a single year, showing how central transportation was to early colonial Australia.

So, when people ask “how many convicts were sent to Australia?” , the historically grounded short answer is: about 164,000 people over 1788–1868.

TL;DR: About 162,000–165,000 convicts were transported to Australia from 1788 to 1868, with modern summaries often giving a figure of roughly 164,000 people.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.