List of countries by incarceration rate

Prison population rates for 2018 from World Prison Brief. See date on map.

This is an alphabetical list of countries and some dependent territories and subnational areas which lays out the incarceration rate of each. ^[1]

Incarceration rates and counts

The data below is the latest available at the World Prison Brief (WPB) at the time the data was copied here. See the individual WPB country and subnational area pages for more info on data, dates, and much more. WPB notes this: "As it is not possible to obtain meaningful comparative data on numbers of children in custody in different countries, we do not include juvenile imprisonment data in the highest to lowest lists." ^[1]

• Note: Table data fully updated Oct 22, 2024. Some individual countries since then.

Incarceration numbers. Rates are per 100,000 inhabitants. ^[1]

Location	Rates	Number
Afghanistan	45	19,000
Albania	168	4,565
Algeria	217	94,749
American Samoa (USA)	538	301
Andorra	60	51
Angola	68	24,490
Anguilla (United Kingdom)	240	36
Antigua and Barbuda	400	400
Argentina	254	117,810
Armenia	83	2,469
Aruba (Netherlands)	288	311
Australia	157	41,929
Austria	101	9,275
Azerbaijan	244	24,698
Bahamas	409	1,617
Bahrain	234	3,485
Bangladesh	50	84,851
Barbados	258	743
Belarus	345	32,556
Belgium	104	12,316
Belize	289	1,199
Benin	138	18,170
Bermuda (United Kingdom)	200	124
Bhutan	145	1,119
Bolivia	209	25,291
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Federation	79	1,688
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Republika Srpska	44	524
Botswana	161	3,971
Brazil	392	850,377
Brunei	186	841
Bulgaria	99	6,378
Burkina Faso	39	8,800
Burundi	103	13,824
Cambodia	257	45,122
Cameroon	116	32,003
Canada	90	35,485
Cape Verde	366	2,100
Cayman Islands (United Kingdom)	277	226
Central African Republic	52	2,678
Chad	59	8,700
Chile	306	58,248
China	119	1,690,000
Colombia	200	103,530
Comoros	46	422
Republic of the Congo	27	1,388
Cook Islands (New Zealand)	224	47
Costa Rica	343	17,829
Ivory Coast	91	25,928
Croatia	115	4,445
Cuba	794	90,000
Curaçao (Netherlands)	261	429
Cyprus (Republic of Cyprus)	103	966
Czech Republic	179	19,649
Democratic Republic of the Congo	46	44,536
Denmark	69	4,083
Djibouti	71	0662 c. 662
Dominica	348	261
Dominican Republic	231	25,987
Ecuador	180	33,472
Egypt	116	120,000
El Salvador	1,659	109,519
Equatorial Guinea	63	500
Estonia	129	1,805
Eswatini/Swaziland	243	3,405
Ethiopia	99	110,000
Faroe Islands (Denmark)	23	12
Fiji	248	2,276
Finland	52	2,912
France	115	78,509
French Guiana (France)	310	1,022
French Polynesia (France)	200	575
Gabon	228	5,226
Gambia	22	543
Georgia	275	10,523
Germany	68	57,955
Ghana	42	14,361
Gibraltar (United Kingdom)	273	92
Greece	98	10,242
Greenland (Denmark)	241	136
Grenada	338	385
Guadeloupe (France)	230	916
Guam (USA)	475	820
Guatemala	123	23,361
Guernsey (United Kingdom)	143	95
Guinea	34	4,375
Guinea-Bissau	31	596
Guyana	271	2,156
Haiti	63	7,523
Honduras	189	19,500
Hong Kong (China)	121	9,079
Hungary	192	18,270
Iceland	35	140
India	41	573,220
Indonesia	96	273,541
Iran	228	189,000
Iraq	179	73,715
Ireland	91	4,964
Isle of Man (United Kingdom)	153	132
Israel	217	19,756
Italy	105	61,758
Jamaica	125	3,559
Japan	33	40,881
Jersey (United Kingdom)	135	146
Jordan	185	19,140
Kazakhstan	184	35,228
Kenya	103	60,000
Kiribati	113	129
Kosovo	99	1,830
Kuwait	101	4,500
Kyrgyzstan	117	7,633
Laos	166	11,885
Latvia	175	3,271
Lebanon	141	9,254
Lesotho	104	2,216
Liberia	55	3,000
Libya	269	19,103
Liechtenstein	35	14
Lithuania	156	4,551
Luxembourg	89	600
Macau (China)	196	1,345
Madagascar	101	30,530
Malawi	76	16,366
Malaysia	241	82,144
Maldives	314	1,700
Mali	40	8,670
Malta	119	671
Marshall Islands	66	35
Martinique (France)	275	1,025
Mauritania	57	2,826
Mauritius	215	2,755
Mayotte (France)	205	616
Mexico	174	233,687
Micronesia	127	132
Moldova	235	5,695
Monaco	81	31
Mongolia	183	5,832
Montenegro	170	1,046
Morocco	267	102,653
Mozambique	63	21,814
Myanmar	183	100,324
Namibia	318	8,900
Nauru	345	38
Nepal	90	27,550
Netherlands	64	11,537
New Caledonia (France)	190	563
New Zealand	181	9,638
Nicaragua	332	20,918
Niger	40	10,179
Nigeria	37	84,767
North Korea	?	?
North Macedonia	140	2,555
Northern Mariana Islands (USA)	304	170
Norway	55	3,052
Oman	46	1,960
Pakistan	38	87,712
Palau	367	66
Panama	522	23,798
Papua New Guinea	57	5,373
Paraguay	239	17,712
Peru	285	97,605
Philippines	162	180,826
Poland	194	70,927
Portugal	115	12,339
Puerto Rico (USA)	177	5,798
Qatar	69	2,055
Reunion (France)	156	1,440
Romania	126	24,106
Russia	300	433,006
Rwanda	637	89,034
Samoa	179	358
San Marino	3	1
Sao Tome and Principe	129	300
Saudi Arabia	207	68,056 c. 68,056.
Senegal	69	13,185
Serbia	162	10,787
Seychelles	393	474
Sierra Leone	52	4,453
Singapore	156	9,536
Sint Maarten (Netherlands)	196	87
Slovakia	164	8,895
Slovenia	86	1,831
Solomon Islands	79	500
South Africa	258	157,056
South Korea	103	52,940
South Sudan	58	8,400
Spain	117	56,698
Sri Lanka	131	28,555
St. Kitts and Nevis	296	160
St. Lucia	308	572
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	353	392
Sudan	52	21,000
Suriname	185	1,000
Sweden	96	10,175
Switzerland	77	6,881
Syria	60	10,599
Taiwan	250	58,571
Tajikistan	141	14,000
Tanzania	50	32,671
Thailand	391	274,277
East Timor	55	763
Togo	59	4,990
Tonga	516	557
Trinidad and Tobago	276	3,802
Tunisia	196	23,484
Turkey	424	362,422
Turkmenistan	576	35,000
Tuvalu	110	11
Uganda	152	76,946
Ukraine	130	44,024
United Arab Emirates	104	9,826
United Kingdom: England & Wales	140	86,256
United Kingdom: Northern Ireland	99	1,910
United Kingdom: Scotland	150	8,274
United States	541	1,808,100
Uruguay	449	15,767
Uzbekistan	85	29,000
Vanuatu	65	195
Venezuela	199	67,200
Vietnam	135	133,986
British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)	368	114
United States Virgin Islands (USA)	251	261
Yemen	14	4,268
Zambia	125	25,372
Zimbabwe	153	24,068

See also

• Crime statistics
• List of prisons
• List of countries by execution rate
• List of countries by intentional homicide rate
• List of U.S. states by homicide rate
• List of U.S. states and territories by incarceration and correctional supervision rate
• United States incarceration rate
• Category:Penal systems by country

Notes

• United Kingdom: The World Prison Brief (WPB) site does not list an incarceration rate for the United Kingdom as a whole, that includes all its territories, and other subnational areas, etc.: England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, British Virgin Islands. They are listed separately in the table. And the World Prison Brief site has pages for each of them. ^[2] A rate for the United Kingdom as a whole can be calculated by adding up their prison populations, and then dividing by their combined population.

References

1. "Highest to Lowest - Prison Population Total". World Prison Brief (WPB). Accessed Oct 22, 2024 to fully update the table. Use dropdown menu to choose lists of countries by region, or the whole world. Use other menu to select highest-to-lowest lists of prison population totals, prison population rates, percentage of pre-trial detainees / remand prisoners, percentage of female prisoners, percentage of foreign prisoners, and occupancy rate. Direct links: Rates and Numbers. Column headings in WPB tables can be clicked to reorder columns lowest to highest, or alphabetically. For detailed information for each country click on any country name in lists. The individual country pages also give the date of the data. See also the WPB main data page and click on the map links and/or the sidebar links to get to the region and country desired. Please update the tables here only from this WPB source.
2. Search of World Prison Brief website for "United Kingdom". It pulls up the pages for England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Cayman Islands, Jersey, Virgin Islands, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Gibraltar, etc.. World Prison Brief.

External links

• Core Publications of the World Prison Brief. Such as the World Prison Population List, and the World Female Imprisonment List.
• Persons Detained Statistics of incarceration ("detained") from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
• Data Analysis Tools – Corrections Statistical Analysis Tool (CSAT) – Prisoners. United States Bureau of Justice Statistics.