The number of individuals in jail and prison for every U.S. county

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In terms of the relative incarceration rates, the U.S. also maintained its position as having one of the highest rates globally. Despite accounting for only about 4% of the world’s population, the U.S. incarcerated around 22% of the world’s prisoners in 2016.

In 2016, the United States had a total of approximately 2.2 million prisoners, including both prison and jail inmates. This made the U.S. the country with the highest total number of prisoners in the world.

Several countries had more prisoners than the United States in 2016. China had the largest prison population, with approximately 1.7 million people incarcerated. Russia had the second-largest prison population, with around 641,000 people incarcerated. Brazil had the third-largest prison population, with approximately 437,000 people incarcerated. India also had more prisoners than the United States, with around 419,000 people incarcerated. The world map below created by Reddit user: dr_the_goat shows nations and U.S. states with a population smaller than the U.S. prison system.

Countries and U.S. states with a population smaller than the U.S. prison system (2.3 million)

California has the largest prison population in the United States, with approximately 129,920 prisoners in 2016. Texas follows closely behind with around 163,703 prisoners. However, when considering the incarceration rate, Louisiana surpasses both states with 980 imprisoned people per 100,000, the highest among all U.S. states. This means that residents of Louisiana have a significantly higher likelihood of being incarcerated compared to residents of other states.

Jail incarceration rate per 100,000 residents (age 15-64)

Florida also has a notably high incarceration rate, with residents having over twice the chance of being thrown in jail or prison as someone who lives in North Dakota, according to the Institute of Justice Vera.org. These disparities in incarceration rates among states highlight the variations in criminal justice policies and practices across the United States.

Key facts:

• Incarceration grew the most outside the largest counties (large counties grew by 2.8 times, while midsize counties grew by 4.1 times, and small counties grew by 6.9 times.)
• Since 1970, the number of women held in jail has increased 14x from fewer than 8,000 women in 1970 to 110,000 women in jails in 2014.
• Today, African Americans make up nearly 40% of the jail population and experience particularly high incarceration rates in mid-sized and small counties.

Data: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Annual Survey of Jails, Census of Jails.