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Imprisonment rates vary significantly across countries due to differences in legal systems, crime rates, social policies, and approaches to criminal justice.
The United States has historically had one of the highest incarceration rates globally. According to data from the Wisevoter, as of 2023, the United States had an incarceration rate of around 639 per 100,000 population. However, it’s important to note that this rate has been gradually decreasing in recent years.
Turkmenistan is second in the ranking of countries by the number of prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. In this country, there are 552 per 100,000 inhabitants. In the third place is Cuba, with 410 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants.
The map below created by Reddit user plotset shows the imprisonment rate worldwide in 2023.
Notable Highs: USA (664), Turkmenistan (552), Cuba (510), Thailand (445), Brazil (357), Turkey (335), Russia (329) Notable Lows: Nigeria (31), India (35), Japan (38), Pakistan (40), Norway (54), Netherlands (63), Germany (69).
There are more than 660 thousand women in jail throughout the world. About 6.5% of the world’s prisoners are women and in most prison systems, women constitute between 2 and 9% of the total prison population.
