Countries with the Highest Incarceration Rates

About This Dataset

The countries and territories that imprison the largest share of their population, measured as the number of prisoners per 100,000 people, according to the World Prison Brief. The rate allows fair comparison between countries of very different sizes.

✨ AI Insight

El Salvador stands far above every other country at 1,659 prisoners per 100,000 people - a rate driven by its mass anti-gang crackdown, which has jailed a large fraction of the adult male population. Cuba (794) is a distant second, followed by Rwanda (637) and Turkmenistan (576). The United States (541) has the highest incarceration rate of any major Western democracy, imprisoning its citizens at a rate several times that of Western Europe. American Samoa (538), Panama (522) and Tonga (516) complete the list. The pattern mixes authoritarian states, small Pacific and Caribbean territories, and one large democracy, showing that extreme incarceration arises from very different political and social causes.

Source: World Prison Brief (Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research)

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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El Salvador leads with 1,659 in All Time.

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Average value in All Time: 723 · median: 559.

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Gap in All Time: El Salvador is 3.2× larger than Tonga.