Countries with the Largest Prison Populations

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

Countries with the Largest Prison Populations

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Key Findings

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United States leads in Total Prison Population with 1,808,100.

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Average Total Prison Population: 550,751 · median: 273,909.

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Gap: United States is 15.1× larger than Egypt.

About This Dataset

Countries with the Largest Prison Populations

The countries holding the largest total number of prisoners, according to the World Prison Brief. Unlike the incarceration rate, this counts absolute numbers, so large-population countries dominate. China's figure excludes pre-trial detainees and people held in administrative detention, so its true total is likely higher.

Analysis

The United States holds the world's largest prison population at over 1.8 million people, narrowly ahead of China's 1.69 million - and China's official count excludes large numbers of pre-trial and administratively detained people, so the two may be closer or reversed. Together the US and China account for more prisoners than the next ten countries combined. Brazil (850K) and India (573K) form a clear third tier, reflecting their large populations and overburdened justice systems. Russia (282K), Thailand (274K), Indonesia (274K) and Mexico (234K) follow. Because these are raw totals, populous countries naturally rank high; the United States is notable for topping both this list and the per-capita incarceration ranking among major nations.

Data Insights Below

Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

Admin

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Data Points

12 categories · 1 year

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Top Value

1,808,100

United States

Total Prison Population · All Time

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Metrics

Total Prison Population

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Period

All Time

Single year snapshot

Methodology & source

Data source: World Prison Brief (Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research)
Coverage: 12 entities · 12 observations
Measure: Total Prison Population
Last updated: 13 July 2026
Compiled by: The ANYSTAT team, from the source above

How the figures are calculated

Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
Entities are ranked highest-first on their value.

Rankings & Full Data

12 records · Total Prison Population · ranked by All Time

✓ 12 sourced

#	Category	All Time
🥇	United States	1,808,100
🥈	China	1,690,000
🥉	Brazil	850,377
4	India	573,220
5	Russia	282,000
6	Thailand	274,277
7	Indonesia	273,541
8	Mexico	233,687
9	Iran	189,000
10	Philippines	180,826
11	Vietnam	133,986
12	Egypt	120,000

Data Sources & References

All external sources cited in this dataset

1 https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-population-total Visit ↗

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How these countries rank across all our charts

Each country's page lists its position in every ranking on ANYSTAT.

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APA

ANYSTAT. (2026). Countries with the Largest Prison Populations [Data set]. Data: World Prison Brief (Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research). https://anystat.ai/stats/1067/countries-with-the-largest-prison-populations-1783971127

MLA

"Countries with the Largest Prison Populations." ANYSTAT, 13 Jul. 2026, https://anystat.ai/stats/1067/countries-with-the-largest-prison-populations-1783971127.

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<a href="https://anystat.ai/stats/1067/countries-with-the-largest-prison-populations-1783971127">Countries with the Largest Prison Populations</a> (ANYSTAT)

Countries with the Largest Prison Populations