Prison population rate

Description: Prison population (including pre-trial detainees and remand prisoners), per 100,000 population.
Data source: Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Unit: prisoners per 100,000 people
Date range: 1993-2026
Last updated: 2026-01-21
Next expected update: 2027-01-21
Managed by: Fiona Spooner

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Frequently asked questions

How did Our World in Data process this data?

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Data sources

Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research – World Prison Brief

The World Prison Brief is an online database providing free access to information on prison systems around the world. It is a unique resource, which supports evidence-based development of prison policy and practice globally.

The World Prison Brief is hosted by the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR), at Birkbeck, University of London. ICPR hosts and updates the World Prison Brief as part of its World Prison Research Programme. This program, which involves collaboration with research partners, civil society organizations and policy makers, aims to inform and promote debate and policy reform through international comparative research projects, publications and civil society engagement.

In addition to providing access to the World Prison Brief database, this website holds other prisons publications by ICPR, including World Prison Population Lists, the handbook A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management, research project reports, blogs and expert commentary on prisons issues.

Retrieved on

January 20, 2026

Retrieved from

https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All

Citation

This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data.

World Prison Brief, Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research.

Various sources – Population

Our World in Data builds and maintains a long-run dataset on population by country, region, and for the world, based on various sources.

You can find more information on these sources and how our time series is constructed on this page: https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources

Retrieved on

March 31, 2026

Retrieved from

https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources

Citation

This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data.

The long-run data on population is based on various sources, described on this page: https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources

How to cite

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Prison population rate”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, Various sources. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261014-114458/grapher/prison-population-rate.html [online resource] (archived on October 14, 2026).

How to cite this data

If you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Prison population rate” [dataset]. Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, “World Prison Brief”; Various sources, “Population” [original data]. Retrieved October 14, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261014-114458/grapher/prison-population-rate.html (archived on October 14, 2026).

All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately. This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.

All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

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