“World Prison Statistics: Countries with the Most and Least Prisoners – Le Point”

SAccording to data from the World Prison Brief website, which is a reference in the field, there are more than 11 million prisoners in the world. The United States is the country with the most: 1.77 million at the end of 2021, of which 10.2% are women. They are ahead of China (1.69 million), Brazil (836,000), India (554,000) and Russia (433,000). With 72,000 prisoners, France is at 32^e world rank, between Malaysia (73,000) and El Salvador (71,000). At the bottom of this ranking, we find Monaco (13 prisoners), Liechtenstein (11) and San Marino (9).

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El Salvador, the highest incarceration ratio

El Salvador is also the country in the world with the highest incarceration rate with a ratio of 1,086 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. Next come Cuba (794), Rwanda (621), Turkmenistan (576), the United States (531) and Panama (499). With a rate of 106 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, France occupies the 141^e world rank, tied with Hong Kong and Luxembourg.

At the other end of the scale are the Democratic Republic of the Congo (only 24 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants), the Faroe Islands (23) and Gambia (22). In the European Union, the highest incarceration rates are observed in Hungary and Poland (191), the lowest in Finland (51), Slovenia (54) and the Netherlands (65).

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According to World Prison Brief, the number of prisoners in the world has increased by 24% since the year 2000, a little less quickly than the total population (+ 28%). It increased by 82% in Oceania, 43% on the American continent, 38% in Asia, 32% in Africa, but fell by 27% on the European continent. The largest increases in the number of prisoners were observed during this period in South America (+200%) and Southeast Asia (+116%).

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