US incarceration count, and rate per 100,000 population. Jails, state prisons, federal prisons.United States of America. World Prison Brief.YearCountRate1940264,834 2011950264,620 1761960346,015 1931970328,020 1611980503,586 2201985744,208 31119901,148,702457 19951,585,586 592 20001,937,48268320022,033,02270320042,135,33572520062,258,79275220082,307,50475520102,270,14273120122,228,42470720142,217,94769320162,157,80066620182,102,40064220201,675,40050520211,767,20053120221,808,10054120231,833,700542

In 2023, the United States had 1,833,700 inmates in adult facilities (prisons and jails), at a rate of 542 per 100,000 population. That was the 4th highest rate in the world in 2023.. World Prison Brief (WPB). Use left sidebar to choose lists of countries by region, or the whole world. Use sidebar to select highest-to-lowest lists of prison population totals, prison population rates, percentage of pre-trial detainees / remand prisoners, percentage of female prisoners, percentage of foreign prisoners, and occupancy rate. For detailed information for each country click on any country name in lists. Search for country pages via search form at the bottom of the left sidebar. According to the World Prison Population List (11th edition) there were around 10.35 million people in penal institutions worldwide in 2015.Walmsley, Roy (2 Feb 2016). World Prison Population List (11th edition) (PDF). From the Research & Publications page of the World Prison Brief website. From page 1 of the PDF: "The information is the latest available at the end of October 2015." And from page 2: "This report shows that more than 10.35 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, either as pre-trial detainees/remand prisoners or having been convicted and sentenced." The US had 2,173,800 prisoners in adult facilities in 2015.Correctional Populations in the United States, 2015. By Danielle Kaeble and Lauren Glaze, BJS Statisticians. Dec. 2016. Bureau of Justice Statistics. See PDF. Page 2 says: "At yearend 2015, an estimated 2,173,800 persons were either under the jurisdiction of state or federal prisons or in the custody of local jails in the United States". See also table 4 on page 4: "Rate of persons supervised by U.S. adult correctional systems, by correctional status, 2000 and 2005–2015". That means the US held 21.0% of the world's prisoners in 2015, even though the US represented only around 4.4 percent of the world's population in 2015.US Population by Month. US resident population. Source: US Census Bureau.The World Population Prospects: 2015 Revision. 29 July 2015 article. From United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 7.3 billion people in 2015. In 2015 the US had the 2nd highest incarceration rate (698), behind the Seychelles rate of 799 per 100,000.

Comparing English-speaking developed countries; the incarceration rate of Canada was 85 per 100,000 (as of 2020),Canada. World Prison Brief. England and Wales was 146 per 100,000 (as of 2023),United Kingdom: England & Wales. World Prison Brief. and Australia was 158 per 100,000 (as of 2022).Australia. World Prison Brief.

Comparing other developed countries, the rate of Spain was 113 per 100,000 (as of 2023),Spain. World Prison Brief. France was 109 per 100,000 (as of 2023),France. World Prison Brief. Germany was 67 per 100,000 (as of 2022),Germany. World Prison Brief. Norway was 53 per 100,000 (as of 2023),Norway. World Prison Brief. Netherlands was 65 per 100,000 (as of 2022),Netherlands. World Prison Brief. Japan was 36 per 100,000 (as of 2021),Japan. World Prison Brief. Sweden was 82 per 100,000 (as of 2023),Sweden. World Prison Brief. and Italy was 99 per 100,000 (as of 2023),Italy. World Prison Brief.

Comparing other countries with harsh sentencing for illegal drugs, Saudi Arabia was 140 per 100,000 (as of 2019),Saudi Arabia. World Prison Brief. Iran was 288 per 100,000 (as of 2020),Iran. World Prison Brief. Kuwait was 101 per 100,000 (as of 2023),Kuwait. World Prison Brief. and Singapore was 156 per 100,000 (as of 2022).Singapore. World Prison Brief. China's latest official number (2018) of 1,690,000 (sentenced prisoners only) means the rate was 119 per 100,000. According to the World Prison Brief the total number in China would be much higher if pre-trial detainees and those held in administrative detention were added, and yet more depending on the number of Uyghurs being held.China . World Prison Brief.

U.S. incarceration rate peaked in 2008

Total US incarceration (prisons and jails) peaked in 2008. On January 1, 2008, more than 1 in 100 adults in the United States were in prison or jail. 2.3 million people (see table to right).One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008. February 28, 2008. The Pew Center on the States.Liptak, Adam (28 Feb 2008). 1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says. The New York Times. Total correctional population (prison, jail, probation, parole) peaked in 2007.Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013 (NCJ 248479). Published December 2014 by U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). By Lauren E. Glaze and Danielle Kaeble, BJS statisticians. See PDF. See page 1 "highlights" section for the "1 in ..." numbers. See table 1 on page 2 for adult numbers. See table 2 on page 3 for a timeline of incarceration rates. See table 5 on page 6 for male and female numbers. See appendix table 5 on page 13, for "Estimated number of persons supervised by adult correctional systems, by correctional status, 2000–2013." See appendix table 2: "Inmates held in custody in state or federal prisons or in local jails, 2000 and 2012–2013".Prisoners in 2008 . (NCJ 228417). December 2009 report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). By William J. Sabol, Ph.D. and Heather C. West, Ph.D., BJS Statisticians. Also, Matthew Cooper, BJS Intern. See PDF . Table 9 on page 8 has the number of inmates in state or federal prison facilities, local jails, U.S. territories, military facilities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) owned and contracted facilities, jails in Indian country, and juvenile facilities (2006 Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement). See 2007 juvenile total here. Table 8 on page 8 has the incarceration rates for 2000, 2007, and 2008.Sickmund, M., Sladky, T.J., Kang, W., & Puzzanchera, C.. "Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement". Click "National Crosstabs" at the top, and then choose the census years. Click "Show table" to get the total number of juvenile inmates for those years. Or go here for all the years. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

According to the eighth edition of the World Prison Population List the 2008 US rate of 765 per 100,000 was the highest in the world, followed by Russia (629), Rwanda (604), St Kitts & Nevis (588), Cuba (c.531), U.S. Virgin Is. (512), British Virgin Is. (488), Palau (478), Belarus (468), Belize (455), Bahamas (422), Georgia (415), American Samoa (410), Grenada (408) and Anguilla (401). Its number of 2.29 million US inmates out of 9.8 million worldwide means the US held 23.4% of the world's inmates.

A 2008 article in The New York TimesLiptak, Adam (23 Apr 2008). Inmate Count in US Dwarfs Other Nations'. . The New York Times. said that "it is the length of sentences that truly distinguishes American prison policy. Indeed, the mere number of sentences imposed here would not place the United States at the top of the incarceration lists. If lists were compiled based on annual admissions to prison per capita, several European countries would outpace the United States. But American prison stays are much longer, so the total incarceration rate is higher."

Counting all inmates (not just those in adult prisons and jails) brings the number at the beginning of 2008 to 2.42 million inmates. This is by adding in inmates in U.S. territories, military facilities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) owned and contracted facilities, jails in Indian country, and juvenile facilities. See chart below on the left:

More comparisons

In addition, the United States has significant racial disparities in rates of incarceration.Rehavi and Starr (2012) "Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal Charging and Its Sentencing Consequences" Working Paper Series, no. 12-002 (Univ. of Michigan Law & Economics, Empirical Legal Studies Center) According to Michelle Alexander in a 2010 book, the United States "imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid".Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press, New York. See pages 7 and 86. . Look or search inside. The black imprisonment rate of South Africa could not have come close to today's American rate simply due to limited room. Notably, there's something of an international theme in countries comparing themselves to apartheid South Africa. There were instances where Australian journalists were drawing the same contrast relative to rates of imprisonment in their country.Greenberg, Jon. Kristof: U.S. imprisons blacks at rates higher than South Africa during apartheid. Politifact. In the Huffington Post piece "Mass Incarceration's Failure", attorney Antonio Moore states "The incarceration rate for young black men ages 20 to 39, is nearly 10,000 per 100,000. To give context, during the racial discrimination of apartheid in South Africa, the prison rate for black male South Africans, rose to 851 per 100,000."Moore, Antonio (4 Aug 2015). Mass Incarceration's Failure: America's Bias in Arrest, Conviction and Sentencing. Huffington Post.

A major contributor to the high incarceration rates is the length of the prison sentences in the United States. One of the criticisms of the United States system is that it has much longer sentences than any other part of the world. The typical mandatory sentence for a first-time drug offense in federal court is five or ten years, compared to other developed countries around the world where a first time offense would warrant at most 6 months in jail. Mandatory sentencing prohibits judges from using their discretion and forces them to place longer sentences on nonviolent offenses than they normally would do.

Even though there are other countries that have a higher rate of committing inmates to prison annually, the fact that the United States keeps their prisoners longer causes the total incarceration rate to become higher. To give an example, the average burglary sentence in the United States is 16 months, compared to 5 months in Canada and 7 months in England.

The US incarceration rate peaked in 2008 when about 1,000 in 100,000 U.S. adults were behind bars. That's 760 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages. This incarceration rate was similar to the average incarceration levels in the Soviet Union during the existence of the infamous Gulag system, when the Soviet Union's population reached 168 million, and 1.2 to 1.5 million people were in the Gulag prison camps and colonies (i.e. about 714 to 892 imprisoned per 100,000 USSR residents, according to numbers from Anne Applebaum and Steven Rosefielde). Some of the latter Soviet Union's yearly incarceration rates from 1934 to 1953, however, likely were the world's historically highest for a modern age country. In The New Yorker article The Caging of America (2012), Adam Gopnik writes: "Over all, there are now more people under 'correctional supervision' in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag under Stalin at its height."Gopnik, Adam (30 January 2012). The Caging of America. The New Yorker.

Comparison to OECD countries

OECD incarceration rate by country. Data is from World Prison Brief.