people think Americans and Canadians are very similar and then you see stats like this.
Huh, Rwanda is not a name I thought I would see here. But I guess given how small the country is and the poverty rate it makes sense.
I expected the US to be number 1 in both categories.
1 in 200 people currently in jail. 0.5 percent of the usa population is kept in jail.
What in the hell is going on with Rwanda and El Salvador?
Serious question…. Why is China not in that list? I’m guessing no data from their government, but is there something to know about their prison policies that’s different from the rest of the world?
I knew the United States had a lot of prisoners but I wasn’t expecting us to have the highest amount of them
+ for listing the country names. Not everyone is a flag authority
Oh, let me zoom in and see who is at the top of the list, whoever could it be?
I was surprised to see that India and Pakistan do not appear to believe in incarceration. Maybe I shouldn’t have been.
Does this data include local jails or only state/federal prison inmates? In the US at least there’s a distinction and it might skew the numbers substantially (downward! 😵💫)
Interesting how Japan and Pakistan both have such low numbers. I’d feel safe in one of those countries, but not the other.
Feel that the list should be ordered by per population rather than by raw number, the raw number is meaningless on a casual glance of the data. Another classic example of data being not beautiful…
It’s easy to look at this and think that seems like probably too many. But seriously India, Pakistan, Nigerian what the fuck are you doing? Those numbers are way too low for the amount of crime.
I live in Japan. It’s crazy to think only 44k are imprisoned.
Several individual US states have higher numbers than that, lol.
30% of female prisoners, globally, are in a US prison.
You just need to do what China does. Those folks in reeducation camps aren’t prisoners. They’re guests.
Would love to see this data sorted by the red side, that information is way more interesting and harder to compare with this sorting style.
India having the second lowest incarceration rate on this list is probably part of why sexual violence against women is so common, which is why all their doctors are protesting.
America: we’re slightly better than Rwanda!
Why sort on blue, where the red bar is the actual comparison?
The land of the freeeeeeee
Does this include people who are on parole, in local jails, in juvenile, in halfway house, house arrest, and forced to serve time in insane assylums?
Japan and Nigeria have the fewest prisoners per 100k people. Probably for different reasons though.
and there’s only 400 million people living in America
in russia the “prisoners” go straight to the front. would be probably not captured since this is pre-2022 but i’d love to see the stats in russia now, and also a breakout of how much of the army is convicts.
Can someone from one of the countries with a high population of prisoners comment on the effect that has on the country? Canada is listed pretty low on the list, and it seems like everyone gets a slap on the wrist. People getting out on bail for car jacking and other crimes that would get them behind bars in other countries. I am wondering where the sweet spot is.
Putting people in Prison is a for profit business in the US.
Keep in mind these are point-in-time numbers too. In the U.S. total entries into incarceration are about 4 times this amount. In 2022, there were over 7 million entries into prison or jail. [Source](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024.html)
It didn’t used to be this way. Sadly, this is one area of governmental power that many developing countries still try to mimic from the U.S.
Do it again but this time with who has the most *profitable* prisons!
/s
El Salvador has way more prisoners than that when they built the mega prisons during the same time these stats were taken. Bad map.
Why is China not on the list?
Private prisons + corrupt lawers = ??
india is low because most of the criminals are in politics.
USA is a 3rd world country
In China, they don’t have prisoners, just students in their multiple re-education facilities
China – Why do you need my prisoners details. We don’t have any. We are a free country. We try to educate our people and not imprison them. If they don’t listen we take away all their organs.
38 comments
Data source: [https://dataunodc.un.org/dp-prisons-persons-held](https://dataunodc.un.org/dp-prisons-persons-held)
Tools used: Matplitlib
people think Americans and Canadians are very similar and then you see stats like this.
Huh, Rwanda is not a name I thought I would see here. But I guess given how small the country is and the poverty rate it makes sense.
I expected the US to be number 1 in both categories.
1 in 200 people currently in jail. 0.5 percent of the usa population is kept in jail.
What in the hell is going on with Rwanda and El Salvador?
Serious question…. Why is China not in that list? I’m guessing no data from their government, but is there something to know about their prison policies that’s different from the rest of the world?
I knew the United States had a lot of prisoners but I wasn’t expecting us to have the highest amount of them
+ for listing the country names. Not everyone is a flag authority
Oh, let me zoom in and see who is at the top of the list, whoever could it be?
I was surprised to see that India and Pakistan do not appear to believe in incarceration. Maybe I shouldn’t have been.
Does this data include local jails or only state/federal prison inmates? In the US at least there’s a distinction and it might skew the numbers substantially (downward! 😵💫)
Interesting how Japan and Pakistan both have such low numbers. I’d feel safe in one of those countries, but not the other.
Feel that the list should be ordered by per population rather than by raw number, the raw number is meaningless on a casual glance of the data. Another classic example of data being not beautiful…
It’s easy to look at this and think that seems like probably too many. But seriously India, Pakistan, Nigerian what the fuck are you doing? Those numbers are way too low for the amount of crime.
I live in Japan. It’s crazy to think only 44k are imprisoned.
Several individual US states have higher numbers than that, lol.
30% of female prisoners, globally, are in a US prison.
You just need to do what China does. Those folks in reeducation camps aren’t prisoners. They’re guests.
Would love to see this data sorted by the red side, that information is way more interesting and harder to compare with this sorting style.
India having the second lowest incarceration rate on this list is probably part of why sexual violence against women is so common, which is why all their doctors are protesting.
America: we’re slightly better than Rwanda!
Why sort on blue, where the red bar is the actual comparison?
The land of the freeeeeeee
Does this include people who are on parole, in local jails, in juvenile, in halfway house, house arrest, and forced to serve time in insane assylums?
Japan and Nigeria have the fewest prisoners per 100k people. Probably for different reasons though.
and there’s only 400 million people living in America
in russia the “prisoners” go straight to the front. would be probably not captured since this is pre-2022 but i’d love to see the stats in russia now, and also a breakout of how much of the army is convicts.
Can someone from one of the countries with a high population of prisoners comment on the effect that has on the country? Canada is listed pretty low on the list, and it seems like everyone gets a slap on the wrist. People getting out on bail for car jacking and other crimes that would get them behind bars in other countries. I am wondering where the sweet spot is.
Putting people in Prison is a for profit business in the US.
Keep in mind these are point-in-time numbers too. In the U.S. total entries into incarceration are about 4 times this amount. In 2022, there were over 7 million entries into prison or jail. [Source](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024.html)
It didn’t used to be this way. Sadly, this is one area of governmental power that many developing countries still try to mimic from the U.S.
Do it again but this time with who has the most *profitable* prisons!
/s
El Salvador has way more prisoners than that when they built the mega prisons during the same time these stats were taken. Bad map.
Why is China not on the list?
Private prisons + corrupt lawers = ??
india is low because most of the criminals are in politics.
USA is a 3rd world country
In China, they don’t have prisoners, just students in their multiple re-education facilities
China – Why do you need my prisoners details. We don’t have any. We are a free country. We try to educate our people and not imprison them. If they don’t listen we take away all their organs.