The Countries That Imprison The Most People

Last Thursday, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit a federal prison. His visit to the El Reno Correctional Institution was part of a week long focus on reforming the US criminal justice system and possibly reducing the country's huge prison population.

Across the world, there are approximately 10.2 million people in prison with the US accounting for a quarter of them, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies. When it comes to prisoners per 100,000 of the population, the Seychelles comes first with 868 (though it only has 786 prisoners in total). The United States has 2.2 million prisoners - 698 per 100,000 people.

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This chart shows prisoners per 100,000 of the population.

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State prisoner imprisonment rate in the U.S. 2022, by state
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Average length of imprisonment for traffickers by type of trafficking U.S. 2023
Number of people sentenced to imprisonment in Sweden 2012-2022
People sentenced to imprisonment in Denmark 2022, by length of sentence
Number of people sentenced to imprisonment in Sweden 2022, by length of sentence
Number of people sentenced to imprisonment in Sweden 2012-2022, by gender

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