World Prisons
All countries

Europe · Western Europe

Germany

High confidence
Verified · Data dated
Aging · 5mo ago

Operated at Land (state) level. Strong resocialisation mandate; one of the lowest incarceration rates among large EU nations.

Compare GermanyWorld Prison Brief page

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

Prison population

59,413

Year: 2024

Rate per 100,000

71

Per 100,000 residents

Occupancy

82.2%

At or under capacity

Pre-trial / remand

26.3%

Share not yet sentenced

Female prisoners

5.6%

Foreign nationals

48.8%

Figures from official sources · verified 20 May 2026 · methodology

Conditions risk — across 1934 facilities

Average of our computed Conditions Risk Score across the country's facilities. Methodology · Browse highest-risk

0/100
national average
1 low1933 unknown
abolitionist on capital punishment since 1987. Last known execution: 1949.ICCPR-OP2 (death-penalty abolition protocol): signatory

Seeded from Amnesty International 2024 categorisation + Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.

Source: Amnesty International + Cornell Death Penalty Worldwide.
101 documented human-rights cases →

How Germany compares

vs Europe (16) & global averages
Rate per 100,000this: 71 · region: 110 · global: 214
Occupancy ratethis: 82% · region: 97% · global: 125%
Pre-trial sharethis: 26% · region: 28% · global: 32%

The vertical ticks mark the global (grey) and regional (amber) means. Bars are clipped at the high end for readability.

Prison population over time

Annual figures, latest survey year
2000: 70,252-17.7% over 25y2025: 57,812

Source: World Prison Brief / unodc / Council of Europe SPACE I

Health & mortality

Custodial mortality + prison-health indicators aggregated from national statistics offices, UCLA custodial mortality dataset, and Marshall Project COVID tracking.

Indicators (latest by source)

  • Mortality Rate

    134.47per_100k_pa

    2020 · source: who-hiped

Reform in Germany

All reform →

Laws, programmes, and pilots changing how Germany incarcerates — plus relevant research.

  • Constitutional rehabilitation mandate1973–ongoing

    rehabilitation · active

    Since the Federal Constitutional Court's 1973 Lebach decision and subsequent rulings, German prison policy is constitutionally bound to a rehabilitation goal grounded in Article 1 (human dignity). Subsequent court decisions have required the state to make rehabilitation efforts a positive duty, not a privilege.

Prisons in Germany

Browse all 1,934 →

1,934 facilities in our database — showing the first 24.

Abschiebungshafteinrichtung Gluckstadt

Germany

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Abschiebungshafteinrichtung Munchen

Germany

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Abschiebungshafteinrichtung Pforzheim

Germany

Type

—

Capacity

150

Held

—

Abteroda concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Abteroda men's concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Abteroda women's concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Ahrensbök concentration camp

Germany

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Ahrensbök-Holstendorf concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Alexisdorf concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Allach concentration camp complex

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Alt Daber concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Altenberg concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Altenburg concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Altenburg men's concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Altenburg women's concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Altenhain concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Altenhammer concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Alt Garge concentration camp

Germany

Type

Concentration camp

Capacity

—

Held

—

Am Großen Specken 10

Germany

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Amtsgericht

Germany

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Amtsgerichtsgefängnis Gerichtsstraße 11 in Nittenau

Germany

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Amtsgerichtsstraße 59

Germany

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Amtsgericht Wetter

Germany · Wetter (Ruhr)

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Amtspforte

Germany

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

See all 1,934 prisons in Germany →

Data completeness

100%

Score based on how many fields are populated. We surface this so you know where the gaps are.

National population
83,470,0002024
Source-verified
20 May 2026
Source links
2 cited

Sources

Direct citations for the figures on this page.

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
DEU

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Germany — prison statistics. Retrieved October 15, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/countries/germany
Chicago
"Germany — prison statistics." World Prisons. Accessed October 15, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/countries/germany.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-germany,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Germany — prison statistics},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/countries/germany},
  urldate = {2026-10-15}
}