How many people are imprisoned in Nigeria?

Nigeria's prison population is 80,380 people. This figure aggregates all forms of detention counted by the source: sentenced prisoners, pre-trial detainees, and administrative detentions.

What is the incarceration rate in Nigeria?

Nigeria's incarceration rate is approximately 34 people per 100,000 population.

How many prisons are there in Nigeria?

World Prisons indexes 407 individual facilities in Nigeria. Each entry links to a detail page with contact information, capacity, oversight reports, and known conditions.

All countries

Africa · Western Africa

Nigeria

Q: Does Nigeria have the death penalty?

Nigeria's death-penalty status is: retentionist. Seeded from Amnesty International 2024 categorisation + Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.

High confidence

Verified 20 May 2026 · Data dated 4 May 2026

Aging · 5mo ago

Severe pre-trial backlog. Federal correctional service publishes occupancy quarterly.

Compare Nigeria World 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Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date.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

80,380

Year: 2026

Rate per 100,000

Per 100,000 residents

Occupancy

125.6%

Above design capacity

Pre-trial / remand

65.4%

Share not yet sentenced

Female prisoners

2.3%

Foreign nationals

0.3%

Figures from official sources · verified 20 May 2026 · methodology

Conditions risk — across 407 facilities

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

21/100

national average

2 moderate 1 low 404 unknown

retentionist on capital punishment. Last known execution: 2016.Methods: hanging, firing squadICCPR-OP2 (death-penalty abolition protocol): not a signatory

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

Source: Amnesty International + Cornell Death Penalty Worldwide.

1 documented human-rights cases →

How Nigeria compares

vs Africa (8) & global averages

Rate per 100,000this: 34 · region: 220 · global: 214

Occupancy ratethis: 126% · region: 167% · global: 125%

Pre-trial sharethis: 65% · region: 30% · 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

Type

Custodial Centre

Capacity

320

Held

508

Overcrowded (159%)Moderate

See all 407 prisons in Nigeria →

Data completeness

100%

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

National population: 238,120,0002026
Source-verified: 20 May 2026
Source links: 1 cited

Sources

Direct citations for the figures on this page.

Primary reference
World Prison Brief (ICPS, Birkbeck) — Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research
See /data-sources for our methodology.

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3: NGA

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). Nigeria — prison statistics. Retrieved October 15, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/countries/nigeria

Chicago

"Nigeria — prison statistics." World Prisons. Accessed October 15, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/countries/nigeria.

BibTeX

@misc{worldprisons-nigeria,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Nigeria — prison statistics},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/countries/nigeria},
  urldate = {2026-10-15}
}