How many people are imprisoned in Rwanda?

Rwanda's prison population is 71,561 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 Rwanda?

Rwanda's incarceration rate is approximately 489 people per 100,000 population.

How many prisons are there in Rwanda?

World Prisons indexes 7 individual facilities in Rwanda. Each entry links to a detail page with contact information, capacity, oversight reports, and known conditions.

All countries

Africa · Eastern Africa

Rwanda

Q: Does Rwanda have the death penalty?

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

High confidence

Verified 20 May 2026 · Data dated 31 Aug 2025

Aging · 3mo ago

One of Africa's highest incarceration rates. Many inmates serve sentences related to the 1994 genocide.

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Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date.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

71,561

Year: 2025

Rate per 100,000

489

Per 100,000 residents

Occupancy

140.7%

Above design capacity

Pre-trial / remand

14%

Share not yet sentenced

Female prisoners

6.5%

Foreign nationals

0.3%

Figures from official sources · verified 20 May 2026 · methodology

Conditions risk — across 7 facilities

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

—

national average

7 unknown

abolitionist on capital punishment since 2007. Last known execution: 1998.ICCPR-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.

How Rwanda compares

vs Africa (8) & global averages

Rate per 100,000this: 489 · region: 145 · global: 214

Occupancy ratethis: 141% · region: 164% · global: 125%

Pre-trial sharethis: 14% · region: 38% · 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

2010: 55,000+59.3% over 14y2024: 87,621

Source: World Prison Brief / unodc

Reform in Rwanda

All reform →

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

Gacaca community courts for the genocide2005–2012
alternatives · completed
Faced with ~120,000 detained suspects after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda used customary 'gacaca' community courts to try about 1.2 million cases. Sentences emphasised confession, community service, and truth-telling alongside imprisonment.

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Held

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Data completeness

100%

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

National population: 14,630,0002025
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: RWA

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). Rwanda — prison statistics. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/countries/rwanda

Chicago

"Rwanda — prison statistics." World Prisons. Accessed August 30, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/countries/rwanda.

BibTeX

@misc{worldprisons-rwanda,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Rwanda — prison statistics},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/countries/rwanda},
  urldate = {2026-08-30}
}