World Prisons
All countries

Asia · Western Asia

Saudi Arabia

High confidence
Verified · Data dated
Aging · 5mo ago

Public statistics extremely limited. Figure is a WPB estimate.

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Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date.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

48,660

Year: 2019

Rate per 100,000

140

Per 100,000 residents

Occupancy

—

At or under capacity

Pre-trial / remand

48.3%

Share not yet sentenced

Female prisoners

1.9%

Foreign nationals

51.4%

Figures from official sources · verified 20 May 2026 · methodology

Conditions risk — across 17 facilities

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

—
national average
17 unknown
retentionist on capital punishment. Last known execution: 2025.Methods: beheadingICCPR-OP2 (death-penalty abolition protocol): not a signatory

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

Executions by year (Amnesty International)
  • 2019
    184
  • 2020
    27
  • 2021
    65
  • 2022
    196
  • 2023
    172
  • 2024
    345
Source: Amnesty International + Cornell Death Penalty Worldwide.

How Saudi Arabia compares

vs Asia (16) & global averages
Rate per 100,000this: 140 · region: 165 · global: 214
Pre-trial sharethis: 48% · region: 32% · 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
1998: 23,088+110.8% over 21y2019: 48,660

Source: World Prison Brief / unodc

What we know — and don't

Transparency about the boundaries of this data. Click sources where linked.

What we don't know

  • Official annual figures not released; capacity and demographics unpublished.

Prisons in Saudi Arabia

Browse all 17 →

17 facilities in our database. Saudi Arabia has many more facilities than listed here; we're expanding the database with verified entries.

Al-Ha'ir Prison

Saudi Arabia

Maximum

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Al Malaz Prison

Saudi Arabia

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Dammam prison

Saudi Arabia

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Dhahban Central Prison

Saudi Arabia

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

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Saudi Arabia

Type

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Capacity

—

Held

—

dr@ sjn l'Hs

Saudi Arabia

Type

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Capacity

—

Held

—

lsjn l`m

Saudi Arabia

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

lsjn l`m

Saudi Arabia

Type

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Capacity

—

Held

—

lsjn l`m b`r`r

Saudi Arabia

Type

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Capacity

—

Held

—

sjn 'bh

Saudi Arabia

Type

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Capacity

—

Held

—

sjn bryd@ lmrkzy

Saudi Arabia

Type

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Capacity

—

Held

—

sjn dhhbn

Saudi Arabia

Type

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Capacity

—

Held

—

sjn Hfr lbTn

Saudi Arabia

Type

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Capacity

—

Held

—

sjn lTrfy@

Saudi Arabia

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

sjn mHfZ@ lrs

Saudi Arabia

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

sjn skk

Saudi Arabia

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

SlHy@ ldmm

Saudi Arabia

Type

—

Capacity

—

Held

—

Data completeness

85%

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

National population
34,810,0002019
Source-verified
20 May 2026
Source links
2 cited

Sources

Direct citations for the figures on this page.

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
SAU

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