Insights
Demographics
Highest Incarceration Rate
Top 30 worldwide — sourced from World Prison Brief and national statistics.
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date.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.
Coverage note: Only 18% of records have data for this metric. Rankings reflect the available data only.
| # | Country | Region | Highest Incarceration Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | El Salvador | Americas | 1,659 |
| 2 | Cuba | Americas | 794 |
| 3 | United States | Americas | 542 |
| 4 | Panama | Americas | 527 |
| 5 | Türkiye | Asia | 489 |
| 6 | Rwanda | Africa | 489 |
| 7 | Thailand | Asia | 428 |
| 8 | Brazil | Americas | 416 |
| 9 | Argentina | Americas | 284 |
| 10 | South Africa | Africa | 267 |
| 11 | Morocco | Africa | 253 |
| 12 | Iran | Asia | 228 |
| 13 | Israel | Asia | 217 |
| 14 | New Zealand | Oceania | 211 |
| 15 | Venezuela | Americas | 199 |
| 16 | Colombia | Americas | 197 |
| 17 | Russia | Europe | 197 |
| 18 | Poland | Europe | 195 |
| 19 | Mexico | Americas | 192 |
| 20 | Myanmar | Asia | 183 |
| 21 | Australia | Oceania | 170 |
| 22 | Philippines | Asia | 149 |
| 23 | Saudi Arabia | Asia | 140 |
| 24 | United Kingdom | Europe | 136 |
| 25 | Vietnam | Asia | 135 |
| 26 | France | Europe | 129 |
| 27 | Portugal | Europe | 124 |
| 28 | Spain | Europe | 121 |
| 29 | China | Asia | 119 |
| 30 | Ukraine | Europe | 116 |