These Countries Have the Most People in Prison

For better or worse, crime is still a real problem in almost every country around the world. Whether it’s a crime not involving harm to anyone or one that directly affects many people, a crime is still a crime. Because so much crime still exists, so do prisons for those convicted in a court of law. 

While it is no surprise that the United States has the largest prisoner count, there may be a surprise or two on this list. We’ll rank these countries in descending order based on the data set provided by PrisonStudies.org, which ranked each country based on its total prison population.

• Prison population: 87,177
• Number of prisons: 120

• Prison population: 87,712
• Number of prisons: 116

• Prison population: 89,034
• Number of prisons: 14

• Prison population: 90,000
• Number of prisons: 200

• Prison population: 94,749
• Number of prisons: 162

• Prison population: 94,911
• Number of prisons: 68

• Prison population: 100,324
• Number of prisons: 96

• Prison population: 102,414
• Number of prisons: 125

• Prison population: 103,302
• Number of prisons: 78

• Prison population: 110,000
• Number of prisons: 126

• Prison population: 117,810
• Number of prisons: 330

• Prison population: 120,000
• Number of prisons: 78

• Prison population: 133,986
• Number of prisons: 54

• Prison population: 157,056
• Number of prisons: 235

• Prison population: 180,826
• Number of prisons: 440

• Prison population: 189,000
• Number of prisons: 253

• Prison population: 232,730
• Number of prisons: 278

• Prison population: 263,940
• Number of prisons: 526

• Prison population: 274,277
• Number of prisons: 143

• Prison population: 337,760
• Number of prisons: 396

• Prison population: 433,006
• Number of prisons: 872

• Prison population: 573,220
• Number of prisons: 1,330

• Prison population: 839,672
• Number of prisons: 1,384

• Prison population: 1,690,000
• Number of prisons: 683

• Prison population: 1,767,200
• Number of prisons: 4,455