Americans behind bars

Thu, 04/13/2006 - 8:06pm

Seven tenths of a percent of America is behind bars. That doesn’t sound like much, right? Well, that is actually more than 2 million people. And get this: prisoners in China are only .118 percent of the total population, while Brazil locks up only .183 percent of its citizens. The data comes from the International Centre for Prison Studies via the BBC’s in depth report on prison life. Here is the full chart: 

  Total Prison Pop.  % of the total population Jail occupancy level %  Women Prisoners % 
 USA 2,135,901 .724 107.6 8.7
 China 1,548,498 .118 N/A 4.6
 Russia 828,900 .581 79.5 6.4
 Brazil 336,358 .183 182.7 3.3
 India 322,357 .031* 140.2 3.2
 Mexico 201,931 .191 125.6 5.0
 South Africa 156,175 .344 164.1 2.2
England/Wales  76,678 .143 108.9 5.8
 Japan 76,413 .060* 105.9 5.9

 *the zero was missing when we initially posted this

Davide Berretta | Permalink |
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