World Prison Brief · 216 jurisdictions · number of prisoners
Total prison population — a raw volume (number of prisoners), addable, hence the donut chart (share of the world's total incarcerated population). Collection dates vary by jurisdiction, mostly 2022-2025.
World Prison Brief, 216 jurisdictions. The United Kingdom and Bosnia and Herzegovina are summed into a single weighted national value (no regional split); France includes its overseas departments.
A volume, not a rate: a large, less punitive country can show more prisoners in raw numbers than a small, highly punitive one — see the separate "Incarceration rate" indicator for a per-capita comparison.
The United States (1.83 million prisoners) and China (1.69 million, an official estimate likely undercounted) alone hold more prisoners than the entire European Union combined — two countries whose combined prison population exceeds that of many entire nations.