In 2022, the incarceration rate of African Americans in local jails in the United States was *** incarcerations per 100,000 of the population -- the highest rate of any race or ethnicity. The second-highest incarceration rate was among American Indians/Alaska Natives, at *** incarcerations per 100,000 of the population.

As of February 2025, El Salvador had the highest prisoner rate worldwide, with over 1,600 prisoners per 100,000 of the national population. Cuba, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, and the United States, rounded out the top five countries with the highest rate of incarceration. Homicides in El Salvador Interestingly, El Salvador, which long had the highest global homicide rates, has dropped out of the top 20 after a high number of gang members have been incarcerated. A high number of the countries with the highest homicide rate are located in Latin America. Prisoners in the United StatesThe United States is home to the largest number of prisoners worldwide. More than 1.8 million people were incarcerated in the U.S. at the beginning of 2025. In China, the estimated prison population totaled 1.69 million people that year. Other nations had far fewer prisoners. The largest share of the U.S. prisoners in federal correctional facilities were of African-American origin. As of 2020, there were 345,500 black, non-Hispanic prisoners, compared to 327,300 white, non-Hispanic inmates. The U.S. states with the largest number of prisoners in 2022 were Texas, California, and Florida. Over 160,000 prisoners in state facilities were sentenced for rape or sexual assault, which was the most common cause of imprisonment. The second most common was murder, followed by aggravated or simple assault.

The Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ) is the only data collection effort that provides an annual source of data on local jails and jail inmates. Data on the size of the jail population and selected inmate characteristics are obtained every five to six years from the Census of Jails. In each of the years between the complete censuses, a sample survey of jails is conducted to estimate baseline characteristics of the nation's jails and inmates housed in these jails. The 2022 Annual Survey of Jails is the 34th such survey in a series begun in 1982. The ASJ supplies data on characteristics of jails such as admissions and releases, growth in the number of jail facilities, changes in their rated capacities and level of occupancy, growth in the population supervised in the community, changes in methods of community supervision, and crowding issues. The ASJ also provides information on changes in the demographics of the jail population, supervision status of persons held, and a count of non-U.S. citizens in custody. The data presented in this study were collected in the Annual Survey of Jails, 2022. These data are used to track growth in the number of jails and the capacities nationally, changes in the demographics of the jail population and supervision status of persons held, the prevalence of crowding issues, and a count of non-U.S. citizens within the jail population. The data are intended for a variety of users, including Federal and State agencies, local officials in conjunction with jail administrators, researchers, planners, and the public. The reference date for the survey is June 30, 2022.

The National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) data collection began in 1926 in response to a congressional mandate to gather information on persons incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Originally under the auspices of the U.S. Census Bureau, the collection moved to the Bureau of Prisons in 1950, and then in 1971 to the National Criminal Justice Information and Statistics Service, the precursor to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) which was established in 1979. From 1979 to 2013, the Census Bureau was the NPS data collection agent. In 2014, the collection was competitively bid in conjunction with the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP), since many of the respondents for NPS and NCRP are the same. The contract was awarded to Abt Associates, Inc. The NPS is administered to 51 respondents. Before 2001, the District of Columbia was also a respondent, but responsibility for housing the District of Columbia's sentenced prisoners was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and by yearend 2001 the District of Columbia no longer operated a prison system. The NPS provides an enumeration of persons in state and federal prisons and collects data on key characteristics of the nation's prison population. NPS has been adapted over time to keep pace with the changing information needs of the public, researchers, and federal, state, and local governments.

As of 2022, Black people were more likely than those of other races to be imprisoned in the United States. In that year, the rate of imprisonment for Black men stood at ***** per 100,000 of the population. For Black women, this rate stood at ** per 100,000 of the population.

From the project page: https://github.com/jkbren/incarcerated-populations-data/

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Through combinations of structural biases in the criminal justice and police systems, we see even higher incarceration rates among Black and Hispanic people. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of incarcerated people in the United States decreased by at least 17%---the largest, fastest reduction in prison population in American history. Using an original dataset curated from public sources on prison demographics across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, we show that incarcerated white people benefited disproportionately from this decrease in the U.S. prison population, and the fraction of incarcerated Black and Latino people sharply increased. This pattern persists across prison systems in nearly every state and deviates from a decade-long trend before 2020 and the onset of COVID-19, when the proportion of incarcerated white people was increasing amid declining numbers of Black people in prison. While a variety of mechanisms underlie these alarming trends, we explore why racial inequities in average sentence length are a likely major contributor. Ultimately, this study reveals how disruptions caused by COVID-19 exacerbated racial inequalities in the criminal legal system, and highlights key forces that drive mass incarceration.

Released under MIT license

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics The National Jail Census was conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Excluded from the census were federal- or state-administered facilities, including the combined jail-prison systems in Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Data include jail population by reason being held, age (juvenile or adult) and sex, maximum sentence that can be served in the facility, available services, type of security available, facility capacity, age, construction and renovation of the facility, employment, and operating expenditures.Years Produced: Every 5 years

The South American nation with the highest prison population rate in 2024 was Uruguay, with 449 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Brazil, with 389 prisoners. The country in South America with the lowest prison population rate was Ecuador, with 179 per 100,000 persons.

The National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) data collection began in 1926 in response to a congressional mandate to gather information on persons incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Originally under the auspices of the U.S. Census Bureau, the collection moved to the Bureau of Prisons in 1950, and then in 1971 to the National Criminal Justice Information and Statistics Service, the precursor to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) which was established in 1979. From 1979 to 2013, the Census Bureau was the NPS data collection agent. In 2014, the collection was competitively bid in conjunction with the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP), since many of the respondents for NPS and NCRP are the same. The contract was awarded to Abt Associates, Inc. The NPS is administered to 51 respondents. Before 2001, the District of Columbia was also a respondent, but responsibility for housing the District of Columbia's sentenced prisoners was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and by yearend 2001 the District of Columbia no longer operated a prison system. The NPS provides an enumeration of persons in state and federal prisons and collects data on key characteristics of the nation's prison population. NPS has been adapted over time to keep pace with the changing information needs of the public, researchers, and federal, state, and local governments.

Context

In 1975, the United States set a new record with 240,593 prisoners incarcerated by state or federal agencies. The United States achieved new record totals during each of the next 34 years. Today, there are over 1,500,000 prisoners in the United States. Over one quarter of the world's entire population of prisoners is located in the United States.

The U.S. Education deparment reports state and local government expenditures on prisons (and jails - not reflected in this dataset) have increased about three times as fast as spending on elementary and secondary education during this time period. Does this significant investment into imprisonment improve public safety? This dataset brings together crime and incarceration statistics to help researchers explore this relationship.

Content

The Bureau of Justice Statistics administers the National Prisoners Statistics Program (NPS), an annual data collection effort that began in response to a 1926 congressional mandate. The population statistics reflect each state's prisoner population as of December 31 for the recorded year. Prisoners listed under federal jurisdiction are incarcerated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) has served as the FBI's primary national data collection tool since a 1930 congressional mandate directed the Attorney General to "acquire, collect, classify, and preserve identification, criminal identification, crime, and other records." The FBI collects this information voluntarily submitted by local, state, and fedral law enforcement agencies. Some U.S. municipalities choose not to participate fully in the program. The crimes_estimated field indicates cases where the FBI estimated state totals due to lack of participation by some municipalities within a state. The crime_reporting_change field reflects instances when states' reporting standards change. For more information on the responsible use of this dataset, please see Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics: Their Proper Use

Acknowledgements

State and Federal prisoner population figures published by Bureau of Justice Statistics.

State crime and population statistics published by the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. https://www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/Crime/State/RunCrimeStatebyState.cfm

Banner Photo by Oscar Söderlund on Unsplash

Inspiration

What is the relationship between incarceration rates and crime rates? Does mass incarceration improve public safety? See below for some recent statements from U.S. politicians related to the relationship between crime and incarceration. Are the data consistent with any of these statements?

"There is no better way to reduce crime than to identify, target, and incapacitate those hardened criminals... we cannot incapacitate these criminals unless we build sufficient prison and jail space to house them. " - Nominee for 85th U.S. Attorney General William Barr, [October 28, 1992][13]

"Violent crime has declined since the 1980s because mandatory minimums adopted then locked up violent criminals." - Senator Tom Cotton, August 15, 2018

"You may assume mass incarceration exists because people are committing more crimes. But that is not true... The incredibly costly reality is that prisons in our nation continue to grow irrespective of crime rates. It is a bureaucracy that has been expanding independent of our security or safety." - Senator Cory Booker, Apr 28, 2015

"It is far from clear whether this dramatic increase in incarceration for drug crimes has had enough of an effect on property and violent crime rates to justify the human toll of more incarceration." - Senator Ted Cruz, Apr 27, 2015

"For several decades, tough laws and long sentences have created the illusion that public safety is best served when we treat all offenders the same way: arrest, convict, incarcerate..." - Senator Kamala Harris, [Apr 27, 2015][11]

"We've got some space to put some people! We need to reverse a trend that suggested that criminals won't be confronted seriously with their crimes" - 84th U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, [March 15, 2018][12]

...

From June 2019 to June 2020, the confined jail inmate population in the United States fell across all ethnicities. The share of white confined jail inmates decreased by nearly ** percent due to COVID-19 in that year. On the other hand, it decreased by **** percent for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander inmates.

This data collection contains information gathered in a two-part survey that was designed to assess institutional conditions in state and federal prisons and in halfway houses. It was one of a series of data-gathering efforts undertaken during the 1970s to assist policymakers in assessing and overcoming deficiencies in the nation's correctional institutions. This particular survey was conducted in response to a mandate set forth in the Crime Control Act of 1976. Data were gathered via self-enumerated questionnaires that were mailed to the administrators of all 558 federal and state prisons and all 405 community-based prerelease facilities in existence in the United States in 1979. Part 1 contains the results of the survey of state and federal adult correctional systems, and Part 2 contains the results of the survey of community-based prerelease facilities. The two files contain similar variables designed to tap certain key aspects of confinement: (1) inmate (or resident) counts by sex and by security class, (2) age of facility and rated capacity, (3) spatial density, occupancy, and hours confined for each inmate's (or resident's) confinement quarters, (4) composition of inmate (or resident) population according to race, age, and offense type, (5) inmate (or resident) labor and earnings, (6) race, age, and sex characteristics of prison (or half-way house) staff, and (7) court orders by type of order and pending litigation. Other data (contained in both files) include case ID number, state ID number, name of facility, and operator of facility (e.g., federal, state, local, or private).

Due to COVID-19, approximately **** percent of the June 2019 local jail population levels remained as of June 2020 -- a decrease of **** percent. April 2020 saw the largest decrease in the local jail population, at **** percent of the June 2019 levels.

NATIONAL JAIL CENSUS, 1988, is the fifth in a series of data collection efforts aimed at studying the nation's locally administered jails. For purposes of this data collection, a jail was defined as a confinement facility intended for holding adults (and in some cases juveniles) pending adjudication or having sentences of a year or less. Jails were further defined as being administered and staffed by municipal or county employees. Also included in this collection were six jails privately operated under contract for local governments. Excluded from the census were federal or state-administered facilities, including the combined jail-prison systems in Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The mailing list used for the census was derived from data gathered from the AMERICAN CORRECTIONAL ASSOCIATION DIRECTORY OF JUSTICE AGENCIES, publications such as AMERICAN JAILS, telephone calls to large metropolitan jail systems (e.g., New York City), state jail inspection bureaus, and newspaper articles. Following the initial mailout to 3,448 facilities, 44 jails were added and 176 deleted according to the criteria for inclusion, leaving a total of 3,316 facilities in 44 states. Variables include information on jail population by legal status, age and sex of prisoners, maximum sentence, admissions and releases, available services, structure and capacity, expenditure, and employment.

As of 2021, **** percent of California's prison population were non-U.S. citizens, the highest share of any state in that year. Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, and Arizona rounded out the top five states with the highest share of non-U.S. citizens in prison in that year.

The prison boundary feature class contains secure detention facilities. These facilities range in jurisdiction from federal (excluding military) to local governments. Polygon geometry is used to describe the extent of where the incarcerated population is located (fence lines or building footprints). This feature class’s attribution describes many physical and social characteristics of detention facilities in the United States and some of its territories.

Original Data

Acknowlegement

Foto von Milad Fakurian auf Unsplash

This dataset contains data included in the San Diego County Regional Equity Indicators Report led by the Office of Equity and Racial Justice (OERJ). The full report can be found here: https://data.sandiegocounty.gov/stories/s/7its-kgpt.

Geographic data used to create maps in the report can be found here: https://data.sandiegocounty.gov/dataset/Equity-Report-Data-Geography/p6uw-qxpv

Filter by the Indicator column to select data for a particular indicator.

User notes: 10/9/25 - for the report year 2025, data for the following indicators were uploaded with changes relative to report year 2023: Crime Rate: As of January 1, 2021, the FBI replaced the Summary Reporting System (SRS) with the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which expands how crimes were recorded and classified. This report uses California’s version of NIBRS, the California Incident Based Reporting System (CIBRS), obtained from the SANDAG Open Data Portal. Crime rates are not disaggregated by jurisdiction, as in the previous Equity Indicator Report. Internet access: The age group variable was incorporated to account for notable disparities in internet access by age. Police Stops and Searches: refined methods. Agency data was aggregated to San Diego County because data was available for all agencies; previously data was available for three agencies. Analysis of RIPA data was updated to exclude stops where the stop was made in response to a call for service, combine transgender women and transgender men into a transgender category, and limit to contraband found during search. Used term “discovery rate” instead of “hit rate.” Removed comparison to traffic collision data and instead compared to population estimates from the American Community Survey. Jail Incarceration: new data sources. The numerator data for the average daily population data in jail was obtained from the San Diego County Sheriff's Office. Population data to calculate the rates was obtained from the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). The terms for conviction status were corrected to "locally sentenced" and "unsentenced" for sentencing status. For jail population data, East African was reclassified as Black and Middle Eastern as White to allow for calculation of rates using SANDAG population estimates.

8/1/25 - for the report year 2025, the following change were made: Business Ownership: the minority and nonminority labels were switched for the population estimates and some of the race/ethnicity data for nonemployer businesses were corrected. Homelessness: added asterisks to category name for unincorporated regions to allow for a footnote in the figure in the story page.

7/11/25 - for the report year 2025, the following changes were made: Beach Water Quality: the number of days with advisories was corrected for Imperial Beach municipal beach, San Diego Bay, and Ocean Beach.

5/22/25 - for the report year 2023, the following changes were made: Youth poverty/Poverty: IPUMS identified an error in the POVERTY variable for multi-year ACS samples. In July 2024, they released a revised version of all multi-year ACS samples to IPUMS USA, which included corrected POVERTY values. The corrected POVERTY values were downloaded, and the analysis was rerun for this indicator using the 2021 ACS 5-year Estimates. Youth Poverty: data source label corrected to be 2021 for all years. Employment, Homeownership, and Cost-Burdened Households - Notes were made consistent for rows where category = Race/Ethnicity.

5/9/25 - Excluding data for the crime section indicators, data were appended on May 9, 2025 and the report will be updated to reflect the new data in August 2025. The following changes in methods were made: For indicators based on American Community Survey (ACS) data, the foreign-born category name was changed to Nativity Status. Internet access: Group quarters is a category included in the survey sample, but it is not part of the universe for the analysis. For the 2025 Equity Report year, respondents in group quarters were excluded from the analysis, whereas for the 2023 Equity Report year, these respondents were included. Adverse childhood experiences - new data source.

Prepared by: Office of Evaluation, Performance, and Analytics and the Office of Equity and Racial Justice, County of San Diego, in collaboration with the San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center (https://www.sdrpic.org).

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.The data were obtained from one state prison system that was characterized by a diverse and rising prison population. This prison system housed more than 30,000 inmates across 15 institutions (14 men's facilities; 1 women's facility). The data contain information on inmates' placements into different housing units across all 15 state prison complexes, including designated maximum security, restrictive housing units. Inmates placed in restrictive housing were in lockdown the majority of the day, had limited work opportunities, and were closely monitored. These inmates were also escorted in full restraints within the institution. They experienced little recreational time, visitation and phone privileges, and few interactions with other inmates. The data contain information on inmates' housing placements, institutional misconduct, risk factors, demographic characteristics, criminal history, and offense information. These data provide information on every housing placement for each inmate, including the time spent in each placement, and the reasons documented by correctional staff for placing inmates in each housing unit. Demographic information includes inmate sex, race/ethnicity, and age. The collection contains 1 Stata data file "Inmate-Housing-Placements-Data.dta" with 16 variables and 124,942 cases.

This query presents individuals who are actively supervised in Iowa's correctional system - within institutions, community based corrections, or other. Generally, "other" would include individuals who are serving time somewhere else, such as another state or federal prison. In some instances, they may be sentenced to prison, but are awaiting transfer and are still in jail or a medical facility. It also provides demographic information (sex, race and ethnic origin) for the individual, the individual's current age, their highest educational level, whether they are an English speaker, whether they had previously served in the U.S. Military, the primary region they are supervised by, and their current primary supervision status.

In 2021, around ****** women were confined to local jails in the United States - a significant increase from the previous year. This is compared to ******* men who were confined to local jails in the same year. The number of men in local jails has decreased since 2010, while the number of women in jail has increased since then, except for 2020, when the number of women decreased significantly.