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 1,826 per 100,000 of the population. For Black women, this rate stood at 64 per 100,000 of the population.

In 2022, about 1,826 Black men per 100,000 residents were imprisoned in the United States. This rate was much lower for Black women, at 64 per 100,000 residents. The overall imprisonment rate in 2022 stood at 355 per 100,000 Americans.

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.

At the beginning of 2025, the United States had the highest number of incarcerated individuals worldwide, with around 1.8 million people in prison. China followed with around 100,000 fewer prisoners. Brazil followed in third. The incarceration problem in the U.S. The United States has an incredibly high number of incarcerated individuals. Therefore, the incarceration problem has become a widely contested issue, because it impacts disadvantaged people and minorities the most. Additionally, the prison system has become capitalized by outside corporations that fund prisons, but there is still a high cost to taxpayers. Furthermore, there has been an increase in the amount of private prisons that have been created. For-profit prison companies have come under scrutiny because of their lack of satisfactory staff and widespread lobbying. Violent offenses are the most common type of offense among prisoners in the U.S. Incarceration rates worldwide El Salvador had the highest rate of incarceration worldwide, at 1,659 prisoners per 100,000 residents as of February 2025. Cuba followed in second with 794 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. The incarceration rate is a better measure to use when comparing countries than the total prison populations, which will naturally have the most populous countries topping the list.

In 2024, there were 87,869 men and 3,635 women in prisons in England and Wales. Compared with the previous year, this represented an increase for both men and women. This represented a peak in the number of prisoners during this provided time period, and was also the peak for the United Kingdom as a whole.
Demographics of prisoners There were 29,339 prisoners in their 30s in England and Wales in 2024, the most of any age group. In this year, there were also 3,354 prisoners who were aged between 15 and 20, with a further 21,381 prisoners who were in their 20s. In terms of the ethnicity of prisoners in England and Wales, 63,103 people in jail were White, 10,624 were Black, and 7,067were Asian. As of the same year, the most common religious faith of prisoners was Christianity, at 39,068 inmates, followed by 27,122 who identified as having no religion, with a further 15,909 who were Muslims. Increase in prison officers since 2017 The 23,614 prison officers working in England and Wales in 2024 was almost as high as 2011 when there were 24,369 officers. From 2010 onwards, the number of prison officers fell from 24,830 to 18,251 by 2014, and stayed at comparably low levels until 2018. Low government expenditure on Prisons during the same time period suggests this was a result of the austerity policies implemented by the UK government at that time. The government has steadily increased spending on prisons since 2019/20, with spending on prisons reaching 6.09 billion in 2022/23. This has however not been enough to avert a possible overcrowding crisis in England and Wales, which had just 768 spare prison places in September 2023.

Despite making up approximately 10-12 pecent of the total population of the United States in the period between 1933 and 1970, Black people comprised roughly 20-30 percent of arrests made in these years. Today, Black people still have the highest incarceration rates relative to their population, however these rates have been declining in the past two decades.

Abstract This study aimed to quantitatively analyze the results of rapid tests for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Syphilis, and Chronic Hepatitis in the prison population in a prison complex in Salvador (BA), Brazil. This cross-sectional study consisted of a sample of men incarcerated from August 2018 to August 2020 submitted to rapid tests. Descriptive statistics and prevalence ratios with respective 95% confidence intervals were employed to analyze data. A total of 6,160 men were studied. Most were black and brown (93.1%) and resided in Salvador (BA), Brazil (65.8%), with predominantly elementary schooling level (65.3%). Five hundred eighty-one (9.4%) people deprived of their liberty were positive for one or more STIs, and Syphilis was the most prevalent (80%). The variables age greater than 25 years [PR = 1.37 95%CI (1.17-1.61)] and schooling level without Higher Education [PR = 2.16 95%CI (1.04-4.49)] were associated with a higher positivity rate in tests, while not sharing drugs was a protective factor for test positivity [PR = 1.28 95%CI (1.07-1.53)]. We concluded that there was a low prevalence of STIs in the sample studied, and Syphilis was the most prevalent.

There were almost 700 thousand slaves in the US in 1790, which equated to approximately 18 percent of the total population, or roughly one in every six people. By 1860, the final census taken before the American Civil War, there were four million slaves in the South, compared with less than 0.5 million free African Americans in all of the US. Of the 4.4 million African Americans in the US before the war, almost four million of these people were held as slaves; meaning that for all African Americans living in the US in 1860, there was an 89 percent* chance that they lived in slavery. A brief history Trans-Atlantic slavery began in the early sixteenth century, when the Portuguese and Spanish forcefully brought captured African slaves to the New World, in order to work for them. The British Empire introduced slavery to North America on a large scale, and the economy of the British colonies there depended on slave labor, particularly regarding cotton, sugar and tobacco output. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century the number of slaves being brought to the Americas increased exponentially, and at the time of American independence it was legal in all thirteen colonies. Although slavery became increasingly prohibited in the north, the number of slaves remained high during this time as they were simply relocated or sold from the north to the south. It is also important to remember that the children of slaves were also viewed as property, and (apart from some very rare cases) were born into a life of slavery. Abolition and the American Civil War In the years that followed independence, the Northern States began gradually prohibiting slavery, and it was officially abolished there by 1805, and the importation of slave labor was prohibited nationwide from 1808 (although both still existed in practice after this). Business owners in the Southern States however depended on slave labor in order to meet the demand of their rapidly expanding industries, and the issue of slavery continued to polarize American society in the decades to come. This culminated in the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860, who promised to prohibit slavery in the newly acquired territories to the west, leading to the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Although the Confederacy (south) were victorious in much of the early stages of the war, the strength in numbers of the northern states (including many free, black men), eventually resulted in a victory for the Union (north), and the nationwide abolishment of slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Legacy In total, an estimated twelve to thirteen million Africans were transported to the Americas as slaves, and this does not include the high number who did not survive the journey (which was as high as 23 percent in some years). In the 150 years since the abolishment of slavery in the US, the African-American community have continuously campaigned for equal rights and opportunities that were not afforded to them along with freedom. The most prominent themes have been the Civil Rights Movement, voter suppression, mass incarceration and the relationship between the police and the African-American community has taken the spotlight in recent years.

The statistic shows the number of imprisoned male and female Millennials in the U.S. in June 2009. In the age group 18 to 34, 444,500 male inmates were Black. This equals 41 percent of all male inmates of that age group. Among the female Millennial inmates, 42,800 were White and/or Asian. This equals 45 percent of the total female inmates of this age group.

In 2023, the unemployment rate of African Americans in the United States stood at 5.5 percent. This was over the national average of 3.6 percent.

The high rate of unemployment

There are many reasons why the unemployment rate among minorities is different than the national average. When it comes to African Americans, a large part of this is due to historical events, such as slavery and the struggle for civil rights, as well as the number of Black families living below the poverty level. Additionally, in 2019, for every 100,000 of the population, there were 2,203 Black men in prison. This high rate of imprisonment can contribute to the unemployment rate for African Americans, since having been in prison can reduce one’s chances of finding a job once released.

Earning differences

African Americans also make less money than other ethnicities in the United States. In 2020, the median weekly earnings of African Americans were 794 U.S. dollars, compared to Asians, who made 1,310 U.S. dollars per week, and whites, who made 1,003 U.S. dollars per week. While the African American unemployment rate may be low, it is clear that much has to change in order to achieve full equality.

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This statistic shows the distribution of adults in federal correctional services in Canada in the fiscal year of 2022, by race. 51.8 percent of the adult offender population in federal correctional services in Canada were Caucasian in the fiscal year of 2022.