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 United States 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. Since 1979, the Census Bureau has been the NPS data collection agent. 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.

Around 1.23 million people were imprisoned in the United States in 2022. This is a slight increase from the previous year, when 1.2 million people were in prison.

There were about 87,784 female prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities in the United States as of December 2022. This is an increase from the previous year, when there were 83,651 female prisoners in the country.

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics Conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, this survey is part of a series of data gathering efforts undertaken to assist policymakers in assessing and remedying deficiencies in the nation's correctional institutions. Its primary objective is to produce national statistics of the state and sentenced federal prison populations across a variety of domains. The survey gathered information on demographic, socioeconomic, and criminal history characteristics of prisoners. Also obtained were details of prisoner’ military service, current offense and sentence, incident characteristics, and firearm possession and sources. Other information includes age at time of interview, ethnicity, education, lifetime drug use and alcohol use and treatment, mental and physical health and treatment, and pre-arrest employment and income. Data on characteristics of victims, prison programs and services, and rule violations are provided as well. With the 2016 administration, the survey was renamed the Survey of Prison Inmates. NACJD has prepared a resource guide for the Survey of Prison Inmates Series.

To fulfill part of its mission, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) conducted the Survey of Prison Inmates (SPI), a national, wide-ranging survey of prisoners age 18 or older who were incarcerated in state or federal correctional facilities within the United States. SPI provides national statistics on prisoner characteristics across a variety of domains, such as current offense and sentence, incident characteristics, firearm possession and sources, criminal history, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, family background, drug and alcohol use and treatment, mental and physical health and treatment, and facility programs and rules violations. SPI can also be used to track changes in these characteristics over time, describe special populations of prisoners, and identify policy-relevant changes in the state and federal prison populations. Formerly the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities (SISFCF), this survey was renamed SPI with the 2016 iteration.

This data collection supplies annual data on the size of the prison population and the size of the general population in the United States for the period 1925 to 1986. These yearend counts include tabulations for prisons in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the federal prisons, and are intended to provide a measure of the overall size of the prison population. The figures were provided from a voluntary reporting program in which each state, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons reported summary statistics as part of the statistical information on prison populations in the United States.

As of December 2022, there was a total of 139,631 prisoners in the state of Texas, the most out of any state. California, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio rounded out the top five states with the most prisoners in the United States.

Introduction

Prison Statistics: Prisons serve as critical institutions within global justice systems, reflecting societal approaches to punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation. As of 2024, approximately 11.5 million individuals are incarcerated worldwide, with about 10.8 million men and 700,000 women. This represents a 5.5% increase since 2012, indicating a persistent reliance on incarceration.

Incarceration rates vary significantly across regions. North America has the highest rate, with 489 prisoners per 100,000 people in 2022, down from 647 in 2012. In contrast, Southern Asia reported rates below 100 per 100,000 population. El Salvador leads globally with 1,086 prisoners per 100,000 people, followed by Cuba at 794 and Rwanda at 637.

The female prison population has surged by 57% since 2000, outpacing the 22% increase in the male prison population. This rise is often linked to factors such as poverty, discriminatory laws, and limited access to legal resources. Notably, one in three incarcerated individuals globally is held in pre-trial detention, highlighting concerns about legal processes and the presumption of innocence.

Understanding these demographics is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of incarceration as a tool for justice and rehabilitation. It also underscores the need for reforms that address systemic issues contributing to high incarceration rates. Let's explore some intriguing statistics about prisoners in the United States.

Investigator(s): United States. Bureau of Justice Statistics Produces annual national- and state-level data on the number of prisoners in state and federal prison facilities. Aggregate data are collected on race and sex of prison inmates, inmates held in private facilities and local jails, system capacity, noncitizens, and persons age 17 or younger. Findings are released in the Prisoners series and the Corrections Statistical Analysis Tool (CSAT) - Prisoners. Data are from the 50 states departments of correction, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and until 2001, from the District of Columbia (after 2001, felons sentenced under the District of Columbia criminal code were housed in federal facilities).

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.

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]

...

In 2022, the incarceration rate of African Americans in local jails in the United States was 558 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 391 incarcerations per 100,000 of the population.

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

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 2022, 0.2 percent of female prisoners in the United States were aged between 18 and 19 years old. In that year, 16.1 percent of male prisoners in the U.S. were between the ages of 30 and 34 years old.

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 2023 Annual Survey of Jails is the 35th 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, 2023. 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, 2023.

This data collection includes tabulations of annual adult admissions to federal and state correctional institutions by gender for the years 1926 through 1987. The two data files have identical structures: Part 1 includes information on male admissions, and Part 2 includes information on female admissions. The 3,348 cases in each part include one case for each of the 62 years of the collection for each of the following 54 categories: the 50 states, the District of Columbia, federal institutional totals, state cumulative totals, and United States totals (the sum of the federal and state cumulative totals). The figures were drawn from a voluntary reporting program in which each state, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons reported summary and detailed statistics, as part of the National Prisoner Statistics reporting series. Each file also includes individual state and United States general population figures.

The data contain records of sentenced offenders in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) at year-end of fiscal year 2003. The data include commitments of United States District Court, violators of conditions of release (e.g., parole, probation, or supervised release violators), offenders convicted in other courts (e.g., military or District of Columbia courts), and persons admitted to prison as material witnesses or for purposes of treatment, examination, or transfer to another authority. These data include variables that describe the offender, such as age, race, citizenship, as well as variables that describe the sentences and expected prison terms. The data file contains original variables from the Bureau of Prisons' SENTRY database, as well as "SAF" variables that denote subsets of the data. These SAF variables are related to statistics reported in the Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, Tables 7.9-7.16. Variables containing identifying information (e.g., name, Social Security Number) were replaced with blanks, and the day portions of date fields were also sanitized in order to protect the identities of individuals. These data are part of a series designed by the Urban Institute (Washington, DC) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Data and documentation were prepared by the Urban Institute.

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.

This collection provides annual data on jail populations across the nation and examines the "spillover" on local jails resulting from the dramatic growth in federal and state prison populations. These data are used to track growth in the number of jails and their capacities nationally, changes in the demographics of the jail population (including sex, race, and adult or juvenile status), supervision status of persons held, prevalence of crowding issues, and a count of non-United States citizens within the jail population.