PRISON POPULATION – HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE IN PRISON UK?
Prison Population
The Prison Population is currently 79,185 as of 2020 in England and Whales. How many people are in Prison in the UK? The prison population of England & Wales has quadrupled in size between 1990 and 2018 with around half of this increase taking place since 1990. Click here to download our Prison Guide
How many people are in prison in Scotland? 7,004
How many people are in prison in Northern Ireland? 1,484
The annual prison population on average in England and wales is 82,935.
To put figures into perspective that would mean out of 100,000 people in England and Wales there would be 173 prisoners.
The Prison population is also aging, compared to 2002 16% of the prison population was under 21. In 2020 only 6% is under 21. 7% was over 50 in 2002 whereas in 2020 that went up to 17%.
Click here to check out our prison services
Prison sentences are also getting longer in 2020 which could account for the prison population increase as more prisoners are spending longer in jail. Even within the past year from 2019 to 2020. 33% of sentences in 2019 were above 4 years compared to 48% in 2020.
If you would like a first hand account of what prison is like, click here
Prison Population
Other Facts:
27% of the current prison population is comprised of Ethnic Minority
11% Foreign National
49% Of Prisons in England and Wales are overcrowded
£39,385 is how much it costs annually per prisoner
Stay Upto Date With The Latest Government Prison Figures Here
If you would like to read about my prison journey click here
World figures of prison population shows more than 10.74 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world. In USA there are over 2.1 million prisoners alone and 1.65 million in china.
The countries with the highest prisoner population are as follows. USA, 655 prisoners per 100,000 followed by El salvador, 604, Turkmenistan (552), U.S. Virgin Islands (542),
Thailand (526), Cuba (510), Maldives (499),Northern Mariana Islands – U.S.A. (482), British Virgin Islands (470), Rwanda (464), Bahamas
(438), Seychelles (437), Grenada (435), St Vincent and the Grenadines (426), Guam – U.S.A. (404) and Russian Federation (402)
In Europe the median rate for western European countries is 81 whereas for the countries spanning Europe and Asia (e.g. theRussian Federation and Turkey) it is 268;
Since about the year 2000 the world prison population total has grown by 24%, which is about the same as the
estimated increase in the world’s general population over the same period. There are considerable differences
between the continents, and variation within continents.