El Salvador Has The Highest Incarceration Rate In The World

"• The countries with the highest prison population rate – that is, the number of prisoners per 100,000 of the national population – are El Salvador (1,086 per 100,000), followed by Cuba (794), Rwanda (637), Turkmenistan (576), American Samoa (538), the United States (531), Tonga (516), Panama (499), Guam (475), Palau (428), Uruguay (424), Bahamas (409) Antigua and Barbuda (400), Thailand (391 and Brazil (390).

"• However, just under half of all countries and territories (49%) have rates below 150 per 100,000.

"• The world prison population rate, based on United Nations estimates of national population levels, is 140 per 100,000."

Source

Fair, Helen, and Walmsley, Roy, World Prison Population List (Fourteenth Edition), 2024, London, England: International Centre for Prison Studies, School of Law at Birkbeck, University of London.