Highest to Lowest - Prison Population Rate

Donate to WPB

Please use drop down menu 1 to choose the category of data you wish to view, and press 'Go' to load category page. Once the page has reloaded please choose the continent/region from drop down menu 2 and then press 'Apply'.

Data shown in the highest to lowest lists are the most recent available but not necessarily from the same date. Please click on each individual country to see the date to which the data refer. As it is not possible to obtain meaningful comparative data on numbers of children in custody in different countries, we do not include juvenile imprisonment data in the highest to lowest lists.

Ranking Title Prison Population Rate
  Sao Tome e Principe 129
  Mayotte (France) 227
  Reunion (France) 153
  Seychelles 348
  Sierra Leone 52
  Uganda 152
  Nigeria 35
  Ghana 44
  Mozambique 63
  Madagascar 101
  Cote d'Ivoire 91
  Burundi 102
  Kenya 103
  Angola 68
  Morocco 270
  Mauritius 197
  Niger 40
  Rwanda 637
  Libya 269
  Comoros 46
  South Africa 258
  Senegal 69
  Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) 366
  Mali 40
  Democratic Republic of Congo 46
  South Sudan 58
  Liberia 55
  Cameroon 116
  Benin 91
  Zambia 125
  Burkina Faso 39
  Zimbabwe 138
  Egypt 116
  Tanzania 50
  Mauritania 57
  Eswatini/Swaziland 243
  Botswana 161
  Gambia 22
  Central African Republic 40
  Gabon 228
  Equatorial Guinea 63
  Chad 59
  Guinea (Republic of) 34
  Togo 59
  Algeria 217
  Malawi 76
  Namibia 318
  Lesotho 104
  Tunisia 196
  Guinea Bissau 31
  Djibouti 71
  Congo (Republic of) 27
  Sudan 52
  Ethiopia 99
  Eritrea
  Federal Republic of Somalia