Which countries are the most punitive?
Three new infographics from Statista provide fascinating information on prison populations around the world as of July 2018.
The first infographic shows that the USA and China imprison by far the most people followed by Brazil, Russia and India. These five countries imprison more than 5 million people between them. You can see England and Wales in 20th place.
The second infographic shows the countries who imprison the highest proportion of their citizens. Although the USA also heads this table of shame the rest of the list looks very different with a number of smaller countries — El Salvador, Turkmenistan, Virgin Islands & Cuba — particularly punitive. However, Thailand (6th) and Russia (14th) are worth noting.
The final infographic shows the countries with the largest share of female prisoners. Here Hong Kong tops the chart with nearly 21% of its prisoner population being women, with the USA down in 18th place with 9.8% of its 2.12 million incarcerated people being women.
