UNODC Report Finds Global Prison Population at 11.6 Million, with 3.6 Million Held in Pre-Trial Detention

The global prison population stood at an estimated 11.6 million people at the end of 2024, according to the latest edition of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Prison Matters report. This figure represents a 4.9 percent increase from a decade earlier, following a temporary decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 143 people per 100,000 of the world population incarcerated (UNODC Prison Matters 2026).

Of the total, around 3.6 million prisoners—over one-third—were held in pre-trial detention, up from approximately 3.3 million in 2014, though the overall share of unsentenced prisoners has remained relatively stable at around 30-31 percent (UNODC Prison Matters 2026). Men accounted for nearly 93 percent of the prison population, or close to 11 million people, while women numbered about 771,000, maintaining a share below 7 percent over the past decade (Sahara Reporters).

Asia held the largest share of the world’s prisoners at 46 percent, followed by the Americas at 32 percent. However, incarceration rates per 100,000 population show people in the Americas were more than three times more likely to be imprisoned than those in Africa. Eastern Europe saw the sharpest decline in its prison population rate, dropping 41 percent over the decade, largely due to reductions in the Russian Federation, while Northern America decreased nearly 25 percent but retained the highest subregional rate. In contrast, rates rose 13 percent in South America and 28 percent in Central America, the latter driven primarily by a nearly fourfold increase in El Salvador (UNODC Prison Matters 2026; Sahara Reporters).

Pre-trial detention rates vary sharply by region. Oceania recorded the highest proportion at 39 percent unsentenced in 2024, followed by Africa at 34 percent—above the global average—while Europe had the lowest at 18 percent. Southern Asia stood out with almost two-thirds (62 percent) of detainees unsentenced, a figure that has risen from 55 percent a decade earlier (UNODC Prison Matters 2026; Sahara Reporters).

In Africa, more than one-third of the prison population is held without trial or sentence. The report notes a gender dimension in some regions: women face higher risks of pre-trial detention in Africa and Oceania, with Africa showing a 10 percentage point gap between female and male unsentenced rates in 2024. Overcrowding remains widespread, particularly in Africa and the Americas, affecting a majority of prison systems based on data from 183 countries (UNODC Prison Matters 2026; Sahara Reporters).

The report draws on the United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS), supplemented by World Prison Brief data and national sources. It also examines community engagement in prisons as a means to support rehabilitation and reintegration, including field research in Kenya where pre-trial detainees comprised 38 percent of the prison population. Excessive pre-trial detention can undermine the presumption of innocence and often involves more restrictive conditions than those for sentenced prisoners, the report states (UNODC Prison Matters 2026).

Why this is uncovered

The UNODC Prison Matters 2026 report and its key statistics were published on the agency’s website and covered in detail by Sahara Reporters, an independent Nigerian outlet, along with UNODC social media channels. It received limited pickup beyond specialist and regional African media, with no evident extensive coverage in major international wire services or mainstream Western outlets at the time of reporting.