World Leader

Kings College, London, has a new report on incarceration rates in 218 of the world's nation states (including a few dependent territories). A few interesting findings:

At 756 per 100,000 residents, the United States has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. Three-fifths of countries worldwide (including many modern first-world democracies), have incarceration rates below 150 per 100,000.

There are about 9.8 million people incarcerated worldwide. About 25% of those are incarcerated in the U.S., even though the U.S. represents only about 5% of the world's population.

Number of people incarcerated per 100,000 residents in selected nation states:

United States: 756

Russia: 629

Rwanda: 604

Cuba: 531

Georgia: 415

Kazakhstan: 378

South Africa: 335

Singapore: 267

Brazil: 227

Iran: 222

Jamaica: 174

Argentina: 154

United Kingdom: 153

Turkey: 142

Australia: 129

China: 119

Canada: 116

Bahrain: 95

Italy: 92

Germany: 89

Ireland: 76

Sweden: 74

Japan: 63

Iceland: 44

India: 33

Sierra Leone: 33

Nepal: 24

God bless America.