119
people held in prison per 100,000 people, 2018
Low trust, 49 of 100 Only one source (WPB), so it cannot be checked against another.
Show the data as a table
| Year | World Prison Brief, prison population rate |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 121 |
| 2012 | 120 |
| 2014 | 118 |
| 2017 | 121 |
| 2018 | 119 |
All countriesAll of China's figuresCompare
China among 224 countries
137 have a higher figure and 86 a lower one. Definitions differ between countries, and their years run from 2004 to 2026.
What this number counts
- Counts
- People held in prison, including pre-trial detainees, per 100,000 people
- Where
- China
- When
- Latest available: WPB 2018 (a count on one day, or a yearly average where a country reports that)
Where the number comes from (1 source)
| Source | Figure and year | Definition | Quality | Counts for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
World Prison Brief, prison population rateInstitute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR), Birkbeck, University of London · Police and justice recordsRetrieved 2026-10-26 | 1192018 | Prison population total including pre-trial detainees and remand prisoners, as given on the WPB country page: 1,690,000 at 31.12.2018 (national prison administration - sentenced prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons only, excluding pre-trial detainees and those held in administrative detention).The Deputy Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate reported in 2009 that, in addition to the sentenced prisoners, more than 650,000 were held in detention centres In China; if this was still correct in 2018 the total prison population in China was at least 2,340,000. In addition, it is widely reported that about a million Uighur Muslims are detained in camps in Xinjiang province; no reliable figures are available. Rate per 100,000 as published by WPB, rounded to a whole number, based on an estimated national population of 1.418 billion at 2018 (from United Nations figures) - sentenced prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons only. (A total prison population of 2,340,000 would raise the prison population rate to 165 per 100,000.). WPB shows the latest figure it has found, so the date differs from country to country. Transcribed from the WPB country page (Overview tab, table "Prison population data") into scripts/prison-population-rate.manual.json; page saved in raw/prison-population-rate/wpb/country/. | 3 of 5 checks
| 100% |
- WPB100%
How the trust score was worked out
- Quality24 / 40
How well the sources are made
- Agreement15 / 30
Unknown with one source, so set to half
- Independence6 / 20
How many separate ways the number was measured
- Freshness4 / 10
How recent the newest data is
Who reports it, and since when
No source of these kinds: death and health registers, independent count.
- Single source: nothing to check it against
- WPB: no figure here for 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016
figure no figure here, inside its range no later figure recorded change
Why the numbers differ
- Counting day: UNODC asks for the number held on one day, usually 31 December; SPACE counts on 31 January; the World Prison Brief shows the most recent figure it has found, which can be from any day or year, and for a few countries is an average over a year.
- Who is included: all three aim to count pre-trial detainees as well as sentenced prisoners. UNODC asks countries to leave out people held for immigration reasons. SPACE asks each prison administration whether its total includes people in police custody, juvenile institutions, psychiatric hospitals, immigration detention or under electronic monitoring, and publishes an adjusted rate without them. WPB takes the national total as published and notes exceptions, such as China counting only sentenced prisoners or the United States including local jails.
- Population denominator: UNODC divides by UN World Population Prospects estimates, SPACE by Eurostat population on 1 January (other sources for a few countries), and WPB by national or UN estimates for the date of the count, rounded to a whole number.
- Copies: WPB takes many European figures from SPACE, and UNODC fills gaps with WPB figures. Where a source says so, or its count is identical, that line is shown but not counted again.
Common mistakes
- Mixing stock and flow: UNODC also publishes "persons entering prison" during a year, which counts admissions, not the number held on one day. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
- Comparing rates with different bases: some national agencies publish imprisonment rates per 100,000 adults, or for sentenced prisoners only, which are not comparable with rates per 100,000 of the whole population including pre-trial detainees.
- Treating SPACE's adjusted rate as the official figure: the report says adjusted figures are comparable estimates, not official national data. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
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From the table How many people are in prison in each country? Updated 2026-10-26.
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Cite as: RealStats, “Prison population rate in China”, updated 2026-10-26, with the original sources listed on the page.