245.4
people held in prison per 100,000 people, 2025
Moderate trust, 71 of 100 The sources disagree: their figures run from 187.65 to 255.
- UNODC
- WPB
Show the data as a table
| Year | UNODC Data Portal, persons held in prisons | World Prison Brief, prison population rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 173.79 | 183 |
| 2011 | 181.35 | – |
| 2012 | 188.79 | 182 |
| 2013 | 200.84 | – |
| 2014 | 218.77 | 239 |
| 2015 | 244.92 | – |
| 2016 | 243.13 | 285 |
| 2017 | 239.08 | – |
| 2018 | 221.64 | 280 |
| 2019 | 215.64 | – |
| 2020 | 218.82 | 254 |
| 2022 | 210.4 | 249 |
| 2024 | 187.65 | 237 |
| 2025 | – | 255 |
All countriesAll of Moldova's figuresCompare
Moldova among 224 countries
63 have a higher figure and 160 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
- Republic of Moldova
- When
- Latest available: WPB 2025, UNODC 2024, SPACE 2025 (a count on one day, or a yearly average where a country reports that)
Where the number comes from (3 sources)
| 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 | 2552025 | Prison population total including pre-trial detainees and remand prisoners, as given on the WPB country page: 5,892 at 1.4.2025 (national prison administration).Rate per 100,000 as published by WPB, rounded to a whole number, based on an estimated national population of 2.31 million at beginning of April 2025 (from Statistica Moldovei figures). Pre-trial detainees and remand prisoners: 20.2% of the total (1.4.2025). 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/. | 4 of 5 checks
| 31% |
UNODC Data Portal, persons held in prisonsUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) · Police and justice recordsRetrieved 2026-10-26 · Data (Excel file) | 187.652024 | Persons held in prisons, penal or correctional institutions on one day, which UNODC says is typically 31 December of the year, total for both sexes and all ages, sentenced and unsentenced (pre-trial).UNODC asks countries to leave out people held for immigration reasons. Rate per 100,000 from UNODC's population figures (UN World Population Prospects). 5,695 persons held. Latest year in the file. UNODC source codes for this country's series: SDG/CTS/WPB-ICPR. Raw file: data_cts_prisons_and_prisoners.xlsx (UNODC, last updated 12 July 2026; file dated 30 September 2026). | 5 of 5 checks
| 38% |
Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics, SPACE I 2025Council of Europe (prepared by the University of Lausanne) · Police and justice recordsRetrieved 2026-10-26 | 245.42025 | Total number of inmates including pre-trial detainees on 31 January 2025 (5,844), per 100,000 inhabitants on 1 January 2025 (2,381,325, from Eurostat unless the report names another source).Prison administrations that could not give 31 January used the nearest date, listed in the notes to Table 1 of the report. SPACE also publishes an adjusted rate of 244 (5,810 inmates), which removes the special categories listed in its Tables 2.1 and 2.2 (such as people in police custody, psychiatric hospitals, immigration detention, private prisons or under electronic monitoring); the report calls adjusted figures estimates, not official national data. Same values in Table 3 (printed page 34) of the SPACE I 2025 report (https://wp.unil.ch/space/files/2026/06/260626_rapport-space-i-2025.pdf), row "Moldova"; transcribed into scripts/prison-population-rate.manual.json. | 4 of 5 checks
| 31% |
- WPB31%
- UNODC38%
- CoE SPACE31%
How the trust score was worked out
- Quality35.1 / 40
How well the sources are made
- Agreement13.5 / 30
How close the sources are to each other
- Independence12 / 20
How many separate ways the number was measured
- Freshness10 / 10
How recent the newest data is
Who reports it, and since when
No source of these kinds: death and health registers, independent count.
- Blind spot: every counted source is the same kind
- WPB: no figure here for 7 years between 2010 and 2025
- UNODC: no figure here for 2021, 2023
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)
Download, cite and report an error
From the table How many people are in prison in each country? Updated 2026-10-26.
Download every value in this table (CSV)
Cite as: RealStats, “Prison population rate in Moldova”, updated 2026-10-26, with the original sources listed on the page.