Women, by comparison, numbered 771,000 globally, with their share of the total prison population remaining below 7 per cent for the past decade.
The world's prison population has reached an estimated 11.6 million people, according to a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which documents a resurgence in global incarceration rates following a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, titled Prison Matters 2026: Global Prison Population and Trends, found that the current figure represents a 4.9 per cent increase from a decade ago, with 143 out of every 100,000 people worldwide now held in prison.
“An estimated 11.6 million people were detained globally in 2024," the report states, noting that the number had declined sharply during the pandemic before beginning to climb again.
Men continue to make up the overwhelming majority of prisoners worldwide, accounting for nearly 93 per cent of the global prison population, or close to 11 million people, as of 2024.
