criminal-justice

El Salvador incarcerates more than 1,600 people per 100,000 — the highest rate in recorded history — after President Bukele's mass gang crackdown from 2022. The United States imprisons 531 per 100,000, roughly five times the Western European average. Here's who imprisons the most, why, and what the data reveals about criminal justice as a policy choice.

China executes more people than the rest of the world combined — an estimated 1,000+ per year. Iran executed 972+ people in 2024. The US carried out 24 executions. 55 countries retain the death penalty; 112 have abolished it. Saudi Arabia executed 345+ people in 2024 — its highest total in decades.