How many women are in prison and on death row around the world?
source: The Guardian
published: 27 November 2025
Image Credit: Naypong at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
More than 733,000 women and girls are held in penal institutions globally, according to the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research, either as pre-trial detainees or remand prisoners, or having been convicted and sentenced. The actual total is thought to be much higher, as figures for five countries are not available and those for China are incomplete.
Women are always a minority in national prison populations – only 2-9% on average – and in 2024 women and girls made up just 6.8% of the global prison population. However, their numbers are growing and at a faster rate than those of men.
Since 2000, the number of women and girls in prison has grown by almost 60% – nearly three times the increase in the male prison population of about 22%. The global female prison population increased by more than 100,000 in the 10 years to the end of 2020.
What is driving the increase?
Offences committed by women are often closely linked to poverty, and frequently a means of survival to support their family and children.
Research by Penal Reform International, Women Beyond Walls, and the Global Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status found that laws criminalise acts of survival and that women are disproportionately affected because they are over-represented among the poorest sectors of society.
Related News:
Experts warn of ‘global crisis’ as number of women in prison nears one million?
27 November 2025
Women in Prison respond to women's prison population predicted rise of 16% by 2027
5 March 2025
Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System 2023
30 January 2025
Women in prison (The Prison Reform Trust)
Published 2025
share this article on social media
