The World Prison Brief's data estimates the U.S. incarceration rate at 639 inmates per 100,000 people as of 2018, or 13% higher than the rate of the next-closest country, El Salvador (564 inmates per 100,000 people).

What percent of incarcerations are in the US?

Since the 1970s, the incarceration rate has steeply increased, leading to 0.7% of the U.S. population or 698 out of 100,000 people being behind bars. A rate that ranks the U.S. and nearly all individual states higher in incarceration than all other countries.

Does America have the most incarcerations?

Total U.S. incarceration (prisons and jails) peaked in 2008. ... In 2009, the United States had the highest documented incarceration rate in the world, at 754 per 100,000.