Justice by the Numbers

Name: Justice by the Numbers
Creator: TheLawToKnow Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

How many judges does a country have, and how many police officers, and how many people in prison? How often does a killing happen? This guide puts four official rates per 100,000 inhabitants on one map and in one table, each with the year it was measured.

Part of the comparative law toolkit. Homicides cover about 190 countries; judges, police and prison figures cover the European countries that report to Eurostat. For prisons worldwide, see the World Prison Brief.

Showing: intentional homicides per 100,000 people.

under 1 (43)1 to under 3 (56)3 to under 10 (54)10 or more (37)No figure from our sources

Every country, side by side

Click a heading to sort. Each figure is a rate per 100,000 inhabitants; the year is in the tooltip and on the country page.


Afghanistan	4.0	–	–	–
Albania	1.4	8.9	347	182
Algeria	1.2	–	–	–
American Samoa	25.5	–	–	–
Andorra	2.6	–	–	–
Angola	4.1	–	–	–
Antigua and Barbuda	10.7	–	–	–
Argentina	4.5	–	–	–
Armenia	2.2	–	–	–
Aruba	1.9	–	–	–
Australia	0.9	–	–	–
Austria	0.9	4.3	358	105
Azerbaijan	2.2	–	–	–
Bahamas	32.2	–	–	–
Bahrain	0.2	–	–	–
Bangladesh	2.3	–	–	–
Barbados	7.4	–	–	–
Belarus	2.4	–	–	–
Belgium	1.1	13.4	343	107
Belize	28.1	–	–	–
Benin	1.1	–	–	–
Bermuda	6.2	–	–	–
Bhutan	2.5	–	–	–
Bolivia	4.4	–	–	–
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.2	–	–	–
Botswana	11.4	–	–	–
Brazil	19.3	–	–	–
British Virgin Islands	8.2	–	–	–
Brunei	0.5	–	–	–
Bulgaria	1.1	35.4	452	84.4
Burkina Faso	1.3	–	–	–
Burundi	5.6	–	–	–
Cabo Verde	7.0	–	–	–
Cambodia	1.8	–	–	–
Cameroon	6.8	–	–	–
Canada	2.0	–	–	–
Cayman Islands	4.4	–	–	–
Central African Republic	20.1	–	–	–
Chile	6.3	–	–	–
China	0.5	–	–	–
Colombia	24.9	–	–	–
Costa Rica	17.7	–	–	–
Croatia	0.7	43.3	522	129
Cuba	4.5	–	–	–
Curaçao	16.9	–	–	–
Cyprus	0.8	7.5	565	99.9
Czechia	0.8	6.7	369	178
Denmark	0.8	11.9	194	69.9
Dominica	27.1	–	–	–
Dominican Republic	10.9	–	–	–
Ecuador	45.7	–	–	–
Egypt	1.3	–	–	–
El Salvador	7.9	–	–	–
Eritrea	15.6	–	–	–
Estonia	1.5	18.1	271	119
Eswatini	12.5	–	–	–
Ethiopia	8.5	–	–	–
Fiji	2.1	–	–	–
Finland	1.0	19.4	139	56.9
France	1.3	11.2	361	118
French Polynesia	0.4	–	–	–
Georgia	2.0	–	–	–
Germany	0.9	26.3	320	70.5
Ghana	1.8	–	–	–
Greece	0.8	26.1	559	111
Greenland	5.4	–	–	–
Grenada	13.7	–	–	–
Guam	4.3	–	–	–
Guatemala	23.4	–	–	–
Guinea-Bissau	1.1	–	–	–
Guyana	19.1	–	–	–
Haiti	41.2	–	–	–
Honduras	31.4	–	–	–
Hong Kong	0.4	–	–	–
Hungary	0.7	28.0	376	193
Iceland	1.3	17.0	205	35.5
India	2.8	–	–	–
Indonesia	0.3	–	–	–
Iran	2.4	–	–	–
Iraq	9.5	–	–	–
Ireland	0.7	3.6	331	95.7
Isle of Man	1.2	–	–	–
Israel	1.6	–	–	–
Italy	0.6	7.9	399	108
Jamaica	49.4	–	–	–
Japan	0.2	–	–	–
Jordan	1.0	–	–	–
Kazakhstan	2.6	–	–	–
Kenya	4.9	–	–	–
Kiribati	7.1	–	–	–
Kosovo	1.9	23.3	458	78.3
Kuwait	0.2	–	–	–
Kyrgyzstan	1.7	–	–	–
Latvia	2.5	27.3	206	187
Lebanon	2.2	–	–	–
Lesotho	38.2	–	–	–
Liberia	3.1	–	–	–
Liechtenstein	5.1	50.0	342	192
Lithuania	2.6	24.7	262	155
Luxembourg	1.5	36.0	396	93.5
Macau	0.6	–	–	–
Malawi	1.8	–	–	–
Malaysia	0.7	–	–	–
Maldives	0.6	–	–	–
Malta	0.6	8.5	382	124
Marshall Islands	4.2	–	–	–
Mauritania	1.0	–	–	–
Mauritius	2.3	–	–	–
Mexico	24.9	–	–	–
Micronesia	0.9	–	–	–
Moldova	2.5	–	–	–
Monaco	3.1	–	–	–
Mongolia	5.9	–	–	–
Montenegro	0.8	42.5	562	191
Morocco	1.7	–	–	–
Mozambique	3.6	–	–	–
Myanmar	2.6	–	–	–
Namibia	11.2	–	–	–
Nepal	2.1	–	–	–
Netherlands	0.7	15.1	291	66.6
New Caledonia	3.1	–	–	–
New Zealand	1.5	–	–	–
Nicaragua	11.3	–	–	–
Niger	4.4	–	–	–
Nigeria	15.7	–	–	–
North Macedonia	1.5	20.2	471	123
Norway	0.7	15.8	–	60.5
Oman	0.1	–	–	–
Pakistan	4.3	–	–	–
Palau	11.2	–	–	–
Palestine	0.6	–	–	–
Panama	11.7	–	–	–
Papua New Guinea	9.3	–	–	–
Paraguay	6.8	–	–	–
Peru	8.6	–	–	–
Philippines	4.3	–	–	–
Poland	0.8	8.0	266	191
Portugal	0.7	16.1	438	118
Qatar	0.1	–	–	–
Romania	1.1	35.3	270	129
Russia	6.8	–	–	–
Rwanda	3.6	–	–	–
Saint Kitts and Nevis	64.2	–	–	–
Saint Lucia	39.0	–	–	–
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	51.3	–	–	–
Samoa	6.3	–	–	–
San Marino	3.6	–	–	–
São Tomé and Príncipe	3.2	–	–	–
Saudi Arabia	0.9	–	–	–
Senegal	0.3	–	–	–
Serbia	1.3	40.2	–	173
Seychelles	8.0	–	–	–
Sierra Leone	2.2	–	–	–
Singapore	0.1	–	–	–
Slovakia	1.1	24.6	346	151
Slovenia	0.6	40.2	321	85.0
Solomon Islands	3.7	–	–	–
South Africa	43.7	–	–	–
South Korea	0.5	–	–	–
South Sudan	14.0	–	–	–
Spain	0.7	6.2	379	122
Sri Lanka	3.3	–	–	–
Sudan	5.1	–	–	–
Suriname	6.5	–	–	–
Sweden	1.1	9.0	226	107
Switzerland	0.6	15.1	213	75.0
Syria	2.1	–	–	–
Tajikistan	0.9	–	–	–
Tanzania	3.7	–	–	–
Thailand	4.8	–	–	–
Timor-Leste	4.1	–	–	–
Tonga	0.9	–	–	–
Trinidad and Tobago	40.4	–	–	–
Tunisia	4.7	–	–	–
Turkey	3.2	16.7	579	449
Turkmenistan	1.0	–	–	–
Turks and Caicos Islands	76.3	–	–	–
Uganda	9.0	–	–	–
Ukraine	3.8	–	–	–
United Arab Emirates	0.7	–	–	–
United Kingdom	1.1	–	–	–
United States	5.8	–	–	–
Uruguay	11.2	–	–	–
Uzbekistan	1.4	–	–	–
Vanuatu	0.3	–	–	–
Venezuela	12.6	–	–	–
Vietnam	1.5	–	–	–
Yemen	5.8	–	–	–
Zambia	5.2	–	–	–
Zimbabwe	6.8	–	–	–

Read this first

These are rates per 100,000 inhabitants from open official sources, each with the latest year the source reports for that country. A higher or lower number is not good or bad in itself, and countries count differently (who is a judge, which police forces are included, what counts as a homicide), so use the figures to start a comparison, not to rank. Data is updated when the sources publish new years.

Homicides

The number of intentional killings of one person by another in a year, per 100,000 people. It is the crime figure most often compared across countries because it is the best recorded, but reporting still differs, and it says nothing about other crimes.

Professional judges

Judges who sit in courts as a profession, per 100,000 inhabitants. Systems differ in who counts: lay judges, magistrates and prosecutors are often counted separately, so compare with care. The figure covers European countries that report to Eurostat.

Police officers

Police officers, per 100,000 inhabitants. Some countries have several police forces, a gendarmerie or armed police that count differently. Covers European countries that report to Eurostat.

People in prison

Persons held in prison on a given day, including people waiting for trial, per 100,000 inhabitants. It reflects how long sentences are, how often prison is used and how fast trials are, not only how much crime there is. Covers European countries that report to Eurostat; for the rest of the world see the World Prison Brief.

Sources

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