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Foreign nationals among people in prison

What share of the people held in prison are foreign nationals, in each European country?

37 of 37 shown in the list

% of prisoners who are foreign nationals

  1. Luxembourg75.8% 2024
  2. Liechtenstein75.3% 2024
  3. Switzerland71.4% 2024
  4. Cyprus54.0% 2024
  5. Austria53.0% 2024
  6. Malta52.4% 2024
  7. Greece52.0% 2024
  8. Slovenia48.2% 2024
  9. Belgium45.4% 2024
  10. Iceland39.0% 2024
  11. Estonia33.4% 2024
  12. Spain32.7% 2024
  13. Italy32.0% 2024
  14. Norway27.4% 2024
  15. Denmark25.3% 2024
  16. France24.7% 2024
  17. Finland23.3% 2024
  18. Croatia21.8% 2024
  19. Netherlands21.5% 2024
  20. Sweden21.3% 2024
  21. Portugal17.3% 2024
  22. Montenegro17.0% 2024
  23. Ireland16.5% 2024
  24. Czechia8.2% 2024
  25. Kosovo7.3% 2020

Source: Eurostat, Prisoners by citizenship (crim_pris_ctz). Data for 2020 to 2024. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

  • 37 countries or territories have a figure.
  • The highest is Luxembourg at 75.8% (2024) and the lowest is Romania at 1.1% (2024).
  • The middle value (the median) is 21.5%.

What it counts

Prisoners who do not hold the citizenship of the country where they are held, divided by all prisoners on the reference day, in the latest year each country reports (since 2019).

What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison

The share depends on how many foreign nationals live in or pass through a country, on how many are held while awaiting trial or removal, and on whether people with several citizenships are counted as nationals. It does not show whether foreign nationals commit more or fewer offences. Eurostat marks Kosovo with an asterisk: this designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

Source

Eurostat: Prisoners by citizenship (crim_pris_ctz). Source licence: CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.

Cite this chart

Free to use in teaching, articles, reports and slides, with credit. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0; the source publishes the underlying data under its own licence, shown below.

Reference (APA style)

TheLawToKnow. (2026). Foreign nationals among people in prison [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/foreign-prisoners-share. Data: Eurostat, Prisoners by citizenship (crim_pris_ctz), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/crim_pris_ctz/default/table (data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25).

Short credit for slides and websites

Chart: TheLawToKnow, Law in Charts (https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/foreign-prisoners-share). Data: Eurostat.

BibTeX

@misc{foreignprisonersshare2026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {Foreign nationals among people in prison},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/foreign-prisoners-share},
  note = {Data: Eurostat, Prisoners by citizenship (crim_pris_ctz), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/crim_pris_ctz/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

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