This is evidenced by the Council of Europe statistics for 2025, published on May 19.
Other prison systems with high incarceration rates included Scotland (UK) (148), North Macedonia (146) and England and Wales (UK) (141).
Prisons are overcrowded
The Council of Europe report notes that in countries with populations of more than 500,000, 14 prison systems reported that the number of prisoners exceeded the number of available places. Nine prison administrations reported severe overcrowding: Turkey and France (131 prisoners per 100 places), Croatia (123), Italy (121), Malta (118), Cyprus (117), Hungary (115), Belgium (114) and Ireland (112).
Five prison administrations recorded moderate overcrowding: Finland (110), Greece (108), Scotland (UK) (106), North Macedonia (104) and Sweden (103). Close to the median density of 89 prisoners per 100 places are Northern Ireland (UK) (89), Iceland (88), Republic of Moldova (87) and Montenegro (85).
The average age of prisoners in European penitentiaries is 39 years, with significant differences between countries. Italy and Portugal have the highest average age (42), followed by Montenegro, Estonia and Serbia (41).
The youngest average prison populations were recorded in the Republic of Moldova (30), Sweden (34), as well as in France, Cyprus and Denmark (35).
The study highlights the high proportion of prisoners aged 65 and over in some countries, in Moldova they represent 4.2% of the total.
It is not only their own citizens who are imprisoned
The report emphasizes that overall 17% of prisoners in European prisons are non-citizens.
In countries with a population of more than 500,000 people, prison administrations with a particularly high proportion of foreign nationals were located in the following countries: Luxembourg (78%), Switzerland (73%), Cyprus (54%), Austria (53%), Slovenia (52%), Catalonia (Spain) (52%), Greece (52%), Malta (51%), Germany (47%) and Belgium (43%).
The lowest rates were recorded in Romania (1.1%), Republic of Moldova (1.9%), Azerbaijan (2.2%), Ukraine (2.2%), Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIG) (2.8%), Bulgaria (3.1%), Albania (3.4%), Hungary (3.6%), Poland (3.7%), Lithuania (3.8%), Turkey (3.8%) and Serbia (4.5%).
As of January 31, 2025, 26% of all prisoners in European prisons were in pre-trial detention. The Republic of Moldova is at the bottom of the list according to this indicator, with a pre-trial prison population of 19%.
