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Cyprus had the most overcrowded prisons in the European Union in 2023, with an inmate population more than double the system’s intended capacity, according to figures released by Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency.
The island nation recorded a prison occupancy rate of 226.2%, far surpassing France at 122.9% and Italy at 119.1%. In total, 13 EU member states reported overcrowded prison systems, where facilities held more inmates than they were designed for.
The least crowded prisons were in Estonia, with an occupancy rate of 56.2%, followed by Luxembourg (60.8%) and Bulgaria (67.7%).
Across the EU, there were roughly 499,000 prisoners in 2023, a 3.2% increase from the previous year. That equates to 111 inmates per 100,000 residents, up slightly from 108 per 100,000 in 2022.
Cyprus, despite its overcrowding, had a prisoner rate of 101 per 100,000 people, below the EU average. The country held 959 inmates last year, the highest number recorded since 2013.
EU inmate numbers peaked in 2012 at 553,000. After a period of stability from 2017 to 2019, the prison population dropped by 6.6% in 2020 to 463,000, before rising again by 7.7% between 2021 and 2023.
Poland had the highest incarceration rate in the EU last year, with 203 inmates per 100,000 people, followed by Hungary (187) and the Czech Republic (181). The lowest rates were in Finland (53), the Netherlands (66) and Slovenia (68).
