Crime > Prisoners > Foreign prisoners: Countries Compared

Author: Ian Graham, Staff Editor

Why is Andorra throwing so many foreigners into its prisons? Is there a smuggling problem? Are legions of tourists flagrantly breaking the law? It seems doubtful. <p>Though almost 84 percent of the inmates of the countryâ€™s prisons are foreigners, that translates into a mere 51 people, since there are only 61 prisoners in Andorra. <p>Besides, a large proportion of Andorraâ€™s residents are foreign (Spanish nationals make up more than 40 percent of the population). It is estimated that there are more than 4,000 immigrants without work or residence permits in Andorra, because the government immigration quotas are much lower than the number of available jobs. So itâ€™s likely that many of the foreign prisoners are Spanish or facing immigration-related charges or both.

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DEFINITION: Prisoners who are foreign nationals, expressed as a percentage share of total prison population. Data for 2003.

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Totals

#	COUNTRY	AMOUNT	DATE
1	Andorra	83.6%	2003
2	Switzerland	70.8%	2003
3	The Gambia	66.7%	2003
4	Luxembourg	63.9%	2003
5	Qatar	55.6%	2003
6	Saudi Arabia	50.9%	2003
7	Botswana	47%	2003
8	Cyprus	42.9%	2003
9	Greece	42.4%	2003
10	Belgium	40.9%	2003
11	Malaysia	39.6%	2003
12	Netherlands	36.4%	2003
13	Lebanon	36.1%	2003
14	Estonia	35.8%	2003
15	Liechtenstein	35.3%	2003
16	Malta	35%	2003
17	Austria	33%	2003
18	Italy	30.1%	2003
19	Germany	29.9%	2003
	Eurozone average (profile)	27.95%	2003
=20	Libya	27.2%	2003
=20	Sweden	27.2%	2003
22	Spain	25.4%	2003
23	Israel	24.9%	2003
	High income OECD countries average (profile)	22.55%	2003
24	Jordan	22.1%	2003
25	France	21.4%	2003
	European Union average (profile)	21.16%	2003
26	Oman	20.3%	2003
27	Singapore	19.9%	2003
28	Suriname	19.3%	2003
	NATO countries average (profile)	17.22%	2003
29	Denmark	16.3%	2003
30	Slovenia	15.3%	2003
31	Norway	15%	2003
32	Barbados	14.3%	2003
33	Portugal	12%	2003
34	Croatia	11.8%	2003
35	Czech Republic	9.4%	2003
36	Iceland	9.3%	2003
37	Panama	9.1%	2003
38	Costa Rica	8.7%	2003
39	Finland	7.9%	2003
40	Senegal	7.5%	2003
41	Lesotho	6.6%	2003
42	Japan	6.5%	2003
43	Namibia	5.5%	2003
=44	Dominican Republic	5.2%	2003
=44	New Zealand	5.2%	2003
	Emerging markets average (profile)	5.11%	2003
46	Zimbabwe	4.8%	2003
47	Hungary	4.4%	2003
48	Jamaica	4%	2003
49	Mauritius	3.4%	2003
=50	Thailand	2.9%	2003
=50	Uganda	2.9%	2003
=50	Chile	2.9%	2003
53	Belarus	2.6%	2003
54	Slovakia	2.3%	2003
55	South Africa	2.1%	2003
56	Bulgaria	2%	2003
57	Tonga	1.8%	2003
=58	Turkey	1.7%	2003
=58	Russia	1.7%	2003
=60	Lithuania	1.6%	2003
=60	Ukraine	1.6%	2003
62	Poland	1.5%	2003
=63	Swaziland	1.4%	2003
=63	Georgia	1.4%	2003
=63	Azerbaijan	1.4%	2003
=66	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1.3%	2003
=66	Chad	1.3%	2003
=66	Algeria	1.3%	2003
=66	Kyrgyzstan	1.3%	2003
70	Mexico	0.9%	2003
71	Sao Tome and Principe	0.8%	2003
72	Romania	0.7%	2003
=73	Philippines	0.6%	2003
=73	Colombia	0.6%	2003
=73	Latvia	0.6%	2003
=73	Guyana	0.6%	2003
=77	Indonesia	0.5%	2003
=77	United States	0.5%	2003
=79	Albania	0.4%	2003
=79	Brazil	0.4%	2003
81	Rwanda	0.3%	2003
82	Tanzania	0.2%	2003
83	Armenia	0.1%	2003
84	China	0.03%	2003
=85	Sudan	0.0	2003
=85	Papua New Guinea	0.0	2003

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