Population

Global

Population demographics trends that provide information and resources globally, domestically, and within the field of corrections.

2018 and newer

Conditions inside prisons—including high populations and inadequate vaccination and hygiene protocols—meant that, in winter 2021-22, both correctional officers and incarcerated people experienced high levels of COVID-19. 1 Research has clearly demonstrated that incarceration also increases the level of COVID-19 infection in communities outside of prisons and jails.2 All levels of government should take action to further reduce the number of people held in jails and prisons.

People in Prison in Winter 2021-22

Author(s): Jacob Kang-Brown

Publisher: Vera Institute

Publication Date: 2/1/2022

Global Prison Trends 2021 exposes the impact of the global pandemic on prison populations and staff, showing that in the face of the COVID-19 crisis millions of people in prison have suffered as a result of preventive measures, at a huge cost to their mental health and human rights.

Global Prison Trends 2021

Publisher: Penal Reform International

Publication Date: 5/1/2021

https://www.penalreform.org/global-prison-trends-2021/

Customizable tool to allow the viewer to observe world prison data from several categories.

World Prison Brief

Publisher: Institute for Justice and Crime Policy Research

Publication Date: 12/1/2021

https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-population-total?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All

Calculating the answer to the question “How many people have ever lived on Earth?” is complicated. To begin with, when we initially wrote this article back in 1995, “modern” Homo sapiens (that is, people who were roughly like we are now) were thought to have first walked the Earth around 50,000 B.C.E. Discoveries now suggest modern Homo sapiens existed much earlier, around 200,000 B.C.E. This major change in our understanding of human existence spurred new calculations and consultations with experts, resulting in an estimate that about 117 billion members of our species have ever been born on Earth.

How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?

Author(s): Toshiko Kaneda and Carl Haub

Publisher: Population Reference Bureau (PRB)

This report offers some much-needed clarity by piecing together the data about this country’s disparate systems of confinement. It provides a detailed look at where and why people are locked up in the U.S., and dispels some modern myths to focus attention on the real drivers of mass incarceration and overlooked issues that call for reform.

Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2022

Author(s): Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner

Publisher: Prison Policy Initiative

Publication Date: 3/14/2022

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html

Not only does the U.S. have the highest incarceration rate in the world; every single U.S. state incarcerates more people per capita than virtually any independent democracy on earth. To be sure, states like New York and Massachusetts appear progressive in their incarceration rates compared to states like Louisiana, but compared to the rest of the world, every U.S. state relies too heavily on prisons and jails to respond to crime.

The 2021 edition of International Migration Outlook analyses recent developments in migration movements and the labour market inclusion of immigrants in OECD countries. It also monitors recent policy changes in migration governance and integration in OECD countries. This edition includes two special chapters, one providing an in-depth analysis of the fiscal impact of migration in OECD countries since the mid 2000s and another on the causes and consequences of the residential segregation of immigrants. The Outlook also includes country notes and a detailed statistical annex.

International Migration Outlook 2021

Publisher: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Publication Date: 10/8/2021

The Population Data Portal is UNFPA’s ultimate data source and tracker for population and development data. It combines the newest population data on topics like sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, family planning, maternal health, or gender based violence gathered from a multiple sources.

UNFPA Population Data Portal

Publisher: United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

Publication Date: 2021

https://pdp.unfpa.org/search?categories=population

The World health statistics report is the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual compilation of the most recent available data on health and health-related indicators for its 194 Member States. The 2021 edition features the latest data for 50+ health-related indicators from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and WHO Triple Billion targets. The 2021 report additionally focuses on the human toll and impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, highlighting the importance of tracking inequalities and the urgency to accelerate progress to get back on track and recover equitably with the support of robust data and health information systems.

World Health Statistics 2021

Publisher: World Health Organization (WHO)

This is the third report as required under the First Step Act of 2018 (FSA; P.L. 115-391). It includes data on federal prisoners provided to BJS by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for calendar year 2020. Under the FSA, BJS is required to report on selected characteristics of persons in prison, including marital, veteran, citizenship, and English-speaking status; education levels; medical conditions; and participation in treatment programs. Also, BJS is required to report facility-level statistics, such as the number of assaults on staff by prisoners, prisoners’ violations of rules that resulted in time credit reductions, and selected facility characteristics related to accreditation, on-site health care, remote learning, video conferencing, and costs of prisoners’ phone calls.

The Sentencing Project's key fact sheet provides a compilation of major developments in the criminal justice system over the past several decades.

Trends in U.S. Corrections

Publisher: The Sentencing Project

Publication Date: 5/1/2021

https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/trends-in-u-s-corrections/

The aftermath of the 2008-09 financial crisis spotlighted unequal access to jobs and opportunities in the US. After the Occupy Wall Street protests, many industries and agencies re-examined policy areas for their impacts on inequality (including even the Federal Reserve1). Many policies today, including universal basic income,2 free education and health care, reduced labor inflows, and controlled trade and investments, are partly in response to unequal access to opportunities and uncertainties about the future of work.

Chart and table of U.S. population from 1950 to 2022. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

  • The current population of U.S. in 2022 is 338,289,857, a 0.38% increase from 2021.
  • The population of U.S. in 2021 was 336,997,624, a 0.31% increase from 2020.
  • The population of U.S. in 2020 was 335,942,003, a 0.49% increase from 2019.
  • The population of U.S. in 2019 was 334,319,671, a 0.66% increase from 2018.

U.S. Population Growth Rate 1950-2022

Publisher: Macrotrends

Publication Date: 2022

Preliminary data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that the number of births in the United States rose in 2021 to just under 3.66 million, after falling to 3.61 million in 2020. While it might be tempting to call this increase—representing nearly 46,000 births—a rebound, we’ll need to see another year of growth before we can call it a comeback.

2020, marked by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, saw the largest one-year dip in births in more than a quarter-century. And the preliminary 2021 figure, while an improvement from 2020, is still lower than 2019’s 3.75 million births.

U.S. Births Increased in 2021. But Don't Call It a Comeback.

Author(s): Beth Jarosz

Publisher: Population Reference Bureau

 In fiscal year 2020, there were 19,654 offenders convicted of illegal reentry, accounting for 82.7% of all immigration offenders sentenced under the guidelines. Illegal reentry convictions have increased by 24.3% since fiscal year 2016.

Given a current global population of about 7.8 billion, the revised estimate means those alive in 2020 represent nearly 7% of the total number of people who have ever lived.

Vera Institute of Justice researchers collected data on the number of people in local jails and state and federal prisons at both midyear and fall 2020 to provide timely information on how incarceration is changing in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers estimated the national jail population using a sample of 1,558 jail jurisdictions and the national prison population based on a sample of 49 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Vera also collected data on people incarcerated and detained by the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

  • There are an estimated 272 million international migrants – 3.5% of the world’s population.
  • While most people leave their home countries for work, millions have been driven away due to conflict, violence and climate change.
  • Most migrants come from India; the United States is the primary destination.

There are an estimated 272 million international migrants around the world. And while that equals just 3.5% of the world’s population, it already surpasses some projections for 2050. Since 1970, the number of people living in a country other than where they were born has tripled.

The U.S. population total and population change have been adjusted to be consistent with the results of the 2020 Census. The components of population change have not been adjusted and so inconsistencies will exist between population values derived directly from the components and the population displayed in the odometer and the Select a Date tool.

The U.S. population clock is based on a series of short-term projections for the resident population of the United States. This includes people whose usual residence is in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. These projections do not include members of the Armed Forces overseas, their dependents, or other U.S. citizens residing outside the United States.

Throughout this report, we use the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 National Population Projections to examine potential mortality and life expectancy changes in the coming decades. To provide historical context, we draw extensively on life expectancy data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The report includes projections of life expectancy from 2017 to 2060 and explores projected differences in mortality for men and women and for different race and Hispanic origin groups in the United States. The report also focuses on projected life expectancy dif-ferences between the native-born and foreign-born populations. The mortality projections covered in this report are based on the first nativity-specific life ables and life expectancies to be published by the Census Bureau.

Apportionment is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states. At the conclusion of each decennial census, the results are used to calculate the number of seats to which each state is entitled. Each of the 50 states is entitled to a minimum of one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The 2020 Census apportionment population includes the resident population of the 50 states, plus a count of the U.S. military personnel and federal civilian employees living outside the United States (and their dependents living with them) who can be allocated to a home state. The population of the District of Columbia is not included in the apportionment population.

More than 3.5 million, or 1 in 72, adults were on probation in the United States at the end of 2018—the most recent year for which U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) data is available—more than triple the number in 1980. Nationwide, on any given day, more people are on probation than in prisons and jails and on parole combined.

Today the U.S. Census Bureau is releasing results from the 2020 Census, marking the 24th time the nation’s population has been counted since the first census in 1790, when there were just 3.9 million people living in the United States.

The first census helped build the foundation of our democracy, and the census continues to be a cornerstone for our growing nation.

According to the 2020 Census, there were 331,449,281 people living in the United States as of April 1, 2020, which represents a growth of 7.4% since 2010. In the last 100 years, our nation has tripled in size.

An estimated 3,890,400 adults were under community supervision at yearend 2020, which was a 6.6% decline from the 4,167,100 who were supervised in the community on January 1, 2020. This decline was solely driven by a reduction in people on probation, who made up the majority (79%) of the community supervision population. During 2020, the number of people on probation decreased from 3,330,200 to 3,053,700 (down 8.3%), the largest annual decline since the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) began the probation collection in 1980. The number of adults on parole increased 1.3% during 2020, from 851,000 on January 1, 2020 to 862,100 at yearend. Among all adult U.S. residents, 1 in 66 were supervised in the community at yearend 2020.