Britain's huge prison population and how it compares to the rest of Europe

The prison population in Britain is the largest in Western Europe, according to newly released figures.

The prison population of 95,248 is nearly 20,000 higher than France and 30,000 more than Germany according to the latest figures from the Council of Europe.

Britain is behind only Russia (671,027) and Turkey (151,451) in the figures which describe 50 European countries.

The incarceration rate per 100,000 population is also higher in the UK (148.1) than in Germany (81.4) and France (118), as the below chart by Statista demonstrates:

The total prison population across the 50 countries was 1,600,324 in September 2014, compared to 1,530,222 for 2013.

Britain didn’t feature in the European top 10 for overcrowding in prisons.

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