U.S. Maintains World's Largest Prison Population; Black Americans Incarcerated at 5x Rate of White Americans

By 2015, the U.S. incarcerated 2.3 million people — 25% of the global total despite having 5% of world population. Black Americans were incarcerated at 5.1 times the rate of white Americans. One in three Black men born in 2001 could expect to be incarcerated in their lifetime. Black Americans were 3.73 times more likely than white Americans to be arrested for marijuana possession in 2018 despite similar use rates.