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Share of people in prisons and jails, 2020 Census: U.S. states ranked

Measure: Share of people in prisons and jails, 2020 Census (%, derived). All 50 states and District of Columbia with data in People living in group quarters by state, ranked from highest to lowest. Reference period: 2020.

Licence: Public domain (U.S. federal government work).
Data last updated: 2026-11-09

Download full table CSV Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census (opens in a new tab)

National value: 0.6 (United States).

Small states, hard to see on the map:

DC 0.3 %
RI 0.3 %
DE 0.5 %
CT 0.4 %
NJ 0.4 %
MD 0.4 %
MA 0.3 %
VT 0.2 %
NH 0.3 %

Lowest: 0.2 to 0.3 %
Group 2: 0.3 to 0.5 %
Group 3: 0.5 to 0.6 %
Group 4: 0.6 to 0.8 %
Highest: 0.8 to 1.1 %

The map is a visual summary; every value is in the table below, which is the keyboard and screen-reader path. Groups are quintiles of the values shown (a derived grouping). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain), simplified. Alaska and Hawaii are shown as insets, not to scale.

Rank is derived by Quadranac: 1 = highest value; ties share a rank. The ranked value is itself derived; see the source table for the method. Values are as published in the source table.

Note: 2020 Census counts with disclosure avoidance applied; small categories in small states may be noisy.


1	Louisiana	1.1
1	West Virginia	1.1
3	Mississippi	1
3	Oklahoma	1
5	Arizona	0.9
5	Arkansas	0.9
5	Georgia	0.9
5	Kentucky	0.9
5	Texas	0.9
10	Alabama	0.8
10	South Dakota	0.8
12	Alaska	0.7
12	Florida	0.7
12	New Mexico	0.7
12	Tennessee	0.7
12	Virginia	0.7
17	Colorado	0.6
17	Idaho	0.6
17	Indiana	0.6
17	Kansas	0.6
17	Missouri	0.6
17	Nevada	0.6
17	North Carolina	0.6
17	Ohio	0.6
17	Pennsylvania	0.6
17	South Carolina	0.6
17	Wisconsin	0.6
17	Wyoming	0.6
29	California	0.5
29	Delaware	0.5
29	Illinois	0.5
29	Michigan	0.5
29	Montana	0.5
29	Nebraska	0.5
29	Oregon	0.5
36	Connecticut	0.4
36	Iowa	0.4
36	Maryland	0.4
36	New Jersey	0.4
40	District of Columbia	0.3
40	Hawaii	0.3
40	Massachusetts	0.3
40	Minnesota	0.3
40	New Hampshire	0.3
40	New York	0.3
40	North Dakota	0.3
40	Rhode Island	0.3
40	Utah	0.3
40	Washington	0.3
50	Maine	0.2
50	Vermont	0.2

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census, 2020 Census Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171), Tables P1 and P5: Group Quarters Population by Major Group Quarters Type. Reference period: 2020.

Cite this ranking

U.S. states ranked by share of people in prisons and jails, 2020 Census (%, derived) (2020). Data: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census, 2020 Census Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171), Tables P1 and P5: Group Quarters Population by Major Group Quarters Type; rank derived by Quadranac. Data last updated 2026-11-09. https://quadranac.com/rankings/us-states-by-share-of-people-in-prisons-and-jails-2020-census/

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