Just crunching some numbers here, and these are rough estimates, presented without comment:
- Norway: 4,000 prisoners / 5M population (0.08% incarceration)
- United Kingdom: 84,000 prisoners / 63M pop. (0.13%)
- United States: 2,270,000 prisoners / 317M pop. (0.72%)
The US prison population rises to about 7M when you include everyone "under correctional supervision" (e.g., in probation, on parole, in jail, etc.), increasing to a >2% figure. But I don't have apples-to-apples figures for the UK and Norway in this regard.
The usual way to refer to incarcerated population is per 100k population.
Norway is around 70/100k, 'first world' countries in general are around 70-150/100k, New Zealand is an outlier at 200/100k and the US is an extreme outlier at ~720/100k. The US really is way out of step with its contemporaries on this issue.
- Norway: 4,000 prisoners / 5M population (0.08% incarceration)
- United Kingdom: 84,000 prisoners / 63M pop. (0.13%)
- United States: 2,270,000 prisoners / 317M pop. (0.72%)
The US prison population rises to about 7M when you include everyone "under correctional supervision" (e.g., in probation, on parole, in jail, etc.), increasing to a >2% figure. But I don't have apples-to-apples figures for the UK and Norway in this regard.