USA. 25% of the world's prisoners. 5% of the world's people.

Note: This post has been updated since the original date of posting. 

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Total U.S. incarcerated population.

USA and territories. 2,424,279 inmates in 2008.

With less than 5% of world population the USA has over 2.4 million of 9.8 million world prisoners. The majority of U.S. inmates are in due to the drug war. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. See table.

Chart info.

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"Welcome to America, home to 5% of the world's people & 25% of the world's prisoners."

Image info, template, stats. Most are incarcerated due to the drug war.

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While the rich get richer, the poor and the middle class are in crisis, or in jail, or paying for jail. Click chart to enlarge.

More  info, and larger chart.

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"War on Drugs" cost is killing and bankrupting us. Medicaid Benefits Dropping for Millions of Patients - New York Times. June 15, 2011.
45,000 uninsured Americans die each year due to lack of health insurance. Google search: "health insurance, Harvard study, 45,000 deaths".
Jimmie Carter: Call Off the Global Drug War, in June 16, 2011 New York Times. Excerpt: "Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pointed out that, in 1980, 10 percent of his state’s budget went to higher education and 3 percent to prisons; in 2010, almost 11 percent went to prisons and only 7.5 percent to higher education. Maybe the increased tax burden on wealthy citizens necessary to pay for the war on drugs will help to bring about a reform of America’s drug policies."
See more on the costs of the drug war, including the cost of police and courts. See also: Drug war charts and more.