The Council of Europe’s Annual Penal Statistics on prison population, published today, show that “many European countries are failing to address the serious prison overcrowding they face”. In many others, the report stresses, “prisons are close to full capacity following an increase in their prison populations in recent years”. It should be remembered that prison overcrowding has been identified as one of the possible causes of the many suicides behind bars. At the same time, the survey points to an increase in the proportion of elderly prisoners, “which may create operational and policy challenges to prison systems in the future”, and to “a slight increase in the proportion of women in prison”. Overall, in Europe, the number of inmates per 100 places available increased from 94.7 to 95.2 from 31 January 2024 to 31 January 2025, with significant differences across countries. In countries with over 500,000 inhabitants, 14 prison systems reported having more inmates than available places. The number of prison systems which reported severe overcrowding grew from six in January 2024 to nine in January 2025: Türkiye and France (both with 131 inmates per 100 places), Croatia (123), Italy (121), Malta (118), Cyprus (117), Hungary (115), Belgium (114) and Ireland (112). Other countries reported “moderate overcrowding”. As of 31 January 2025, there were 1,107,921 individuals held in custody in the 51 prison systems of Council of Europe member states, representing a median imprisonment rate of 110 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants across the continent.