“Prison overcrowding remains a critical challenge in one-third of European prison administrations”, according to the Council of Europe’s 2024 Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations (SPACE I) released today. Overall, in Europe, the number of inmates per 100 places available increased from 93.5 to 94.9 from 31 January 2023 to 31 January 2024, with significant differences across countries. In countries with over 500,000 inhabitants, six prison administrations reported severe overcrowding: Slovenia (134 inmates per 100 places), Cyprus (132), France (124), Italy (118), Romania (116) and Belgium (113). Also, according to the Council of Europe’s statistics, another eight prison administrations reported moderate overcrowding: Croatia (110), Ireland (105), Sweden (105), Hungary (104), Azerbaijan (103), Finland (103), Türkiye (102) and North Macedonia (101). In addition, the prison administrations of Scotland (100) and England and Wales (98) (UK), as well as Serbia (98), operated at or near full capacity.