England and Wales have highest imprisonment rate in western Europe

England and Wales have the highest rate of imprisonment in western Europe, according to the Council of Europe’s annual penal statistics.

The prison population in England and Wales has stabilised at nearly 86,000 in recent years but the incarceration rate, at 148.3 prisoners per 100,000 population, remains higher than in Spain (137.9), France (98.3), Italy (86.4) and Germany (77.4).

The Council of Europe figures, published on Tuesday, show the age of criminal responsibility remains lower in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, at 10 years, than anywhere else in Europe except for Switzerland, where it is also 10.

They also show that a higher proportion of convicted inmates in England and Wales are serving sentences for assault and battery (16%), rape (8.5%) and other sexual offences (7.3%) – more than double the European averages of 9.3%, 3.9% and 3.7%.

The appetite for imprisonment has been falling with overall number of people held in prisons across 45 European countries dropping by 6.8% to 1.4 million in 2015, the official figures show.

The highest incarceration rate in Europe is in the Russian Federation with 439 per 100,000 population, followed by Lithuania (277), Georgia (274), Azerbaijan (249), Latvia (223), Turkey (220) and Moldova (219).

The lowest rates are in the Netherlands (53), Finland (54.8), Denmark (56.1) and Sweden (58.6)

The Council of Europe prison statistics confirm that England and Wales have the highest proportion of prisoners – 10.2% – serving life sentences in Europe. Other European countries do not use such indeterminate sentences in the same way. There were 7,439 life-sentenced prisoners in England and Wales on 1 September 2015 compared with 1,883 in Germany, 1,611 in Italy and 1,804 in Russia.

The statistics compiled by the Space project at Lausanne University show that the average prison population rate stood at 134.7 per 100,000 in 2015, a 7% decline over the previous year.

The most significant reductions took place in Greece, where the prison population dropped by more than 18%; in Croatia, where it was down 10%; in Denmark (down 11%); Northern Ireland (down 9.7%); and the Netherlands (down 9.5%).

The biggest increases were in Georgia (up 20.5%), Macedonia (up 12%), Turkey (up 11%) and Czech Republic (also up 11%).

Despite falling prison numbers across Europe acute overcrowding remains a problem in 15 countries out of the 45 who took part in the survey.

Drug offences remain the most common for which prisoners have been imprisoned in European jails, representing 18.7% of the total population. The most common sentence being served is between one to three years.