Question
Answer
The bar chart gives information about the number of prisoners in five different countries over a
period of fifty years, beginning in 1930. In each of the six different years recorded from this period,
the United States and Canada had either the highest or second highest number of prisoners.
In more than half of the years recorded, the United States had the highest number of prisoners of
these five countries, fluctuating between 100,000 and 140,000 inmates. During those two years
when the United States did not have the highest numbers, Canada surpassed them. In 1930 and
1940, Canada had roughly 120,000 prisoners and the United States was second or joint-second with
closer to 100,000 or 110,000 inmates.
The other countries tended to have far fewer people incarcerated, except New Zealand in the first
year, when they had 100,000 people in prison, giving it the same number as the United States. After
that, New Zealand’s figures fell in 1940, but rose continually until the end of the period. Australia
followed the same pattern, reducing the number of prisoners between 1930 and 1940, but
increasing it after that. The United Kingdom was similar but had a much lower total in 1930. Overall,
the British prison population grew more than any other nation and leapfrogged Australia in the final
year.
