How many people are imprisoned in Argentina?

Argentina's prison population is 133,585 people. This figure aggregates all forms of detention counted by the source: sentenced prisoners, pre-trial detainees, and administrative detentions.

What is the incarceration rate in Argentina?

Argentina's incarceration rate is approximately 284 people per 100,000 population.

How many prisons are there in Argentina?

World Prisons indexes 271 individual facilities in Argentina. Each entry links to a detail page with contact information, capacity, oversight reports, and known conditions.

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Americas · South America

Argentina

Q: Does Argentina have the death penalty?

Argentina's death-penalty status is: abolitionist. Seeded from Amnesty International 2024 categorisation + Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.

High confidence

Verified 20 May 2026 · Data dated 31 Dec 2024

Fresh · 2mo ago

Federal + 24 provincial systems. Buenos Aires Province alone holds >50% of the national prison population.

Compare Argentina World Prison Brief page

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

Prison population

133,585

Year: 2024

Rate per 100,000

284

Per 100,000 residents

Occupancy

122.9%

Above design capacity

Pre-trial / remand

38.8%

Share not yet sentenced

Female prisoners

4.3%

Foreign nationals

4.6%

Figures from official sources · verified 20 May 2026 · methodology

Conditions risk — across 271 facilities

Average of our computed Conditions Risk Score across the country's facilities. Methodology · Browse highest-risk

—

national average

271 unknown

abolitionist on capital punishment since 2008. Last known execution: 1916.ICCPR-OP2 (death-penalty abolition protocol): signatory

Seeded from Amnesty International 2024 categorisation + Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.

Source: Amnesty International + Cornell Death Penalty Worldwide.

3 documented human-rights cases →

How Argentina compares

vs Americas (9) & global averages

Rate per 100,000this: 284 · region: 514 · global: 214

Occupancy ratethis: 123% · region: 130% · global: 125%

Pre-trial sharethis: 39% · region: 34% · global: 32%

The vertical ticks mark the global (grey) and regional (amber) means. Bars are clipped at the high end for readability.

Prison population over time

Annual figures, latest survey year

2002: 57,632+109.4% over 22y2024: 120,700

Source: World Prison Brief / sneep-ar / unodc

Reform in Argentina

All reform →

Laws, programmes, and pilots changing how Argentina incarcerates — plus relevant research.

Home detention for vulnerable categories2009–ongoing
alternatives · active
Argentine law 26.472 permits home detention for pregnant women, mothers of children under five, the elderly (75+), and terminally ill prisoners. Greatly expanded use during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

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Held

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See all 271 prisons in Argentina →

Data completeness

100%

Score based on how many fields are populated. We surface this so you know where the gaps are.

National population: 47,000,0002024
Source-verified: 20 May 2026
Source links: 1 cited

Sources

Direct citations for the figures on this page.

Primary reference
World Prison Brief (ICPS, Birkbeck) — Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research
See /data-sources for our methodology.

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3: ARG

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA

World Prisons. (2026). Argentina — prison statistics. Retrieved July 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/countries/argentina

Chicago

"Argentina — prison statistics." World Prisons. Accessed July 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/countries/argentina.

BibTeX

@misc{worldprisons-argentina,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Argentina — prison statistics},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/countries/argentina},
  urldate = {2026-07-20}
}