In almost all cases, the source of the data is the national prison administration of the country or the ministry responsible for the prison administration. Most data pertain to dates between 1997 and August 2001. The survey found that more than 8.75 million people were held in prisons throughout the world, mostly as pretrial detainees or having been convicted and sentenced. About half of these were in the United States, Russia, or China. The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, with 700 per 100,000 of the national population, followed by Russia (665), the Cayman Islands (600), Belarus (555), the U.S. Virgin Islands (550), Kazakhstan (520), Turkmenistan (490), the Bahamas (480), Belize (460), and Bermuda (445). Almost two-thirds of the countries (63 percent) have rates of 150 per 100,000 or below. Prison population rates vary significantly among different regions of the world and among different parts of the same continent. This report shows that prison populations are increasing in many parts of the world. Updated information on countries included in the previous editions of the World Prison Population List shows that prison populations have risen in 69 percent of these countries; a similar pattern is evident for all continents. 5 tables