According to the annual statistics of the Council of Europe known as SPACE I, Cyprus is in third position among European countries together with France for prison overcrowding.
The relevant report noted that Cyprus has 116 inmates for every 100 available places. The first three countries on 31 January 2020 were Turkey with 127 inmates per 100 available places, Italy (120 inmates per 100 available places) and Belgium (117 inmates per 100 available places).
Some 12.8% of prisoners in Cyprus are over 50 and 2.3% are over 65. The European average is 15.3% and 2.7% respectively. Moreover, 4.5% of inmates in Cyprus are women compared to the 5.6% which is the European average.