Alternative measures which keep offenders in the community are the dominant form of correctional supervision in Europe today according to the newly published Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics on persons under the supervision of probation agencies.
The survey contains data on probationers from 48 probation services of Council of Europe member countries who are subject to varying community sanctions or measures, including alternatives to detention such as electronic monitoring, community service, home arrest, treatments, semi-liberty, and conditional release.
Probation data across Europe
On 31 January 2024, a total of 1,426,960 probationers were under the supervision of the 37 probation agencies that reported data on the number of individuals under their supervision. This corresponds to a median probation rate of 157 probationers per 100,000 inhabitants across Europe. Among the 48 probation agencies that responded to the survey some do not use people as their counting unit - opting instead for indicators such as the number of cases or files - and therefore were unable to provide person-based data.
The highest probation population rates were found in Poland (627 probationers per 100,000 inhabitants), Georgia (583), Türkiye (459), Albania (413), Republic of Moldova (320), Latvia (273), UK (England and Wales) (272) and Armenia (267). The services with the lowest rates were North Macedonia (19 probationers per 100,000 inhabitants), Montenegro (23), Norway (42) and Switzerland (44).
Between January 2023 and January 2024, the total number of probationers rose from 1,003,767 to 1,026,524 across the 20 probation agencies that use person-based counting and provided data for both years. This 2.3% increase confirms a growing trend observed in recent years. Notably, this rise coincides with a -4.6% decrease in the prison populations of the corresponding 20 prison services. However, when considering the broader European context - including all 51 prison services - prison populations increased by 3.9%.
Reason for increase in probation not clear
"The increase in the number of probationers may point to a growing willingness to strengthen rehabilitation and support social inclusion for individuals convicted of less serious offences. However, since the prison population also grew at the European level, it is unclear whether this represents a shift toward alternatives or an overall expansion of penal control", said Professor Marcelo Aebi, Head of the SPACE research team at the University of Lausanne.
The survey shows that community sanctions have become the most frequently applied form of correctional supervision in Europe. However, this predominance does not necessarily indicate a shift toward less punitive criminal-justice policies. While it may reflect a greater reliance on alternatives to imprisonment, it could also signal a broader expansion of penal control, bringing into supervision individuals who might previously have avoided criminal-justice intervention altogether.
Considering countries with more than 500,000 inhabitants which provided data for both 31 January 2023 and 31 January 2024, regardless of their counting unit (people, cases or orders), eight services experienced significant decreases in their probation population rates: Bulgaria (-14%), Montenegro (-13%), Czechia (-12%), Sweden (-9.0%) Monaco (-6.8%), Latvia (-5,9%), Estonia (-5.9%) and the state service of Spain (-5.6%). On the other hand, in eleven services, the probation population rate significantly increased: North Macedonia (+95%), Cyprus (+27%), Slovakia (+21%), Ireland (+16%), Liechtenstein (+14%), Azerbaijan (+14%), Italy (+8.8%), Northern Ireland (+7.0%), Finland (+7.0%), Serbia (+6.9%) and Türkiye (+5.9%). It remained stable in another ten services.
Typically, and according to the medians, 10.3% of probationers were women and 9.2% were foreigners in countries that measure in individuals.
Conducted every year for the Council of Europe by the University of Lausanne, the SPACE survey provides an overview of the use of custodial (SPACE I) and community sanctions and measures - also known as alternatives to imprisonment - (SPACE II) in the Council of Europe member states.
Unless otherwise indicated, the data are expressed in median values, which are more reliable than average figures as they are less sensitive to extreme figures.
Read the full 2024 SPACE II survey
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Key findings: "Probation and prisons in Europe 2024"
