The bar chart illustrates the estimated number of sentenced prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents in December 2010, classified by age group and race.
Overall, Black Americans had significantly higher imprisonment rates than Whites and Latinos across all age groups. In addition, prisoners were far more concentrated among younger adults, with figures declining steadily with age.
Among people aged 18-25, the number of Black prisoners was already high, at over 6,000 per 100,000, compared with approximately 2,800 for Latinos and just above 1,000 for Whites. This gap widened further in the 26-33 age group, where Black incarceration peaked at around 7,000, while the figures for Latinos and Whites rose more modestly.
A similar pattern was observed among those aged 34-41, although numbers began to decrease for all races. In older age groups (42-49 and above), imprisonment rates dropped sharply. By the 58-65 category, figures for all three races fell below 500, with Whites recording the lowest rates overall.