The graph illustrates how many males and females were in prison in a European country from 1911 to 2001. Overall, it is clear that there were far more male prisoners than female prisoners. There was an upward trend in the male prison population, while the female population saw a downward trend during the whole period.
At the beginning of the 20th century the number of male prisoners was approximately 18 000. This number dropped marginally to 10 000 by 1931, which was the lowest number recorded for men. After a slight growth, the figures remained stable at roughly 20 000 in the 1960s. There was a sharp increase of nearly 20 000 by 1981, followed by a negligible rise at around 45000 at the end of the period.
However, the number of female prisoners was much lower than that of males. At the start of the period there were about 3200 women in prisons. This figure fell remarkably to 600 people in 1941. The rate of female prisoners then grew gradually to around thousand, with the index showing a steady decline in the 1980s.