22/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - According to a Eurostat press release on 19 June, there were around 607,000 prisoners in the EU27 between 2005-2007, equivalent to about 123 prisoners per 100 000 inhabitants. The Official Statistics Office of the EU declared that, “measuring tendencies in crime in the EU remains a difficult task, due to the differences in the data collection sources”. The highest average prisoner rates over the period 2005 to 2007 were recorded in Estonia (302 prisoners per 100 000 inhabitants), Latvia (293), Lithuania (232), Poland (228) and the Czech Republic (185). The lowest rates were registered in Slovenia (60), Finland (68), Denmark (71), Ireland (75 in 2004-2006) and Sweden (77). This compares with a rate of 758 prisoners per 100 000 inhabitants in the USA over the same period. (B.C./trans/rh)