You’ve likely committed a crime. From jaywalking to failure to pay traffic tickets, petty crimes are more common than we think. These usually just result in a fine—unlike those on the opposite end of the spectrum.

The most violent criminals have committed multiple heinous acts. So how does their punishment differ from the rest? Of course, there are different prisons with varying levels of security, and then there are the lengths of prison time they’re sentenced to.

The longest prison sentence in the world is over 160 life sentences—yet as you’ll find out on the map, there are far more incarcerated for many, many years.

View Longest prison sentences in a full screen map

Prisoners Serving More than 30 Life Sentences

As of December 2022, 269 prisoners around the world have been sentenced to one or more life sentences. Assuming a life sentence means a sentence that lasts until death… how are multiple life sentences possible? The actual definition of a life sentence isn’t so cut and dry.

Those convicted of the most heinous crimes can be sentenced to multiple life sentences, including the following 10 who are all serving more than 30 life sentences.

• Terry Nichols – 161 life sentences
• Michael J. Devlin – 74
• Abdullah Barghouti – 67
• Brenton Tarrant – 52
• Gary Ridgway – 49
• Loi Khac Nguyen – 49
• Martin Bryant – 35
• Billy Joe Godfrey – 35
• Nikolas Cruz – 34
• Warren Troy Knoop – 32

All 10 of the prisoners noted above are serving more than 30 life sentences, though Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols holds the record for the most consecutive life sentences ever given to a single individual.

In 1995, Nichols was convicted of 161 counts of first-degree murder, first-degree arson, and conspiracy at the state level along with terrorism and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter in federal court. He is imprisoned in Colorado’s ADX Florence.

Along with Nichols, five of the 10 prisoners with the longest life sentences are U.S.-based: Michael J. Devlin (kidnapper), Gary Ridgway (serial killer), Loi Khac Nguyen (surviving perpetrator of the 1991 Good Guys siege), Billy Joe Godfrey (child sexual abuser), and Nikolas Cruz (Parkland mass shooter).

Meanwhile, Abdullah Barghouti of Palestine, Brenton Tarrant of New Zealand, Martin Bryant of Australia, and Warren Troy Knoop of South Africa were also sentenced to multiple life imprisonments.

Check out the rest of the prisoners with multiple life sentences on the map before moving on to more about the prisons that hold these individuals.

The Most U.S. Prisoners in for Life Are Held Here

With 269 prisoners incarcerated for life around the world, many places are needed to hold them. Of these, 133 prisoners are held in the U.S. in around 80 different correctional facilities. The 12 U.S. prisons included in the following table house at least two prisoners in it for life:

Prison	# of prisoners serving life sentences
ADX Florence	10
USP Terre Haute	3
WITSEC (Bureau of Prisons’ version of the Federal Witness Protection Program)	2
United States Penitentiary, Tucson	2
United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners	2
Red Onion State Prison	2
Potosi Correctional Center	2
Oregon State Penitentiary	2
Mule Creek State Prison	2
Federal Medical Center, Butner	2
Dodge Correctional Institution	2
California State Prison, Corcoran	2

We briefly mentioned ADX Florence before, in regards to housing Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols who is serving the most life sentences (161). Seeing as it’s also the facility of so many of these prisoners, let’s learn more about this Colorado supermax prison.

Officially the United States Penitentiary, Florence Administrative Maximum Facility, ADX Florence opened in 1994. As a supermax prison, it’s more secure than even maximum security facilities. This is because it’s technically a prison within a prison—or at least a unit within a prison.

ADX Florence is just one part of the Federal Correctional Complex, Florence (FCC Florence), which is situated on 49 acres of land and houses different facilities with varying degrees of security, including the United States Penitentiary, Florence High, where Richard Lee McNair is serving 2 life sentences. Yet while ADX Florence seems to be common for prisoners sentenced to life, it’s far from the only facility that houses them, as you can see on the map.

And for more on this topic, see our maps depicting if Education’s Influence on Incarceration or World Homicide Data Visualizes “Hot Spots.”

Over 70% of our planet is covered by the ocean. The ecosystems living under the sea are immensely important for those of us above water, as they can help reduce the impacts of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

In order to protect the most important ecosystems, they’re classified as marine protected areas (MPAs), which restricts human activity such as fishing.

In the U.S., the nearly 1,000 marine protected areas make up around 26% of the surrounding waters, including the Great Lakes. Marine protected areas vary widely in size, year established, and design, as you’ll see on the map below.

View Marine Protected Areas in a full screen map

Largest Marine Protected Areas: Papahanaumokuakea & More

If you add up all of the 979 U.S. marine protected areas, they total over 1,573,511 square miles. Of course, the 10 largest on the table below make up almost 95% of that.

Marine Protected Area Name	Area (square kilometers)
Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument	1,515,720
Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument	1,277,860
Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument Particularly Sensitive Sea Area	363,687
Marianas Trench Marine National Monument	248,517
Mariana Trench National Wildlife Refuge	205,562
Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge	84,092
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge	79,933.1
National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa	35,373.7
Rose Atoll Marine National Monument	35,004.6
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge	18,396.6

Established in 2006, Hawaii’s Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is the largest marine protected area in the U.S. Named for the Hawaiian creator goddess Papahānaumoku and her husband Wākea, Papahanaumokuakea is home to around 7,000 species. Among these include many endangered animals, such as the hawksbill sea turtle and Hawaiian monk seal, among others.

The monument and its surrounding waters span nearly 585,223 square miles—more than all of America’s state parks combined. It’s slightly larger than Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, approximately the size of Germany.

Within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is a 363,687 square kilometer Particularly Sensitive Sea Area, which is the third-largest MPA on the list above. This serves as an additional layer of protection for the important marine resource.

Moreso than this single large monument in Hawaii, the Pacific Remote Islands are home to four large marine protected areas. The largest of these (and the second-largest in the entire U.S.) is the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which is nearly twice the size of Texas.

While the largest area for individual MPAs is interesting, you may have noticed something else on the map: some areas have considerably more MPAs than others.

The Most U.S. MPAs Are in Florida

Hawaii and the Pacific Remote Islands may be home to the largest marine protected areas, but are they where the most are located? The following list contains the U.S. states with more marine protected areas than any other.

• Florida – 216 marine protected areas
• California – 196
• Washington – 64
• North Carolina – 44
• Puerto Rico – 37
• Oregon – 32
• Hawaii – 30
• Virginia – 28
• New Jersey – 26
• New York – 25

Florida may not be the largest state nor the most populous. What the Sunshine State does have is the most marine protected areas in the country. Altogether, Florida’s MPAs are made up of 60 state parks, 35 aquatic preserves, and 27 wildlife management areas, among others.

The largest of Florida’s MPAs is the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary at 9901.11 square kilometers. The 6253.26 square-kilometer Everglades National Park is the second-biggest MPA in Florida.

Meanwhile, Florida’s oldest marine protected areas include Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge (1903), which is also the oldest MPA out of the 979 in the U.S. Passage Key National Wildlife Refuge (1905) is the next oldest in FL, though another state’s national wildlife refuge is older, as we’ll see when we dive further into the age of these marine protected areas.

Oldest Year Established

As we mentioned, the first marine protected area in the U.S. was established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt. The name of the 21.9905 square kilometer MPA, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, comes from the Brown pelicans the refuge houses. Let’s look at the other oldest MPAs:

Marine Protected Area Name	State	Year Established
Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge	FL	1903
Breton National Wildlife Refuge	LA	1904
Passage Key National Wildlife Refuge	FL	1905
Huron National Wildlife Refuge	MI	1905
Shell Keys National Wildlife Refuge	LA	1907
Key West National Wildlife Refuge	FL	1908
Pine Island National Wildlife Refuge	FL	1908
Matlacha Pass National Wildlife Refuge	FL	1908
Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge	FL	1908
Robert Moses State Park – Long Island	NY	1908

Joining Pelican Island among Florida’s oldest include previously discussed Passage Key National Wildlife Refuge, along with four more, all established in the same year.

Louisiana’s 113.803 square kilometer Breton National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1904, making it the second oldest, along with the much smaller Shell Keys National Wildlife Refuge (0.015896 square kilometers) in 1907. Notably, Huron National Wildlife Refuge is the first marine protected area in the Great Lakes.

Don’t forget to group the map by Design to see which of the 979 marine protected areas are national wildlife refuges, state parks, aquatic preserves, and more, along with Fishing Restrictions.

For more maps about ocean and land conservation, visit Endangered Animals on a Map.

Financial success can be measured in many ways. Net worth, emergency funds, and debt are all taken into account. Anyone or anything can owe money, which is why there are different types of debts—from personal to those incurred by an organization or government.

In this post, we’ll highlight the highest average household debt (Switzerland) and public debt (Japan) of the 84 countries on the map below, the biggest changes throughout the years to see how the two types of debts compare.

View Countries by debt in a full screen map

Switzerland Is Not Switzerland & Other High Household Debts

The map shows how much amount of money all adults in a country’s household owe financial institutions, including consumer debt and mortgage loans as a percentage of GDP—called household debt—of 84 countries in 2018 and 2010. The highest of these, as of 2018, are as follows:

Country	Household debt as a % of GDP (2018)	Household debt as a % of GDP (2010)	Percentage change between 2018 and 2010
Switzerland	128.7%	111.53%	15.39%
Australia	120.14%	109.9%	9.32%
Denmark	115.15%	135.29%	-14.89%
Netherlands	103.42%	118.74%	-12.90%
Canada	100.68%	92.44%	8.91%
Norway	100.35%	81.85%	22.60%
Cyprus	98.94%	118.27%	-16.34%
New Zealand	94.04%	90.28%	4.16%
South Korea	91.93%	73.17%	25.64%
Sweden	87.87%	77.08%	14.00%

Switzerland certainly fails to live up to its reputation of neutrality—at least where household debt is concerned. While the middle ground household debt of all 84 counties on the map is about 39.88% of GDP, this is one average Switzerland surpasses—along with the household debt of every other country. The country is known for being the world’s wealthiest per capita, but it’s also one of the most expensive countries in the world. Understandably then, late payments (of taxes, insurance premiums, rent, mortgage interest, utilities, etc.) are the most common reason for Switzerland’s high household debt being the highest.

However, this wasn’t always the case. In 2010, Denmark’s household debt (135.29% of GDP) was far greater than Switzerland’s (111.53%), though the Danish managed to decrease that significantly by 2018. However, this is far from the biggest change, positive or negative, in household debt between 2010 and 2018.

Biggest Changes in Household Debt Over the Years

In the case of debt, being negative is actually a positive. There are quite a few countries that, like Denmark, managed to lower their household debts in the eight years between 2010 and 2018. The greatest decreases include:

• Ukraine (-70.85% household debt decrease)
• Ireland (-62.19%)
• Latvia (-58.27%)
• Afghanistan (-55.94%)
• São Tomé and Príncipe (-55.67%)
• Hungary (-54.64%)
• Sri Lanka (-41.89%)
• Sierra Leone (-41.03%)
• Spain (-29.50%)
• Iceland (-29.42%)

In 2010, Ukraine’s household debt was 19.42% of GDP. By 2018, the country managed to lower that number by 70.85% to just 5.66, the 11th lowest in the world. Both Afghanistan and Sierra Leone’s debt decreases also placed them among the top 10 countries with the least amount of debt. Afghanistan’s decrease of 55.94% makes it the #1 country with the lowest debt on the entire map (0.63% of 2018’s GDP). Similarly, Sierra Leone reigns at #2 with 1.61% of GDP thanks to their citizen’s thrifty ways between 2010 and 2018.

On the opposite end of the debt spectrum are the giant increases of certain countries from 2010 to 2018. Myanmar (+322.22% household debt), the Republic of the Congo (+170.08%), Chad (+117.19%), and Lesotho (+101.64%) all saw an increase in household debt of over 100 percent.

You can view the world’s current lowest household debts, such as Ukraine’s, when you sort the map by “Household debt (2018)” and select the “3.07 – 0.63” and “11.21 – 3.38” groups. For now, let’s move on to the highest of a different kind of debt.

Household vs. Government Debts: How Do They Compare?

Now let’s see how public or government debt compares.

Of the countries with the most debt in this category, just one also made the top 10 list in high household debt: Canada. In the country, this amounts to $44,348 per person. Here’s the rest of the top countries by public debt:

1. ​​Japan: $102,503 Purchasing power parity (PPP)
2. Singapore: $97,852
3. Qatar: $77,278
4. Greece: $50,562
5. Italy: $49,060
6. Ireland: $47,822
7. Belgium: $47,291
8. United States: $46,645
9. Canada: $44,348
10. Bahrain: $43,659

Japan’s overall debt is clearly the highest. Meanwhile, the United States, which has a National Debt clock in New York City’s Times Square, only comes in 8th overall when it comes to public debt.

Find your own insights on the map above when you group by any date field. Then bring your own data to life with our free mapping tool.