How black and white America would compare with the rest of the world were it two separate countries (interactive graphic)

AFTER an African-American called Freddie Gray died in police custody in Baltimore, rioters burned and looted the city’s poorer neighbourhoods. Protests against police brutality were held in other American cities, too.

Our interactive chart today imagines that black and white America were separate countries and compares them with the rest of the world. Black America is a violent place, and ruthlessly policed. Its citizens are more likely to be murdered than people in Namibia and more likely to be locked up than any group, anywhere.

White Americans are far less likely to be locked up than their black compatriots, but far more likely to be behind bars than the citizens of nearly all other countries. They are seldom murdered, however: at 2.5 per 100,000 the white American homicide rate is barely worse than Norway’s 2.2.