USSC official data · FY2015–FY2024
Federal Sentencing Intelligence
How U.S. federal courts sentence crime, average prison terms, guideline compliance, and judicial disparity across every district and offense, drawn from 661,705 cases of official USSC data.
According to the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC), more than 661,705 individuals were sentenced in U.S. federal courts from FY2015 through FY2024. PlainSentencing makes that record searchable, average sentences, guideline compliance, judicial disparity, and rankings across 90 federal districts and 30 offense types. See our methodology for how each figure is computed.
Legal Disclaimer: This data is for informational and research purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. Individual cases vary significantly. Consult a licensed federal criminal defense attorney for guidance on specific legal matters.
The national picture
Across 661,705 federal cases from FY2015 to FY2024, just 43% of FY2024 sentences fell inside the guideline range, most federal defendants are now sentenced below it.
- 57.7 mo
- Average sentence, FY2024
- 43%
- Within guideline range (-2.6pp since FY2015)
- 72.1%
- Resolved by guilty plea
- 89.1%
- Sentenced to prison
Guideline compliance has fallen over the past decade as judges increasingly impose below-range sentences under their post-Booker discretion.
Federal Sentencing Caseload by Circuit
Most recent fiscal year · 56,320 cases across 11 circuits
- 8th Circuit
8th Circuit
12,445 cases
- 5th Circuit
5th Circuit
10,406 cases
- 9th Circuit
9th Circuit
6,976 cases
- 10th Circuit
10th Circuit
5,265 cases
- 11th Circuit 4,774
11th Circuit
4,774 cases
- 4th Circuit 3,931
4th Circuit
3,931 cases
- 2nd Circuit 2,896
2nd Circuit
2,896 cases
- 3rd Circuit 2,568
3rd Circuit
2,568 cases
- 7th Circuit 2,520
7th Circuit
2,520 cases
- 6th Circuit 2,482
6th Circuit
2,482 cases
- 1st Circuit 2,057
1st Circuit
2,057 cases
What this shows The 8th Circuit carries the heaviest federal sentencing caseload (12,445 cases), reflecting the concentration of immigration and drug prosecutions along the southern border.
What You Can Explore
District Profiles
Compare sentencing outcomes across 90 federal districts. See average sentences, departure rates, and disparity scores.
Browse all 90 districtsOffense Analysis
Drill into any federal offense type: typical sentences, guideline ranges, 10-year trends, and district-level variation.
Browse 30 offense typesRankings
Harshest vs. most lenient districts, highest departure rates, most cases, ranked by the data.
See all four rankingsSentencing Guides
Plain-language guides to understanding federal sentencing data, guidelines, and how to use PlainSentencing for research.
How Federal Sentencing Works
Guidelines, departures, and judicial discretion
Mandatory Minimums Explained
When Congress overrides judicial discretion
Sentencing Disparities
Geographic variation across federal districts
Plea Bargaining in Federal Court
How 97% of cases are resolved
Reading Sentencing Data
Interpret district profiles and disparity scores
Featured Districts
View all →Explore Related Legal Data
Guides & Analysis
Editorial research and plain-language explainers from our team. Every guide is written to help you read the underlying public data correctly.
A Decade of Guideline Compliance
Share of federal sentences imposed within the guideline range each fiscal year, FY2015–FY2024 - down 2.6 points over the decade as judges increasingly impose below-range sentences under their post-Booker discretion.
The Shape of Federal Sentencing
Most federal prison terms are measured in a few years, not decades: the bulk of FY2024 sentences cluster in the lower length bands, with the 57.7-month national average sitting above the busiest part of the curve.
Every imposed federal prison sentence by length (FY2024)
The national average marks where the typical sentence sits in the full distribution.
58 66th percentile longer than 66% of 56,311 federal sentences
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more federal sentences. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles · FY2024
What the data reveals
Guideline compliance fell 2.6 percentage points over the decade, here is what else the 661,705-case USSC record shows.
- The share of sentences within the guideline range dropped from 45.6% in FY2015 to 43% in FY2024 - a 2.6pp decline driven by widespread adoption of below-range variances under judicial post-Booker discretion. Most defendants sentenced below the range today are there through a government-sponsored cooperation motion, not a unilateral judicial reduction. How the guidelines work
- 72.1% of FY2024 defendants resolved their case by guilty plea, often including a joint sentencing recommendation that effectively sets the sentence before any judicial determination. Understanding the plea agreement, not the guideline range alone, is the first step in reading a district's real sentencing pattern. How plea deals work
- The 8th Circuit handled 12,445 of 56,320 federal cases (22% of the national docket). High-volume circuits, driven largely by border-district immigration and drug-transportation prosecutions, disproportionately shape national averages; disaggregating by circuit before drawing policy conclusions gives a more accurate picture. See highest-volume districts
All figures are descriptive aggregates from public USSC datafiles (FY2015–present), not legal advice. Individual cases vary substantially.
About this data
How this site works, and why you can trust these numbers
What this site is
PlainSentencing makes the U.S. Sentencing Commission's federal case-level record searchable: average sentences, guideline compliance, judicial disparity, and rankings across 90 federal districts and 30 offense types, FY2015–FY2024.
Editorial process
- Source. We ingest the USSC's public-domain Individual Offender Datafiles (FY2015–FY2024), the official case-level record of federal sentencing.
- Compute. Every figure, average sentence, within/above/below-guideline shares, disparity vs. the national average, is computed directly from those case records, over the determinable-guideline subset.
- Verify. Totals are reconciled against the USSC annual sourcebook; the methodology page documents each definition and how it is derived.
Editorial independence & corrections
PlainSentencing has no affiliation with the U.S. Sentencing Commission or any court, and takes no position on individual cases or sentencing policy. Spotted an error? See our methodology or report it via the contact link in the footer. We correct confirmed issues and re-publish.
Frequently asked
What is PlainSentencing?
PlainSentencing presents federal criminal sentencing statistics from the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) in a clear, searchable format. The data covers FY2015–FY2024 across federal judicial districts nationwide.
What does "disparity score" mean?
The disparity score measures how far a district's average sentences deviate from the national average for the same offense types. A positive score means sentences tend to be above the national average; negative means below. This helps identify geographic variation in sentencing outcomes.
What does "in/out of guidelines" mean?
Federal sentencing guidelines provide a recommended range for each offense. Judges can sentence "within" that range, go above it (upward departure), or go below it (downward departure or variance, often citing the broad § 3553(a) factors recognized after United States v. Booker). PlainSentencing tracks the within-, above-, and below-range shares for each district and offense, computed over cases with a determinable guideline range.
Is this data accurate and current?
Data comes directly from the USSC's publicly released annual datafiles (ussc.gov), covering FY2015–FY2024. The USSC publishes data annually with a lag; FY2024 is the most recent release. We present the data as-is without modification.