Every year, Amnesty International releases a report detailing the use of the death penalty from the previous year.
In this year’s report, there was a staggering rise in executions and death sentences, carried out by a handful of governments determined to rule by fear.
Global figures
Global executions
- Amnesty International recorded at least 2,707 executions in 2025 in 17 countries, an increase of 78% from the 1,518 known executions in 2024. It is the highest figure recorded by Amnesty International since 1981 when it recorded 3,191 executions (excluding China).
- China remained the world’s leading executioner, but the true extent of its use of the death penalty remains unknown as this data remains classified as a state secret. The global figure of executions recorded by Amnesty International excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China, as well as those carried out in Viet Nam and North Korea where Amnesty International believes the death penalty was used extensively.
- The countries with the highest number of executions were China (1000s), Iran (2,159+), Saudi Arabia (356+), Yemen (51+), USA (47) – in that order.
- Women were known to have been executed in five countries: China (+), Egypt (1), Iran (61), Kuwait (1) and Saudi Arabia (5).
- Executions were recorded in 17 countries, an increase by two on the record-low figures recorded for 2024 (15). This is in line with historical low trends recorded since 2018 that have seen executions confined to 20 or fewer countries.
Violating international law
- 1,257 executions were known to have been carried out unlawfully for drug-related offences across five countries: China (+), Iran (998, 46% of the total), Kuwait (2, 12%), Saudi Arabia (240, 67%) and Singapore (15, 88%). Information on Viet Nam, which is also likely to have carried out such executions, was unavailable. The total number of 1,257 known executions for drug-related offences constitutes 46% of total executions recorded globally, nearly doubling the 2024 figure (637).
- At least 17 public executions were known to have been carried out, in Afghanistan (6) and Iran (11).
- At least 3 people – in Iran (1) and Saudi Arabia (2) – were executed for alleged crimes that occurred when they were below 18 years of age.
- The methods of execution used in 2025 were: beheading; hanging, lethal injection, shooting and nitrogen gas asphyxiation.
Global death sentences
- At least 2,334 new death sentences across 48 countries were recorded in 2025, compared to at least 2,087 death sentences recorded across 46 countries in 2024.
- Six countries − Bahrain, Comoros, Gambia, the Maldives, Qatar, and Taiwan − were known to have imposed death sentences after a hiatus.
- Amnesty International recorded commutations or pardons of death sentences in 24 countries.
- Amnesty International recorded 1 exoneration of individuals under sentence of death in the USA.
- Globally, at least 25,508 people were under sentence of death at the end of 2025.
Abolishing the death penalty
At the end of 2025, 113 countries were fully abolitionist and 145 in total had abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
Regional analysis
Americas
- For the 17th consecutive year, the USA was the only country in the region to execute people.
- Eleven US states carried out executions in 2025, an increase by two compared to 2024 (nine).US executions reached the highest figure (47) since 2009, with Florida driving the spike with 19 executions.
- Trinidad and Tobago and the USA were the only two countries in the Americas known to have imposed new death sentences.
Asia-Pacific
- Asia-Pacific continued to be the region with the highest number of executions in the world.
- In Asia -Pacific, seven countries (Afghanistan, China, Japan, North Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Viet Nam) were known to have carried out executions in 2025, an increase from five in 2024.
- Executions resumed in Japan and Taiwan after a hiatus; the government of Singapore almost doubled its yearly execution total compared to 2024.
- At least 796 new death sentences were known to have been imposed in the region.
- The authorities of Viet Nam abolished the death penalty for eight offences.
Europe and Central Asia
- No death sentences or executions were recorded in Europe and Central Asia.
- 2025 was the first year since President Alexander Lukashenko assumed office in 1994 that Amnesty International recorded no new death sentences nor executions in Belarus.
- The Kyrgyz Constitutional Court declared efforts to reintroduce the death penalty in the country unconstitutional.
- Russia and Tajikistan continued to observe moratoriums on executions.
Middle East and North Africa
- The number of executions in the region grew alarmingly from at least 1,442 in 2024 to at least 2,611 in 2025.
- The Iranian authorities were known to have carried out at least 2,159 executions, the highest figure recorded in Iran by Amnesty International since 1981.
- Executions in Saudi Arabia reached the highest figure on record in any given year, from at least 345 in 2024 to at least 356 in 2025.The authorities of United Arab Emirates (UAE) resumed executions for the first time since 2021.In total, seven countries across the region were known to have carried executions in 2025: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.The number of recorded death sentences reached 743 a slight decrease from 773 in 2024.
- The Council of Ministers of Lebanon supported a bill to abolish the death penalty.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Recorded executions in the region fell by 47%, from 34 in 2024 to 18 in 2025.
- Executions were recorded in Somalia and South Sudan, two of the only five countries known to have implemented death sentences in the last decade.
- Recorded death sentences in the region increased by 74%, from at least 443 in 2024 to 771 in 2025.
- The number of countries that issued death sentences decreased from 14 in 2024 to 13 in 2025
- Legislative initiatives to abolish the death penalty were registered in Gambia, Liberia and Nigeria.
Source: Amnesty International, Staff, May 18, 2026
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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