Last year, the number of death penalty executions was the highest in the last 45 years, exceeding 2,700 people, Amnesty International (AI) announced this Monday.
According to a report by the non-governmental organization (NGO) for the defense of human rights, the number of people executed by the State was 2.707a figure that does not account for the thousands of people believed to have been executed in China, a country that AI said it believes remains the country that most applies the death penalty in the world.
The confirmed number represents a “drastic and alarming growth” of more than 78% compared to the previous yearwhen 1,518 death sentences were applied and is the highest recorded by the NGO since 1981when 3,191 people were executed.
Will more than double number of executions
The increase was, according to the report, driven by Iran, which had the highest number of executions in decades (at least 2,159) and more than doubled the 2024 total.
Iranian authorities continued to “instrumentalize the death penalty, often after grossly unfair trials,” to instill fear in the population and punish those who defied the regime, AI charged.
The number of applications of the death penalty in Iran represents 80% of all recorded executions.
However, the known total does not include the thousands of people believed to have been executed in China.
Furthermore, the NGO was unable to determine reliable minimum numbers of executions carried out in North Korea and Vietnam, countries it believes continue to “extensively use” the death penalty
“Strong concern” about methods recovered in the US
Two other countries that “alarmingly” increased the number of executions were United States and Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi authorities surpassed the record number of executions recorded in 2024, reaching 356 people, of which 240 people were killed for non-violent drug trafficking crimes.
The NGO also highlighted the “unprecedented increase” in executions in one US state, Florida, which last year alone killed 19 people, bringing the national total to 47 people.
Furthermore, he expressed “strong concern” about states that such as shooting, and denounced the recurrent use of asphyxiation by nitrogen gas, warning of violations of prohibitions against cruel or degrading treatments.
Executions justified with the fight against drugs
In many countries, executions of death sentences have been justified by the war on drugs.
Nearly half (1,257 or 46%) of all executions known has been registered for drug-related crimesan allegation that dominated the criteria in five countries (China, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Singapore), but which was also used in Algeria, Kuwait and the Maldives.
Despite record numbers of executions, data from 2025 shows that countries that still implement the death penalty are increasingly exceptions.
This can be seen on the American continent, where the USA was, for the 17th consecutive year, the only country to execute people, but also in sub-Saharan Africa, where executions were restricted to Somalia and South Sudan.
In Europe, Belarus experienced the first year since Alexander Lukashenko assumed the presidency in 1994 in which no death sentence was recorded.
In Asia, Singapore and Vietnam were the only known countries among the Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN) group to execute people and in the Middle East and North Africa region, 96% of all recorded executions were carried out in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Although four countries (Japan, South Sudan, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates) resumed executing people in 2025, the total number of countries that carried out executions – 17 – remained in line with the annual totals recorded since 2018, of 20 countries or fewer.
