Iran drives 2025 global execution record, Amnesty says

Amnesty International’s 2025 report recorded 2,707 state‑sanctioned executions in 17 countries – the highest number since 1981 and a 78 % rise from the previous year. Iran accounted for about 80 % of the documented cases, executing at least 2,159 people, more than double its 2024 total. The report also noted 356 executions in Saudi Arabia, 51 in Yemen, 47 in the United States and smaller tallies in Egypt, Somalia, Singapore, Kuwait and other states.

China’s figures were not included because execution data are classified, but Amnesty estimates thousands of additional deaths there, as well as unreported numbers in North Korea and Vietnam. Drug‑related offenses comprised roughly half of all known executions, with Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Kuwait and Singapore accounting for most of those cases.

Four countries – Japan, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and South Sudan – resumed executions after previous suspensions. Amnesty warned that a small group of authoritarian states are using the death penalty as a tool of repression, fear‑mongering and state power, quoting Secretary‑General Agnès Callamard: “The death penalty is used to instil fear, crush dissent and demonstrate the strength of institutions over disadvantaged populations.”