Iran's executions double in 2025 as global death penalty hits 44‑year high

Amnesty International reported that at least 2,159 people were executed in Iran in 2025, more than double the number recorded the previous year. The total number of documented executions worldwide reached 2,707, the highest level since 1981. Outside Iran, the increase was driven by Saudi Arabia (at least 356 executions), Yemen (≥51), the United States (47), Egypt (23), Somalia (≥17), Kuwait (17), Singapore (17), Afghanistan (6), the United Arab Emirates (3), and single executions in Japan, South Sudan and Taiwan. Amnesty could not verify figures for China and Vietnam, where death‑penalty data are state secrets, and had limited information for Belarus, Laos and North Korea. "This alarming spike in the use of the death penalty is due to a small, isolated group of states willing to carry out executions at all costs," said Amnesty secretary‑general Agnès Callamard. The report underscores that a handful of countries account for the vast majority of global executions, despite a long‑term worldwide trend toward abolition.