Global executions hit 44-year high, Amnesty reports surge in Iran, U.S.

The increase was driven overwhelmingly by Iran, which carried out 2,159 executions, and Saudi Arabia, which executed at least 356 people. Amnesty said many of those cases involved drug offenses and political dissidence, underscoring how capital punishment is being used in some countries to police poverty, dissent and perceived threats to the state. The organization said the true global total is likely higher because thousands of executions believed to have taken place in China, North Korea and Viet Nam were not included in the tally.

The 2025 figure marked a 78% increase from 1,518 recorded executions in 2024, which had already been the highest number Amnesty had logged since 2015. That earlier report found that Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia accounted for 91% of known executions in 2024, a concentration that showed how heavily the practice is now clustered in a small group of countries even as the overall total rises.

The United States fit the same pattern of law and policy turning death sentences into actual executions. U.S. executions nearly doubled, rising from 25 in 2024 to 47 in 2025 across 11 states, with Florida alone responsible for 19 of them. Amnesty said the spike in Florida was tied to a 2023 change that lowered the legal threshold for a death sentence by eliminating the requirement that a jury unanimously recommend it, making it easier for prosecutors to secure executions once a death sentence was imposed.

Rights groups said the increase did not reflect a broad revival of public support for capital punishment. The American Civil Liberties Union said new U.S. death sentences continued a long decline, falling to 23 in 2025, while the Death Penalty Information Center said executions rose from 25 to 47 largely because of Florida. That gap between fewer death sentences and more executions shows how legal rules, not popular sentiment, can accelerate state killing.