Iran is set to double its executions by 2025 as the global use of the death penalty reached a 44-year high, the report said.

The use of the death penalty has soared in the past year, as documented executions hit a global high not seen since 1981, a new report has found. Most of the increase came from Iran, where the execution rate has doubled, according to a report by human rights group Amnesty International.

At least 2,707 people will be killed worldwide in 2025, the report says, although it admits the number is likely to be much higher. Amnesty International said thousands of executions are believed to have taken place in China, but any concrete information about them cannot be confirmed because the country is secretive about death sentences.

Outside of China, the number of documented executions has increased by 78 percent compared to the global figures reported by Amnesty International in 2024. Iran was responsible for killing at least 2,159 people, the report said, more than double the number of the previous year.

According to the report, the remaining executions took place in only 16 different countries: Saudi Arabia, at least 356; Yemen, at least 51; in the United States, with 47; Egypt, with 23; Somalia, with at least 17; Kuwait, with 17; Singapore, with 17; Afghanistan, with 6; the United Arab Emirates, with 3; and Japan, South Sudan and Taiwan, one each.

Amnesty International said it was also able to confirm executions or death sentences in Iraq, North Korea and Vietnam, “but did not have enough information to provide a reliable minimum number.” Like China, Vietnam classifies its use of the death penalty as a state secret, and restrictive state reporting procedures in Belarus, Laos and North Korea mean “little or no information” about executions by 2025, the organization said.

While Iran’s recorded use of the death penalty far exceeds that of other countries with exact numbers listed in the report, few had significantly higher figures last year than in previous years. Saudi Arabia’s executions in 2025 surpassed the record high in 2024, as the country increased its executions for drug-related crimes, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a US-based research organization that provides information on the death penalty.

Meanwhile, according to Amnesty International, executions almost tripled in Kuwait between 2024 and 2025, and almost doubled in Egypt, Singapore and the US, which had its own busy year for the death penalty since 2009. Experts told CBS News in November that the reasons for such a high rise within the US were many, but that at least one was driven by political pressure.

Japan, South Sudan, Taiwan and the UAE all resumed executions last year, contributing to the highest number worldwide.

A new report emphasized that, despite the increase in killings around the world, the countries most responsible “remain an independent minority.” China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Vietnam, Yemen and the US are the same 10 countries that have consistently killed people in the past five years, and Amnesty International said that those countries “showed contempt for the protections established under international human rights law and standards.”

“This alarming increase in the use of the death penalty is the result of a small, isolated group of states determined to carry out the death penalty by all means, despite the continued global trend towards abolition,” said Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, in a statement. “From China, Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia to Yemen, Kuwait, Singapore and the USA, this shameless minority is weaponizing the death penalty to instill fear, stoke discord and demonstrate the power that state institutions have over marginalized people and marginalized communities.”

Polling data shows that regional views on the death penalty vary widely, although polls conducted in the US, the United Kingdom and parts of Europe show declining support in recent decades. As of 2026, more than 70% of countries around the world have abolished the death penalty legally or in practice, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.