Iran put to death over 2,150 people in 2025, a “staggering” increase that pushed recorded worldwide executions to their highest level since 1981, Amnesty International said on Monday.
Amnesty said it had confirmed the executions of at least 2,707 people globally in 2025. Of these cases, 2,159 were in Iran, a figure more than double that of 2024.
The UK-based rights group said its total does not include the thousands of executions it believed were carried out in China, the world’s most prolific user of the death penalty, due to state secrecy over data.
Amnesty said the figure of at least 2,707 people executed in 2025, including in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Yemen, Singapore, and the United States, represented an increase by more than two-thirds on the total from the previous year.
The group noted that the “staggering increase in recorded executions in Iran” came as authorities intensified their use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression and control, particularly after the war with Israel.
Saudi Arabia last year carried out at least 356 executions, surpassing its already record-high figure for 2024. Executions in Kuwait almost tripled from six to 17, while in Egypt they nearly doubled from 13 to 23.
In the United States, an “unprecedented rise” of executions in Florida to 19 drove the national total to 47, the highest figure since 2009. Singapore authorities carried out 17 executions, the highest number in the country since 2003.
Amnesty said China’s “state secrecy” over its use of the death penalty pointed to an intentional use of the death penalty to send a message that the state would not tolerate threats to public security or stability. “Amnesty International continues to consider China as the world’s leading executioner,” it said.
