There is controversy in Israel over the proposed introduction of a death penalty law targeting Palestinians convicted of deadly terrorist attacks. Although the death penalty already exists in Israel, it is not currently implemented. The situation will change if the proposed bills are passed. This would complicate Israel’s general trend of abolishing the death penalty.
According to human rights organization Amnesty International, a total of 113 countries have completely abolished the death penalty.
There are also countries that have abolished it for ordinary crimes but may still apply it, for example, in the context of military justice. A moratorium on the death penalty is in effect in other countries.
Based on Amnesty’s latest annual report, more than 2,000 death sentences were carried out in 46 countries in 2024. There are significant regional differences: in Europe and Central Asia, only Belarus imposes the death penalty – and even then, only in one case. In North and South America, it was only the United States that imposed 26 death sentences, and Trinidad and Tobago imposed one.
Highest death penalty in Asia-Pacific region
In sub-Saharan Africa, several hundred executions were carried out in a total of 14 countries. In the Middle East and North Africa, the number was about 800, spread across nine countries. Nigeria, with over 180, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with over 125, carried out the largest number of executions by far.
The total number of executions was more than 800, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. Three-digit figures were recorded in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam. In most cases, the exact number cannot be determined. Some countries, including Afghanistan, China and North Korea, do not provide data at all.
The total number of death sentences recorded in 2024 has dropped to just under 2,100, from nearly 2,400 last year. Overall, numbers fluctuated around 2,000 over the ten-year period from 2014 to 2024 – with a peak of around 3,100 in 2016 and a low of less than 1,500 in 2020.
Death penalty does not always mean hanging
However, death sentences do not always end with an execution, as they are not always carried out. Also, those executions which were ordered long ago can also be carried out. These sometimes cause significant differences between the number of death sentences and the number of executions.
According to the organization Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 1,500 people are expected to be executed in Iran in 2025, the highest number in 35 years.
The number of executions was also high in Saudi Arabia, where the United Nations says at least 356 people were executed in 2025.
In the US, the United Nations reports 47 executions in 2025, the highest number in 16 years.
A look at the last 10 years shows very different trends in the number of death sentences imposed and the number of executions actually carried out. According to Amnesty International data, the number of death sentences has fluctuated significantly over the years and is expected to decline in 2024 compared to the previous year. The reversal of this trend can be seen in the number of executions. After reaching a peak of 1,634 executions in 2015, the number declined each subsequent year and reached a low of 483 executions in 2020.
However, there have been year-on-year increases every year since 2020. In 2024, this number increased from 483 hangings to 1,518. In just five years, this figure has more than tripled and is now just shy of the 2015 peak.
When the Amnesty report for 2025 is released, the figures are likely to be significantly higher, based on data from other organizations indicating that at least 1,500 people were executed in Iran alone in 2025.
Fewer countries give death penalty but more hang them
Overall, it can be seen that while the number of countries imposing the death penalty is declining, the number of countries imposing the death penalty is continuously increasing. Thus, only a few countries are executing large numbers of people. According to Amnesty International, China stood first with thousands of people sentenced to death in 2024. The figures for China are approximate, as they are kept secret by the Chinese government.
Iran ranks second with at least 972 executions, and Saudi Arabia ranks third with at least 345. In other countries, the number of executions is in the double or single digits. No data is available for Afghanistan, North Korea, Syria and Vietnam. They impose the death penalty, but the extent of execution is not clear.
It is currently impossible to predict whether the number of executions will continue to increase in 2026. But just a look at Iran and the regime’s crackdown on protesters there shows that the numbers there will not decline. And in most other countries where capital punishment is carried out, there are no signs of a slowdown for the time being.
This article was originally published in German.