Executions hit 10-year high last year, Amnesty reveals

More people were executed in 2024 than in any other year over the past decade amid a huge increase in executions in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International.

- Jon Henley

Although the number of countries carrying out executions was the lowest on record, the human rights NGO had confirmed 1,518 executions globally in 2024. This was a 32% increase on 2023 and the highest since the 1,634 in 2015, it said in its annual report on the use of the death penalty.

The real total was far higher, Amnesty added, because its figure did not include thousands believed to have been executed in China, the world's biggest executioner, or North Korea and Vietnam, also thought to use the death penalty extensively.

Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which accounted for 91% of executions worldwide, were responsible for the increase. Iraq almost quadrupled its executions from at least 16 to at least 63 and Saudi Arabia doubled its yearly total from 172 to at least 345.