Human rights organisation Amnesty International has reported that Iran has executed an “impressive” 2,159 people in 2025, raising the global total to the highest level since 1981.
Amnesty International said at least 2,707 people were executed globally last year, although death sentences handed down in China were not included in the figure.
The organisation said “thousands of executions” had been carried out in China – the country with the highest use of the death penalty in the world – although details were unknown due to “state secrecy” over data in the communist country.
Amnesty International said the global figure for 2025, including executions in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Yemen, Singapore and the United States, showed an increase of more than two-thirds over the 2024 total.
“This trend has been strongest in countries where the authorities have increased their control by restricting civil space, suppressing dissent and showing disregard for the protections established by international law and human rights standards,” the report said.
In particular, the “impressive rise in reported executions in Iran” came as authorities “intensified their use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression and control,” especially after the June 2025 war with Israel.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups have said Tehran has been increasing its use of the death penalty since massive anti-government street protests in January and since the start of the war against Israel and the United States.
AI noted that Iran carried out 2,159 executions in 2025, “the highest number recorded in the country since 1981.” It was also the highest for a single country since that year.
Due to difficulties in obtaining specific information, other organisations have provided different figures on the number of executions in Iran.
The Norwegian non-governmental organisation for Human Rights in Iran, based in Iran, reported earlier this year that at least 1,639 people were executed in Iran last year.
Tehran has admitted executing 30 people in 2026.
In early May, Human Rights Watch called on all UN members to take action to end the death penalty in Iran, where it said at least 28 people have been executed in the past six weeks.
Amnesty International: an “impressive” number of people have been executed in Iran in 2025