Iran put at least 972 people to death in 2024, Amnesty International reported in April 2025. That was 119 more than the 853 recorded the year before, and it made up 64% of all known executions worldwide.
Iran International, which covered the report on April 8, 2025, said the global count reached 1,518, the highest since 2015. Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia together accounted for 91% of them. The tally leaves out the thousands believed to take place in China, North Korea and Vietnam.
Who was executed
Amnesty said most of the Iranian cases were tied to political repression, especially the punishment of people who took part in the Woman Life Freedom uprising that followed Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in 2022. “Those who dare challenge authorities have faced the most cruel of punishments,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s Secretary General.
Drugs were behind 505 of Iran’s executions. The Death Penalty Information Center, summarizing the report, noted that 42% of executions worldwide involved drug offenses, concentrated in China, Iran, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. Amnesty considers such use of the death penalty unlawful under international human rights standards.
Iran also executed 30 women, four people for crimes committed when they were under 18, and four people in public.
The regional picture
Saudi Arabia carried out 345 executions, double the 172 of 2023 and its highest recorded total. Iraq’s 63 was four times the 16 it recorded in 2023. Amnesty said Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia used executions to “exert control on the population and stifle dissent,” and that this included targeting political protesters.
Not every trend ran the same way. Fifteen countries carried out executions in 2024, the fewest in two years. Zimbabwe abolished capital punishment for ordinary crimes, Zambia repealed it entirely, and Malaysia resentenced over 1,000 people after ending the mandatory death penalty. Callamard said “the tide is turning” toward abolition.
Still, 28,085 people were awaiting execution worldwide at the end of the year, 42% of them in the Asia-Pacific region.
Sources
- Iran responsible for 64% of global executions in 2024, says Amnesty (Iran International)
- Amnesty International Global Report (2024): Lowest Number of Countries Carried Out Highest Number of Recorded Executions in a Decade (Death Penalty Information Center)
