The death penalty is in the headlines as US President Donald Trump presses ahead with authorisation for a series of executions before he leaves office.
We’ve taken a look at how many countries around the world still carry out the death penalty.
Official data isn’t available out of China, where death penalty statistics are a state secret, but the human rights organisation Amnesty International estimates it carried out thousands of executions in 2019.
Excluding China, three countries were responsible for more than 80% of executions – Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran.
According to Amnesty’s figures, China consistently executes more people than any other country.
Amnesty collects its statistics using official figures, media reports and information passed on from individuals sentenced to death and their families and representatives.
Saudi Arabia was the only country to list beheading as the method of execution.
Other methods included hanging, lethal injection and shooting.
In the US, six states carried out executions by lethal injection in 2019, and one state (Tennessee) used electrocution.
In total 25 people were executed in the US in 2019, and for the 11th consecutive year it was the only country in the Americas to implement the death penalty.
Since 2013, 33 countries have carried out at least one execution.
