The number of known executions worldwide went up by more than 50 percent last year to at least 1,634, the highest figure recorded since 1989, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The surge was largely fuelled by Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the London-based human rights organisation said in its annual report on death sentences and executions worldwide.
The 1,634 figure does not include China, which is thought to have killed thousands of its own citizens.
Death penalty data is "treated as a state secret" by Beijing, Amnesty said, as it is by Vietnam and Belarus.
Recorded executions were up by 54 percent on 2014's figure of 1,061.
Some 89 percent of those executions were carried out by Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia alone.
"The rise in executions last year is profoundly disturbing," said Amnesty secretary general Salil Shetty.
"Not for the last 25 years have so many people been put to death by states around the world.
"Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have all put people to death at unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair trials. This slaughter must end.
"Thankfully, countries that execute belong to a small and increasingly isolated minority."
Pakistan lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty following the Peshawar school attack in December 2014.
It executed 326 people in 2015, while Saudi Arabia put 158 people to death.
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