The number of countries carrying out executions is down by more than a third compared to a decade ago, according to Amnesty International.
However the report on the use of the death penalty found that there was a steep rise in executions in the Middle East and in China.
Twenty countries carried out executions last year, and, according to Amnesty, at least 676 people were executed worldwide.
However, that does not include China where figures on the death penalty - believed to be in the thousands - are a state secret.
Amnesty International has stopped publishing the numbers it collects from public sources there, as they are likely to underestimate the real number.
Joining China in the top five death penalty States is Iran - where 360 people were executed; Saudi Arabia where 82 people were executed; Iraq where 68 people were executed and the United States where 43 of its citizens were put to death.
