---
title: 'Death Row Overview'
subtitle: 'Around 2,100 prisoners currently face execution in the United States. The national death-row population has declined for 20 consecutive years, as sentence reversals, executions, and deaths by other causes outpace new death sentences.'
description: 'Around 2,100 prisoners currently face execution in the United States. The national death-row population has declined for 20 consecutive years, as sentence…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row/overview'
section: topics
date: '2017-11-15T14:16:28-05:00'
updated: '2025-11-13T10:35:31-05:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

![Prisoners on Death Row (Choropleth map)](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/b8H5A/full.png)  

\* Figures include persons whose death sentences have been overturned but who still face the possibility of being re-sentenced to death after a new trial or new sentencing hearing. The number of prisoners in the U.S. facing active death sentences is lower.

\*\* The state-by-state total of individuals on death row is greater than the national total because three prisoners are sentenced to death in two different states.

> "I miss the stars. You know, I haven't seen the stars in years and years and years. I miss the rain. I miss food. I miss all these things. But what it comes down to the most -- and this is the thing that will scar me the most and that I'll carry with me as a scar the longest -- the thing I miss the most is being treated like a human being." —CNN interview with Damien Echols on Arkansas death row since 1993  
> (Jan. 13, 2011) (released August 2011).