Size of Death Row by Year

The size of death row in the United States has declined every year since 2001. As of January 2025, approx­i­mate­ly 2,100 men and women are fac­ing active death sen­tences — that is, their death sen­tences have not been over­turned in the courts — on state or fed­er­al death rows across the United States. Approximately 175 addi­tion­al indi­vid­u­als face the pos­si­bil­i­ty of being resen­tenced to death in new death penal­ty tri­als. The total pop­u­la­tion of death row is down by more than a third from a peak of near­ly 3,600 at the turn of the 21^st cen­tu­ry. The year­ly decline in the size of death row has con­sis­tent­ly exceed­ed the num­ber of exe­cu­tions car­ried out, mean­ing that more for­mer death-row pris­on­ers have been resen­tenced to life or less after over­turn­ing their death sen­tences, died from non-exe­cu­tion caus­es, or been exon­er­at­ed than have been added to the row with new death sentences.

Size of Death Row (1968 – present)

Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics: ​“Capital Punishment” for Years 1968 — 2016
*NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. ​“Death Row USA” for Years 2017 – 2023 (sources use slight­ly dif­fer­ent cri­te­ria for count­ing death-row prisoners).