International Polls and Studies

Country(-ies)	Date	Issues
United Kingdom	3/​15	UK Support for Death Penalty Falls Below 50% For First Time
Australia	9/​14	slight major­i­ty sup­port use of death penal­ty for dead­ly terrorist acts
Britain	8/​14	less than half of Britons sup­port rein­tro­duc­tion of death penalty
Russia	7/​14	few­er Russian cit­i­zens sup­port death penalty
Japan	2/​10	favor use of the death penalty
Australia	10/​07	most con­tin­ue to oppose the death penalty
Brazil	4/​07	favor insti­tut­ing death penalty
Finland	11/​06	split over use of death penalty
Mexico	9/​06	split over use of death penalty
France	9/​06	declin­ing support
Brazil	8/​06	more favor death penalty
Peru	8/​06	favor rein­stat­ing the death penalty
South Africa	5/​06	favor rein­stat­ing the death penalty
Dominican Republic	4/​06	favor rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty for certain crimes
Britain	2/​06	luke­warm sup­port for the death penalty
UK and Canada	2/​06	Death Penalty sup­port low­est among youth in US, UK and Canada
Australia	12/​05	sup­port abo­li­tion of death penalty
Czech Republic	11/​05	death penal­ty debate divided
Italy	10/​05	most Italians oppose the death penalty
Russia	7/​06	sup­port for cap­i­tal punishment high
Japan	2/​05	most favor death penalty
Japan	12/​04	Support lev­els, Respect for Victims
New Zealand	07/​04	DNA test­ing, sup­port lev­els, crime laws
South Korea	03/​04	deter­rence, admin­is­tra­tion, victim’s families
UK and Canada	10/​03	declin­ing support
United Kingdom	08/​02	declin­ing support
Canada	09/​01	declin­ing sup­port, life without parole
Canada	02/​01	declin­ing sup­port, wrongful convictions
Canada	12/​98	declin­ing sup­port, life without parole

For the first time ever, sup­port for the death penal­ty in the United Kingdom fell below 50%. In 2014, 54% of sur­veyed Britons sup­port­ed the death penal­ty ​“for some crimes”. This ques­tion was asked as part of the year­ly British Social Attitudes sur­vey. In 1983, when the annu­al sur­vey began, sup­port for the death penal­ty in the United Kingdom was at 75%. (British Social Attitudes, March 26, 2015)

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A slight major­i­ty of sur­veyed Australians sup­port the use of the death penal­ty in ter­ror­ism cas­es. According to an Australian SMS Morgan poll, when asked ​“If a per­son is con­vict­ed of a ter­ror­ist act in Australia which kills some­one, should the penal­ty be death?” 52.5% of respon­dents favored use of the death penal­ty in such cas­es while 47.5% did not favor its use. (Roy Morgan Research, September 19, 2014)

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Less than half of sur­veyed Britons sup­port rein­tro­duc­tion of the death penal­ty. According to a YouGov poll of 2,000 peo­ple, 45 % were in favor of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Opposition to rein­tro­duc­tion among 18 – 24 year olds was at 52 %. In that same age range, 57 % believed that abo­li­tion was a good thing. Only 45 % believed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment deterred oth­ers from com­mit­ting mur­der. 41 % believed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was NOT a deter­rent. (The Guardian, August 12, 2014)

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Fewer Russian cit­i­zens sup­port death penal­ty According to the sur­vey held on June 20 – 23 in 134 cities, towns and vil­lages in 46 Russian regions among 1,600 respon­dents, cur­rent­ly 52 per­cent Russians sup­port death penal­ty, and 61 per­cent and 73 per­cent peo­ple shared this stance in 2012 and 2002 respec­tive­ly. A total of 34 per­cent Russian cit­i­zens said that death penal­ty appli­ca­tion should be left the way it is now, while 18 per­cent said they were in favor of expand­ing it. In the past two years the share of death penal­ty oppo­nents grew from 24 per­cent to 33 per­cent, soci­ol­o­gists said. The num­ber of peo­ple absolute­ly opposed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment remains almost unchanged — 9 per­cent respon­dents said in December 2010 they sup­port­ed can­celling the death penal­ty com­plete­ly, 10 per­cent in 2012 and 7 per­cent share this stance now, the poll showed. At the same time, more respon­dents sup­port grad­ual cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment can­cel­la­tion — from 14 per­cent in 2012 to 26 per­cent in 2014, soci­ol­o­gists said. (Russia Beyond the Headlines, July 14, 2014)

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Record 85 % of peo­ple in Japan favor death penal­ty The per­cent­age of peo­ple in favor of the death penal­ty has reached a record high, with 85.6 % of sur­vey respon­dents say­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is ​“unavoid­able,” accord­ing to a gov­ern­ment poll released Saturday. About 55 % of respon­dents described the exten­sion of the statute of lim­i­ta­tions for cap­i­tal crimes, includ­ing mur­der, to 25 years from 15 years in 2005 under the revised Code of Criminal Procedure, as ​“too short.” Of those who said the peri­od is too short, 49.3 % said the statute of lim­i­ta­tions should be abol­ished, accord­ing to the sur­vey. The pro­por­tion of respon­dents in favor of the death penal­ty rose by 4.2 % points from the pre­vi­ous sur­vey in 2004, indi­cat­ing that the num­ber of peo­ple who hold such a view has been steadi­ly increas­ing since post­ing 73.8 % in the 1^st sur­vey. Only 5.7 % said the death penal­ty should be abol­ished, down 0.3 point from the 2004 poll. (Japan Times, February 7, 2010)

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2/​3 of peo­ple in Australia believe peo­ple con­vict­ed of mur­der should not face the death penal­ty, accord­ing to a poll by Roy Morgan International. 67 % of respon­dents think the pun­ish­ment for this crime should be impris­on­ment, down 2 points since December 2005. The last exe­cu­tion in Australian soil was car­ried out in 1967, and cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was abol­ished in 1985. On Oct. 8, Robert McClelland — the oppo­si­tion’s Australian Labor Party (ALP) for­eign affairs spokesman — said an ALP gov­ern­ment would cam­paign against the death penal­ty across Asia, in coor­di­na­tion with 5 Asian nations that have abol­ished the max­i­mum penal­ty. McClelland said that in order for this to be pos­si­ble, ​“At the high­est lev­els, Australia’s pub­lic com­ments about the death penal­ty must be con­sis­tent with pol­i­cy. (…) This is espe­cial­ly the case if we are going to tact­ful­ly and suc­cess­ful­ly dri­ve a region­al abo­li­tion­ist move­ment.” Australian prime min­is­ter John Howard, leader of the con­ser­v­a­tive Coalition of Liberals and Nationals, has said he oppos­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment at home and for Australians over­seas, but sup­ports the death penal­ty for ter­ror­ists. Polling Data: Next about the penal­ty for mur­der. In your opin­ion, should the penal­ty for mur­der be death or imprisonment?

Oct. 2007: Death Penalty 24%, Imprisonment 67%, Can’t Say 9%
Dec. 2005: Death Penalty 25% Imprisonment 69%, Can’t Say 7% (Angus Reid Global Monitoring: October 22, 2007)

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Brazilians’ sup­port for death penal­ty at 14-year high — 55 % of Brazilians sup­port insti­tut­ing the death penal­ty, which does not exist in Brazil, accord­ing to the Datafolha sur­vey pub­lished in the Folha de S. Paulo news­pa­per, Brazil’s largest. That match­es the rate reached in 1993, Datafolha said. The low­est rate was 48 % in 2000. The polling insti­tute’s first sur­vey on the issue was in 1991. Datafolha said it inter­viewed 5,700 peo­ple across Brazil on March 19 – 20, and the sur­vey had a mar­gin of error of 2 % points. During the last sur­vey in August 2006, 51 % of Brazilians favored the death penal­ty (Associated Press: April 8, 2007).

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Only 1 of 3 Support the Death Penalty In Finland - A fresh sur­vey indi­cates that 29 % of Finns would approve of the death penal­ty as a pun­ish­ment for cer­tain crimes com­mit­ted dur­ing peace­time. Whereas 36 % of men would sup­port the death penal­ty, only 22 % of women found it accept­able. Almost 41 % of those aged 35 to 49 are in favour of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. (Helsingin Sanomat, Suomen Gallup: November 21, 2006)

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Only Forty Percent of the French Favor the Death Penalty On September 16^th, 2006 TNS Sofres released a poll regard­ing the death penal­ty in France. Twenty-five years ago France abol­ished the death penal­ty, even­though 62% of the French peo­ple sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment at that time. Currently, only 42% favor rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty, 52% are against rein­state­ment, and 6% have no opin­ion. (Nouvelobs​.com, September 18, 2006)

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Gallup Review Compares Support for Capital Punishment Among Countries - An exam­i­na­tion of recent Gallup sur­veys in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada found that Americans are more sup­port­ive of the death penal­ty than are either Britons or Canadians. An October 2005 poll of Americans mea­sured sup­port for the death penal­ty at 64%, a fig­ure that was sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er than the 44% sup­port mea­sured in Canada and the 49% sup­port found in Great Britain dur­ing December 2005 polls. Support for the death penal­ty recent­ly declined in both Great Britain and Canada, but remained the same in the U.S. as in 2003. (Nevertheless, American sup­port for the death penal­ty is equal to its low­est lev­el in 27 years.) In all three nations, sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was low­est among those who were 18 – 29 years old. (Gallup Poll press release, ​“Death Penalty Gets Less Support From Britons, Canadians Than Americans,” February 20, 2006).

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Poll Shows Limited Growth in Support Despite Recent Crimes in Japan A recent gov­ern­ment sur­vey revealed that despite a recent rush of vio­lent crimes in Japan, sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment had only risen by 2.1 per­cent, to 81.4%. The same poll, tak­en in December 2004, showed that 70.6% of respon­dents believed that the rights of vic­tims were not respect­ed dur­ing the inves­ti­ga­tions or the tri­al. 31.8% of respon­dents also believed that the death penal­ty would be abol­ished in the future. (The Japan Times, February 20, 2005)

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Poll shows Limited Support for Death Penalty in New Zealand A poll by the One News Network and Colmar Brunton Polls showed that of 1,000 New Zealanders, only 28% were in favor of rein­sti­tut­ing the death penal­ty, against 67% who did not want the prac­tice resumed. 58% of respon­dents want­ed parole laws made more strict, and 28% want­ed parole abol­ished alto­geth­er. Also addressed was the use of DNA test­ing, which 58% of those asked want­ed the prac­tice made manda­to­ry. When asked about the death penal­ty, Justice Minister Phil Goff said that to ​“take the life of an inno­cent per­son is the worst thing that a state can do to its cit­i­zens,” and as such the jus­tice sys­tem could not always guar­an­tee that it had con­vict­ed the right per­son. (Otago Daily Times, New Zealand, July 15, 2004)

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Koreans Favor Cautious Use, Question Benefits to Victim’s Families Results from a state-con­duct­ed sur­vey released in March show that 65% of South Koreans believe that the death penal­ty should remain law. However, only 49% found the prac­tice to be effec­tive in pre­vent­ing crime, and 58% believed that the coun­try must use cau­tion in admin­is­ter­ing the pun­ish­ment. An over­whelm­ing 90% believed that the death penal­ty pro­vid­ed no ben­e­fit for the fam­i­lies of vic­tims. (Korea Times, March 23, 2004)

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Poll Reveals Declining Support for Death Penalty A Gallup Poll con­duct­ed in October, 2003, in the United States, Great Brittain, and Canada shows declin­ing sup­port in the coun­tries for the prac­tice. Canada’s sup­port for the death penal­ty has dropped from 53% to 48% in the two years since the cit­i­zens of Canada were last polled. Support in the United Kingdom dropped mod­est­ly to 55% sup­port­ing the death penal­ty, after only one year. A study of homi­cide rates in those coun­tries revealed no sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence to sup­port argu­ments that the pun­ish­ment was a deter­rent; in Canada, there were 160 few­er mur­ders in 2001 than occurred in 1975, the year before Canada abol­ished their use of the death penal­ty. (Gallup Poll Briefing, March 16, 2004)

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Support for Death Penalty Has Declined in the United Kingdom An arti­cle in The Guardian not­ed that British sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has dropped since 1995. A MORI poll of res­i­dents in the United Kingdom found that, even in the wake of rev­e­la­tions about the recent mur­der of two young girls, pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty remains low. In 1995, when the issue of rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty was debat­ed and sub­se­quent­ly defeat­ed in Parliament, 76% of British respon­dents sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. A poll tak­en after the high­ly-pub­li­cized child mur­ders found only 56% sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. (The Guardian, August 21, 2002). See also, International Death Penalty.

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A sur­vey of Canadians found that 52.9% of respon­dents sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, while 43% opposed it. This marks a sig­nif­i­cant shift in pub­lic opin­ion since 1995, when an Angus Ried poll found 69% sup­port­ed rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty in Canada. The new poll also found that sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment dropped even fur­ther, to 37.6%, when respon­dents were offered the alter­na­tive sen­tence of life impris­on­ment with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. ​“It’s a real­ly impor­tant drop,” said Jean-Marc Leger, head of the polling firm. ​“Canadians’ per­cep­tions of the death penal­ty have changed in the last few years.” (Canada Press, 9/​16/​01)

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A recent Ipsos-Reid poll for the Toronto Globe and Mail and CTV shows that sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has fall­en to 52% among Canadians — down from 69% in 1995 and 73% in 1987. The poll also showed a rise in oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty to 46% — up from 24% in 1987 and 29% in 1995. Ipsos-Reid spokesper­son Darrell Brickier sug­gest­ed that the decline in sup­port is due to increas­ing media atten­tion on the issue of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Canadian leg­is­la­tors out­lawed the death penal­ty in 1976. (Toronto Globe and Mail, 2/​16/​01) See also, International Death Penalty.

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Although pre­vi­ous opin­ion polls have indi­cat­ed over 70% sup­port for the death penal­ty in Canada, that sup­port has dra­mat­i­cal­ly dropped. A poll showed an even split on the death penal­ty gen­er­al­ly, with 48% sup­port­ing it and 47% oppos­ing it. When asked which sen­tence they would favor for the most seri­ous crimes, 53% sup­port­ed a life sen­tence and only 42% sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. (Montreal Gazette, 12/​31/​98).