About 2,100 people are on death row in America, according to the most recent tally from the Death Penalty Information Center.1Death Penalty Information Center. Death Row Overview That figure has been falling for more than two decades, down from a peak of 3,593 in 2000.2Death Penalty Information Center. Size of Death Row by Year Twenty-seven states still authorize capital punishment alongside the federal government and the military, but new death sentences have slowed to a fraction of their 1990s levels, and several states with large death rows have stopped carrying out executions altogether.
Which States Hold the Most People on Death Row
The population is heavily concentrated in a handful of states. California holds the largest share, with roughly 589 people under a death sentence as of early 2025. The state has not executed anyone since 2006, and Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a formal moratorium in 2019, so hundreds sit under sentences the state has no current plan to carry out.3Death Penalty Information Center. State by State
Florida follows with approximately 249 people and has been among the most active execution states, carrying out multiple executions in 2025 and 2026. Texas holds about 168. Together, those three states account for roughly half of everyone awaiting execution nationwide. Alabama, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Ohio round out the larger death rows, and the numbers drop off sharply after that.
Meanwhile, 23 states have either abolished the death penalty by statute or had their courts strike it down. Several governors in retentionist states have paused executions on their own. Oregon’s governor commuted every death sentence in the state in 2022, and her successor has kept the pause in place. Pennsylvania’s governor has continued a moratorium first imposed in 2015. Ohio’s governor said in early 2025 he does not expect any executions during the remainder of his term.3Death Penalty Information Center. State by State The result is a widening gap between the number of people technically sentenced to death and the number who face any realistic prospect of execution.
How the Population Has Changed Over Time
Death row peaked at nearly 3,600 people in 2000, when courts were imposing well over 200 new death sentences a year.2Death Penalty Information Center. Size of Death Row by Year The pipeline has slowed dramatically since. In 2025, courts handed down just 23 new death sentences across the entire country, and the majority of capital juries that year rejected the death penalty when prosecutors sought it.4Death Penalty Information Center. The Death Penalty in 2025 The wider availability of life without parole as a sentencing option has given juries a choice that didn’t exist in many states during the peak years.
People leave death row through several routes. Executions are the most visible: 47 were carried out across 11 states in 2025.5Death Penalty Information Center. Execution List 2025 But most removals come from other causes. Appellate courts overturn convictions or sentences when they find legal errors, coerced confessions, or suppressed evidence, and the inmate is resentenced to life or has charges dropped. Governors commute sentences. And natural causes account for a growing share, because the population is aging in place. More than half of everyone currently under a death sentence has been there for over 18 years.6Death Penalty Information Center. Time on Death Row In some states, the average wait before an execution date is even set approaches 21 years.
When new sentences trickle in and removals of all kinds outpace them, the total keeps shrinking. The current population is down more than a third from its peak.
Who Is on Death Row
Racial composition has been a flashpoint in capital punishment debates for decades. Roughly 42 percent of death row inmates are White (846 people), and about 41 percent are Black (823 people), according to Death Penalty Information Center data.7Death Penalty Information Center. Racial Demographics That near-parity is misleading at first glance, because Black Americans make up about 13 percent of the total U.S. population.
Latino individuals represent about 15 percent of the death row population (298 people), with Native Americans (19), Asian Americans (38), and others accounting for the rest.7Death Penalty Information Center. Racial Demographics Researchers have also found that the race of the victim matters: cases involving White victims are significantly more likely to produce a death sentence than those involving victims of other races, even after controlling for the severity of the crime.
Gender skews far more sharply. About 47 women are on death row as of late 2025, roughly 2 percent of the total. Men account for the rest, a ratio that has held steady for decades.
Federal and Military Death Rows
The federal government maintains a death row separate from the state systems. Federal capital offenses are defined under 18 U.S.C. ยง 3591 and cover crimes such as espionage, treason, and certain large-scale drug trafficking operations resulting in death.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3591 – Sentence of Death Federal death row inmates have historically been housed at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
As of early 2025, only three people remain on federal death row. The number dropped sharply in December 2024, when President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life without parole.9Death Penalty Information Center. Federal Death Penalty The current administration has reversed course. The Department of Justice rescinded the Biden-era moratorium, reinstated the lethal injection protocol used during the first Trump administration, and authorized prosecutors to seek the death penalty against 44 defendants in pending cases.10United States Department of Justice. The Justice Department Takes Actions to Strengthen the Federal Death Penalty Those pending authorizations, if they result in sentences, would grow the federal number substantially from its current three.
The military justice system maintains its own death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, currently holding seven people.11Death Penalty Information Center. U.S. Military Death Penalty – Facts and Figures Military capital cases are prosecuted through courts-martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and no execution can proceed without the president personally confirming the sentence. The military has not executed anyone since 1961.
Who Is Not Counted
The 2,100 figure covers people currently under a death sentence, and it’s worth knowing who is constitutionally excluded from that group in the first place. The Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty cannot be imposed on anyone who was under 18 at the time of the offense, on people with intellectual disabilities, or on prisoners who are not mentally competent to understand their execution.12Death Penalty Information Center. Continuing Issues – Determining Intellectual Disability After Atkins13Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Ford v. Wainwright Capital punishment is also restricted to offenses involving the death of a victim, so crimes like kidnapping or sexual assault of a child, however severe, are not part of the count.
The overall system is pulling in two directions at once. New sentences are at historic lows, more states are stepping away from the practice, and the population keeps shrinking. At the same time, the federal government and a smaller group of committed states are expanding execution methods and pushing to accelerate appeals. Which force wins out over the next decade will decide whether death row continues its long decline or settles at some smaller but persistent level.