Amnesty International says executions worldwide are down 37 per cent from 2015.
Of the 1,032 people who were executed in 2016, the majority came from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan, joining China as world's top five executioners.
Amnesty International says China executed more than all other countries in the world put together, while the USA reached a historic low in its use of the death penalty.
Rose Kulak is the Individuals at Risk Program Coordinator at Amnesty International.
She says China's use of the death penalty is both hidden and widespread.
"It is a state secret in China so it's going to be difficult. It's shrouded in secrecy. So we don't know the actual number, but we have done some research in terms of what that number could be and we are pretty confident that it is in the thousands. That is in terms of who has been executed and sentenced to death."
Amnesty International claims publicly available information about executions in China reveal only a fraction of the thousands of death sentences that the group says are handed out every year in China.
Ms Kulak says people in China are executed for a range of crimes.
"China still has 46 crimes for which you could be facing the death penalty and they include things like embezzlement, bribery, counterfeiting money and arson. They are crimes that no-one would ever think would carry the sentence of death."
Beyond China, the fall in executions in other countries is largely driven by drops in Iran - down 42 per cent - and Pakistan, down 73 per cent.
In sub-Saharan Africa fewer executions were also recorded but the number of death sentences more than doubled, largely due to a steep rise in Nigeria.
Twenty people were executed in the United States in 2016, the lowest level recorded in any year since 1991.
That's half what it was in 1996, and almost five times lower than in 1999.
Ms Kulak says while it's clear why rates have dropped in the U-S, it's not so clear why rates have dropped in both Pakistan and Iran.
"With Iran and Pakistan we don't know why the drops occurred except that less people are being executed. So there are significant drops. To put Pakistan into perspective there are about 19,000 people on death row around the world, 8000 of those are in Pakistan. It's a huge death row community there. In terms of the US, the US executed 20 people last year, which is the lowest in years and which is a really positive step. It's still 20 too many. The US, what they're facing is that there is a lot of litigation, and there's a lot of issue in getting the drugs that are required for getting the three-injection protocol that is used for executing people."
In 2016 two countries, Benin and Nauru, abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
Others are seeking to reinstate it such as the Philippines, which abolished it in 2006, and the Maldives is threatening to resume executions after more than 60 years.
Amnesty International has been working on abolishing the practice worldwide since 1977, when only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
Today 141 countries, more than two-thirds worldwide, are abolitionist in law or practice.
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