<i>Actually, it&#x27;s my impression that a majority of people worldwide are in favor of the death penalty.</i><p>wikipedia: Although many nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the world&#x27;s population live in countries where executions take place, such as China, India, the United States and Indonesia.[0]<p>there are 206 countries in the world[1], of which only 36 practise capital punishment.  USA comes on the heels of the top five of China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.[2]<p>questions:<p>* if majority of people are in favor of the death penalty, where does the majority of countries abstaining from it come from?  in vulgar terms: is it an illuminati-level conspiracy?<p>* do the countries practicing the death penalty share any prevailing traits?  do the countries which have abolished it share any prevailing traits?  what are they?  how do those traits correlate with wealth and wealth distribution in the country?<p>my impression is that (outside of truly fucked-up places like China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia) capital punishment de iure is a sign of a country with a huge wealth gradient: the poorer the poor are and the richer the rich are (in contrast) the better the chance the place will have the death penalty.  countries with relatively flat wealth distribution seem to be less likely to practice the capital punishment.<p>[0] h<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Capital_punishment" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Capital_punishment</a>
[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Country" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Country</a>
[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Capital_punishment#Capital_punishment_by_country" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Capital_punishment#Capital_p...</a><p>edit: formatting