UNITED NATIONS — The death penalty is steadily receding toward the dustbin of history worldwide, with fewer than two dozen countries relying on it at all as a form of punishment.

Yet a handful of countries have been especially eager to mete out capital punishment, including against those convicted of nonlethal crimes, while some countries that had discontinued capital punishment have resumed the practice, especially in what they consider to be terrorism cases.

All told, in 2014, at least 2,466 people were sentenced to death — a 28 percent increase from 2013, according to an annual tally by Amnesty International.

Among the leading executioners in the world are the archrivals of the Middle East, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Indeed, it was Saudi Arabia’s execution of a Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, on Saturday that led to an unraveling of diplomatic ties between the two nations and raised apprehensions of a widening sectarian crisis in the region.