Summary: The Suicide Insights and Trends in India (SITI) dashboard, developed by the Keshav Desiraju India Mental Health Observatory, consolidates the official data on suicides published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) reports. The dashboard presently has data from 1967-2024.
India continues to report high burden of suicides. However, suicide patterns vary across age, gender, geography, occupation, income, education and other aspects of people's lives. Understanding these patterns is essential, especially to scale up suicide prevention efforts towards more targeted evidence-informed actions.
The Suicide Insights and Trends in India (SITI) dashboard, developed by the Keshav Desiraju India Mental Health Observatory (IMHO), brings together reported suicide data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) from 1967 to 2024. By bringing decades of information together in one interactive platform, SITI makes it possible to explore how reported suicides in India have changed over time and across different population groups.
Who is affected?
Age and gender are one of the most important parameters. SITI allows users to explore this data, with consistent age-group data available from 2014 onwards.
The data highlights differences across age groups and between men and women. For example, an analysis of NCRB data shows that among children under 18, girls accounted for 54% of reported suicides in the period examined. In 2024, 6,032 girls under 18 were reported to have died by suicide, compared with 5,151 boys.
These trends can be explored further through SITI, allowing users to look at how patterns change across different years and demographic groups.
Where is suicide being reported?
India's suicide data also varies considerably across states.
SITI allows users to compare state-wise suicide numbers and rates, providing a picture of how reported suicide patterns differ geographically.
For example, in 2024, the reported suicide rate ranged from 36 per 100,000 in Sikkim to 1 and 0.5 per 100,000 in in Bihar and Nagaland, respectively. This is against national suicide rate stood at 12.2 per 100,000.
Such differences deserve careful attention. They may reflect genuine differences in suicide risk, but they may also reflect differences in reporting practices, registration systems, classification and the quality and completeness of data. A low reported rate should therefore not automatically be interpreted as evidence of low suicide risk. The dashboard makes it possible to move beyond national averages and explore insights across states and over time.
What about income and occupation?
Mental health and suicide are shaped not only by individual or clinical lens. The social determinants of mental health include the economic, social and physical conditions in which people live, work and grow. Factors such as income, education, employment, housing and social inclusion influence mental health and well-being, as well as people's exposure to stress and vulnerability.
Suicide data can therefore also be viewed through these dimensions of these wider social and economic circumstances.
In 2024, 63% of reported suicide deaths (107,455 cases) were among people in the lowest income category of those earning ₹1 lakh or less annually.
Occupation provides another perspective. Daily wage earners accounted for 52,910 reported suicide deaths in 2024, or 31% of all reported suicides, composing the highest share recorded for this occupational group in the last decade.
Similar patterns noted over the years, point to social circumstances that warrant closer examination for prevention efforts. SITI brings these dimensions together, allowing users to explore how reported suicide deaths are distributed across income, occupation and other social and demographic factors. Looking at these patterns can help us understand suicide within the broader social conditions that shape people's mental health and well-being.
Does education make a difference?
The dashboard also allows users to examine suicide by educational attainment.
In 2024, the largest share of reported suicide deaths was among people educated up to the matriculation/secondary level, accounting for 25.6% of all reported suicide deaths. This was followed by those educated up to middle level (17.7%), primary level (14.4%) and those who were illiterate (10.1%). People with graduate-level education or higher accounted for 5.6% of reported suicide deaths.
This provides another way to look at the demographic profile of reported suicide deaths and to compare patterns across different levels of education and over time.
Together, the income, occupation and education data show how suicide statistics can be examined through multiple dimensions rather than a single demographic category.
What causes are reported?
SITI also provides data on reported causes of suicide, allowing users to explore how these categories have changed over time.
For example, among men, family problems accounted for 33.4% of reported suicide deaths in 2024. Family causes have remained a leading reported cause over a long time.
The dashboard also makes it possible to explore other reported causes and compare their prevalence across different years and population groups.
However, these figures need to be read carefully. NCRB records a reported cause, while suicide is complex and can involve multiple, overlapping circumstances. Cause classifications have also changed over time, which affects comparisons across some years.
Changing the narrative starts with better questions
SITI does not provide a single explanation for suicide in India. Instead, it gives us a way to explore the data from multiple perspectives.
How have suicide rates changed over six decades? Which age groups are most affected? How do patterns differ by gender and state? What does the data show about income, education and occupation? How have reported causes changed over time?
SITI makes India's suicide data more accessible, allowing researchers, policymakers, journalists, practitioners and the public to explore the patterns behind the numbers.
Six decades of data cannot tell the whole story of suicide in India. But it can help us see the story differently.
Explore the Suicide Insights and Trends in India (SITI) dashboard.
Key Takeaways
- Suicide patterns vary widely by age, gender, geography, occupation, income and education.
- Girls under 18 account for a higher share of reported suicides than boys, with girls representing 54% of reported suicides in the period examined.
- Reported suicide rates differ dramatically across states, highlighting the importance of looking beyond national figures while accounting for differences in reporting and data quality.
- Social and economic circumstances matter: people in lower-income groups and daily wage workers account for substantial shares of reported suicide deaths.
- Education is another important dimension, with the largest share of reported suicide deaths in 2024 among people educated up to matriculation/secondary level.
- Reported causes need to be interpreted cautiously. Suicide is complex and can involve multiple, overlapping circumstances, while NCRB classifications have changed over time. SITI helps us ask better questions of the data.
