Mental illness accounted for 14,305 of India’s 30,617 illness-related suicides in 2024, according to State of India’s Environment 2026: In Figures.
The DTE-CSE analysis, based on NCRB data, found that mental illness made up 47% of all suicides linked to illness.
Mental illness was the leading illness-related cause of suicide across 24 states and Union Territories.
Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka together accounted for nearly half of all suicides linked to mental illness.
Illness-related suicides fell by 6% between 2023 and 2024, but increased sharply in several states, including Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.
Mental illness accounted for nearly half of all illness-related suicides in India in 2024, according to State of India’s Environment 2026: In Figures.
India recorded 30,617 suicides linked to illness in 2024. Of these, 14,305 deaths, or 47 per cent, were attributed to mental illness, up from 13,978 in 2023. The findings are based on estimates from Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, 2024, published by the National Crime Records Bureau in May 2026, and analysed in the annual e-book released by Down To Earth magazine and Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment.
Across 24 states and Union Territories, mental illness was the leading illness-related cause of suicide. Four states — Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka — accounted for nearly half of all suicides linked to mental illness, the report said. While the overall number of suicides due to illnesses decreased in 2024 compared with 2023, the number of deaths associated with mental health conditions rose.
In Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Karnataka, mental illness accounted for more than 90 per cent of all illness-related suicides. Between 2023 and 2024, suicides linked to mental illness increased in 18 states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
Chronic or prolonged illness was the second-largest illness-related cause of suicide in 2024. It accounted for 14,705 deaths, or 46 per cent of all illness-related suicides, according to the report.
Cancer was linked to 1,232 suicides in 2024. More than half of cancer-linked suicides were reported from Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka. Maharashtra recorded 270 cancer-linked suicides in 2024, the highest among all states, though this was down from 405 cases in 2023.
Nationally, suicides linked to cancer declined by 14 per cent between 2023 and 2024. However, eight states and Union Territories reported an increase over the same period: Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Punjab, Goa and Chandigarh.
Karnataka recorded the sharpest rise among states, with cancer-linked suicides increasing by 66 per cent, from 76 in 2023 to 126 in 2024. Kerala recorded 250 such deaths, marginally up from 241 the previous year. Uttar Pradesh reported 90 cancer-linked suicides in 2024, a 25 per cent increase from 72 in 2023.
Overall, suicides linked to illness fell by 6 per cent between 2023 and 2024. But 14 states and Union Territories registered an increase in illness-related suicides in 2024, the report said.
These included Odisha, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.
Bihar recorded the steepest increase, with illness-related suicides rising more than six-fold, from 36 deaths in 2023 to 226 in 2024. In Jharkhand, such deaths increased by 36 per cent, from 132 to 179. Uttar Pradesh reported a 30 per cent rise, from 422 illness-related suicides in 2023 to 549 in 2024.
The long-term trend remains worrying. Between 2015 and 2024, at least 260,000 people died by suicide due to illness-related causes, according to NCRB estimates. During this period, the number of illness-related suicide deaths increased by nearly 45 per cent, from 21,178 in 2015 to 30,617 in 2024.
Analysis of NCRB data presented in State of India’s Environment 2026: In Figures points to a growing public health burden linked to mental illness, chronic illness and access to care. They also have implications for India’s progress on the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3 on good health and well-being.
One of the SDG indicators, 3.4.2, calls for a reduction in the suicide mortality rate. Rising illness-related suicides could make that target harder to achieve, the report said.
Get your copy of State of India’s Environment 2026: In Figures for more such insights.