Kolkata: While suicides are on the decline in China, they are increasing in India, a global study said Thursday.

The study, involving more than 700 researchers and covering 188 countries, found that half of all suicide deaths occur in China and India alone.

Suicide continues to be a major public health problem in many regions, said the study, published in the journal The Lancet

However, the trends are in opposite directions, decreasing rapidly in China but rising in India between 1990 and 2013, the findings state.

The study highlights that both countries have undergone economic growth and urbanisation, a key factor in limiting access to lethal pesticides, a common method of suicide by poisoning in the two Asian nations.

Therefore, a yet unexplained reason must exist for the divergence between the two countries, the report said.