Majority of Americans Choosing Cremation

When it comes to end-of-life choices, cremation continues to gain ground, so to speak, on burial.

For the first time, a majority of people in the United States chose cremation in 2016. According to the recently released 2017 Cremation and Burial Report from the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), 50.2 percent of Americans chose cremation in 2016, up from 48.5 percent in 2015.

In 2016, 43.5 percent of Americans chose to be buried, down from 45.4 percent in 2015. This is the second consecutive year that cremation has outpaced burial.

NFDA predicts that by 2035, the cremation rate will hit 78.8 percent.

Cremation rates vary wildly state by state. Washington state had the largest cremation rate at 76.4 percent in 2015, followed by Nevada (75.6 percent) and Oregon (74.3 percent). States with the lowest cremation rates in 2015 were Mississippi (20.9 percent), Alabama (25.7 percent), and Kentucky (27.3 percent).

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