Jump to content

Cremation by country

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 60.224.2.240 (talk) at 07:14, 8 August 2011 (uk has a much higher rate than australia). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is a list of countries by cremation rate. Cremation rates vary widely across the world with some countries like Japan having a rate over 95% while other countries like Italy and Poland having less than 10%.

Africa

Asia

China

China cremates more people each year than any other country, reporting 4,534,000 cremations out of 9,348,453 deaths (a 48.50% rate) in 2008.[1]

Japan

Japan has one of the highest cremation rates in the world with the country reporting a cremation rate of 99.85% in 2008.[1]

Europe

United Kingdom

The cremation rate in the United Kingdom has been increasing steadily with the national average rate rising from 34.70% in 1960 to 72.44% in 2008.[2]

North America

Canada

The cremation rate in Canada has been increasing steadily with the national average rate rising from 5.89% in 1970 to 68.4% in 2009.[3][4] The rates vary greatly among the provinces with the most recent (1999) province level statistics showing that British Columbia had the highest rate at 74% while Prince Edward Island had the lowest rate at 8.5%.[5]

United States

The cremation rate in the United States has been increasing steadily with the national average rate rising from 24.10% in 1998 to 36.86% in 2009 and projections from the National Funeral Directors Association forecasting a rate of 46.04% in 2015 and 58.85% in 2025.[6] The rates vary considerably among the states with the highest rates (over 60%) being reported in the Western United States with the lowest rates (under 25%) being reported in the Southern United States.[7]

The following table lists the 2006 cremation rate for each state including the national average.

2006 US cremation rates
No Jurisdiction Rate (%)[8]
- United States 33.52%
1 Nevada 68.41%
2 Washington 67.57%
3 Hawaii 65.60%
4 Oregon 65.25%
5 Arizona 59.66%
6 Montana 59.40%
7 Colorado 57.83%
8 Maine 55.61%
9 Alaska 55.04%
10 Vermont 54.26%
11 New Hampshire 53.94%
12 Florida 51.78%
13 California 50.50%
14 Wyoming 49.63%
15 Idaho 48.26%
16 New Mexico 47.02%
17 Minnesota 40.46%
18 Michigan 38.62%
19 District of Columbia (capital, not state) 38.26%
20 Connecticut 37.22%
21 Delaware 33.06%
22 Rhode Island 31.77%
23 Wisconsin 31.53%
24 Massachusetts 31.15%
25 Illinois 29.56%
26 Pennsylvania 29.09%
27 Nebraska 28.30%
28 Maryland 28.22%
29 Kansas 27.91%
30 New Jersey 27.76%
31 New York 27.72%
32 Virginia 27.22%
33 North Carolina 25.10%
34 Missouri 24.83%
35 Ohio 24.77%
36 Texas 23.76%
37 Iowa 23.33%
38 Utah 22.77%
39 Oklahoma 22.72%
40 Georgia 22.10%
41 South Carolina 21.94%
42 Indiana 21.88%
43 South Dakota 20.79%
44 Arkansas 20.36%
45 North Dakota 19.26%
46 West Virginia 16.56%
47 Louisiana 16.18%
48 Tennessee 15.99%
49 Kentucky 12.32%
50 Alabama 11.05%
51 Mississippi 9.56%

South America

Oceania

Australia

The cremation rate in Australia is quite high, being similar to other English speaking countries like Canada. Records show that slightly over 65% of all deaths were cremated in 2008.[1]

New Zealand

New Zealand's rate is slightly higher than Australia's, with 70% of all deaths being cremations in 2008.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "International Cremation Statistics 2008". The Cremation Society of Great Britain. 2010-02-15. Retrieved 2010-09-08.
  2. ^ "National Cremation Statistics 1960-2009". The Cremation Society of Great Britain. 2010-08-31. Retrieved 2010-09-08.
  3. ^ Cremation Association of North America (2003-10-06). "Historical Cremation Data - United States vs. Canada" (PDF). Cremationinfo.com. Retrieved 2010-09-07.
  4. ^ "Trends and Statistics". National Funeral Directors Association. 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  5. ^ Cremation Association of North America (2003-08-25). "Canadian Cremation Figures" (PDF). Cremationinfo.com. Retrieved 2010-09-07.
  6. ^ "Trends and Statistics". National Funeral Directors Association. 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  7. ^ "U.S. Cremation Statistics". National Funderal Directors Association. 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-07.
  8. ^ Lucas, Elizabeth (2010-03-10). "State-by-state cremation rates in U.S." Scrippsnews. Retrieved 2010-09-07.