Death care industry professionals in the United States have always kept track of the cremation rate in their local community by the number of requests they receive annually.

On the national level, the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) is the organization everyone--including the media--most closely watches for past, current and projected cremation rate figures which are used partly to help justify the purchase of cremation equipment and columbariums or plans for new or expanded memorialization projects such as cremation gardens.

How Accurate Are Today's Cremation Projections?

But while the U.S. cremation rate in 2003 was 28 percent, and CANA has forecast a national cremation rate of 43 percent by 2025, there is a feeling by some in the death care industry that CANA's estimates of future cremation rates--based on increases over the past five-year average--might not be able to adequately take into account how rapidly cremation is gaining acceptance today.

"CANA says, based on past history, our state should have a rate of about 18 percent this year," said one funeral home owner at a recent trade show. But after installing a crematory in anticipation of future growth, his actual projected number of 70 cremations jumped to 250, surprising him as well as raising the question: Who really knows how fast the cremation rate can climb?

This uncertainty is only heightened by the release of the results of the latest installment of the annual five-year survey by Wirthlin Worldwide of 1,000 adult Americans aged 40 and older which demonstrates that cremation and pre-planning continue to grow and solidify as mainstays in consumer funeral service preferences.

The survey, entitled "2005 Wirthlin Report, A Study of American Attitudes Toward Ritualization and Memorialization," was commissioned by the Funeral and Memorial Information Council (FAMIC) of which CANA is a member, along with the majority of other national death care and memorial associations.

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