Boom in cremation hides surprising truths about what Americans really want when they die

Nearly two-thirds of Americans now opt for cremation – a figure that has been steadily increasing over five decades. On the surface, that proportion tells a simple story: The nation has embraced cremation, while its preference for casket burials has fallen off. But as a scholar of funeral and cemetery law, I decided to dig deeper into this trend. I wanted to know whether people were embracing cremation because they actually preferred it, or if they were rejecting casket burial for one reason or another. I also explored whether consumers were open to new options in death care, like water cremation and human composting. You’re dead – what’s next? With funding from the Cremation Association of North America and the Order of the Good Death, a nonprofit organization that promotes more informed and less fear-driven conversations about death and dying, I launched the first academic survey on consumer preferences in death care in 2024. The survey presented over 1,500 American adults in a nationally representative sample with the definitions of six legal methods of disposition in a random order. It asked respondents whether they had “heard” of that method and whether they would “consider” that method. The six methods were…

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