As recession continues, cremations become more popular

Once taboo in America, cremations have increased significantly over the past 25 years, as families look to save money, the New York Times reported. 

Cremation is now chosen over burial in 41 percent of American deaths, compared to 15 percent in 1985, according to the Cremation Association of North America. The Times profiled Toni and Doug Kelly, a couple who opted for cremation over burial to reduce the financial burden on their family as Toni battled lymphoma. 

“We did everything we could to cut down other costs, and one of the things Toni said was, ‘Let’s find out how much it costs to be cremated,’ ” Mr. Kelly told the New York Times. “If there was a way we could save even $500 or $1,000, it didn’t make a difference. Her major thing was not ruining the family.”

Ms. Kelly’s cremation cost about $1,600 — a fraction of the $10,000 to $16,000 that is typically spent on a traditional funeral and burial, according to the Times. 

The percentage of cremations in America has increased steadily, for reasons that range from spiritual to environmental. But the economic recession is definitely a significant influence on families' decisions. In a recent study, the Funeral and Memorial Information Council found that finances were a primary factor in choosing cremation over traditional burial for one-third of families, up from 19 percent of families in 1990, the Times reported. 

“America is becoming Hinduized in this way,” Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University and the author of “Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America", told the New York Times. “We’re increasingly seeing the human as essentially spiritual and gradually giving up on the Judeo-Christian idea of the person in the afterlife.”

The Cremation Association predicts that more than 50 percent of deaths will be memorialized with cremations by 2017. Although state cremation rates vary widely — from 13 percent in Mississippi to 73 percent in Nevada — every state has experienced an increase since 2005, the New York Times reported.