Prepared by:

Smith, Bucklin & Associates, Inc.

Market Research & Statistics Division

© Copyright CANA, 1999

Printed in U.S.A.

This is the annual report of the Cremation Association of North America, the preeminent source on cremation data from the United States and Canada. We hope that those in the industry find the information useful and a valuable benefit of membership. A few changes have been made to this year’s report to increase the accuracy of the information of which we would like to inform you.

Most importantly, the majority of the data used in this report was collected from individual states’ vital statistics departments or similar entities, whereas in the past CANA had to undertake a survey of every crematory operation in the country. Unfortunately, the accumulation of a tremendous amount of data by these state bureaus can be a slow and painstaking process and CANA could not obtain all states’ 1998 information by the time this report had to go to print (8/20/99). In such cases, State data from 1993 through 1997 was used to estimate the percentage of deaths that were cremated in 1998, and the federal National Center for Health Statistics’ National Vital Statistics Report provisional 1998 death count for each of these state was used in conjunction with the estimated cremation percentage to determine the estimated number of cremations. Additionally, there were some states for which we could not get statewide data; in such cases we surveyed the individual crematories. The applicable pages contain notations that show which method was used for each particular state.

For consistency, we have also included an "Updated 1997 Data" section in this year’s report. Every state but one has supplied their official 1997 data by the time this updated report went to print, making the "Updated 1997 Data" section more accurate than the 1997 report issued in August 1998.

The Cremation Association of North America has been projecting cremation data for many years. This year, however, in the interest of consistency and increased accuracy, CANA is now using a five-year comparison period to make its 2000 and 2010 projections. Whereas in the past a ten-year period was used (i.e., 1987-1997), for the 1998 data this report, data from 1993-1998 was used to create projection formulae. Please note that although 1997 data on deaths and cremations were updated, the projection methodology from last year’s report was kept intact; the ten-year period (1987-97) was used in that section to project cremation percentages. The increased accuracy of the data now being gathered for the years 1993 through 1998 has led, we believe, to more accurate projections in the 1998 Data section of this year’s report.

Note that the state projections for 2010 have an upper bound of 65%, and some states’ cremation percentages are listed as 65+%. If the average increase from 1993 to 1998 was compounded from 1999 through 2010, the percent cremated in all said states would exceed 65% and, in some cases, even exceed 100%. It is the belief of CANA’s statisticians, however, that in these cases, states will conform to historical trends. Historically, once a country or state reaches a cremation rate greater than 65%, there is little if any increase in future years. Except for Japan and India, whose people practice cremation as a religious custom, no country has cremated more than 76% of its deceased citizenry. The number in italics to the right of the 65+% notations is the year in which we predict the state will reach a cremation rate of 65%.

1. = 5.01%