Here's where your dead body is more likely to be cremated than buried

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Someone who dies in Mississippi this year is far more likely to be buried than someone who dies in Oregon.

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We looked at data from the National Funeral Directors Association's 2015 projections for burial rates and cremation rates in each state. Nationally, the Association projects that cremations will outnumber burials in the US: 48.2% of this year's deceased will be cremated, as opposed to 45.8% being buried.

On the state by state level, cremation is much more popular in the West. In Nevada, 77.8% of bodies are projected to be cremated. Meanwhile, burials still predominate in the Appalachian South.

Here's a map showing the geographical variance in funeral types. States that are purple have higher burial rates than cremation rates, while orange states have higher cremation than burial rates. Darker states have bigger percentage point differences between burial rates and cremation rates:


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And here's a chart showing burial and cremation rates in each state, ordered from where cremation is most likely to least likely:

burial vs cremation table

Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from National Funeral Directors Association


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