Cremation Is Becoming More Common

Washington state has reached a milestone in the business of dying, and as a result, the funeral business is changing.

Beginning in 1994, more people were cremated in the state than were buried. In 1995, nearly 53 percent of the funerals in Washington involved cremation, and the gap has been widening every year, according to the funeral and cemetery unit of the state Department of Licensing.

Washington is home to 36 crematoriums, an increase of 60 percent to 70 percent in the past 10 years.

“People’s needs are changing,” said Steve Cady, who co-founded Horizon Cremation Services here in January.

In Spokane, the Cremation Society of Washington opened its doors two years ago. In its first year, it did twice the business it had expected and then doubled that in 1996, owner Chuck Wetmore said.

“Society is changing - that’s what’s driving this,” Wetmore said. “The old traditions don’t hold the same values anymore.”

The cost difference between burial and cremation is substantial. Cremations average $700, including placement of the remains in a decorative urn. But the average burial funeral, including embalming, casket, ceremony and burial plot, costs $4,000.

But it’s not just cost that is causing people to turn to cremation.

Jon Donnellan, administrator of the Department of Licensing’s funeral and cemetery unit, said the nation’s increasingly mobile population is a major factor, too.