The number of people opting for cremation over traditional burial may be on the rise across the United States, but nowhere is the trend more evident than in Florida.

Since 1958, the cremation rate in North America has risen from approximately 5 percent to nearly 35 percent. According to projections by the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), cremations will lead across the country by 2025. But in Lee County, Florida alone, cremations accounted for 64 percent of final arrangements made in 2008, almost twice the number of burials and entombments combined.

Economy, ecology, and geography fuel cremation trend
In addition to the reasons commonly cited for choosing cremation – such as lower costs, environmental concerns, and religious customs, for example – Florida’s geography may also contribute to the Sunshine State’s increasing cremation rate. Funeral directors say that people who relocate to sunny coastal areas often leave behind their social networks; without friends and family nearby, traditional burial in a traditional cemetery doesn’t have the significance it might have in one’s hometown.

Florida also offers some unique alternatives for the final disposition of cremains, rather than placing a stationary cremation urn in a columbarium niche or on a library shelf. For the adventurous, Celestis, Inc., a Houston-based company, will handle cremation arrangements and send the cremated remains into space via private-industry satellites launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Water lovers and those who are looking for an environmentally friendly alternative to burial, on the other hand, can have their ashes buried in artificial coral reefs in the ocean floor.

Florida is also the original home of the Neptune Society, an organization that assists people in planning their cremations in advance. Founded in Fort Lauderdale in 1973, the Neptune Society now has offices in 45 locations throughout the country.

Baby boomers, many of whom are now retiring to Florida, also contribute to the growing support for cremation in Florida and elsewhere. According to Silvia Marchini, a sales manager for the Neptune Society in Fort Myers, boomers are “not as traditional” as their parents were.