More South Koreans than ever choosing cremation over burial

Posted on : 2014-10-23 23:48 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
With smaller families and less space for burials, many families find cremation a more comfortable option
Cremation rate by age group of deceased
Cremation rate by age group of deceased

“Man came from dust and returns to dust.” So goes the old saying - but the rising rate of cremations in South Korea suggests it’s becoming a literal fact, too.

A recent study shows eight out of every ten funerals is now carried out by cremation. It’s the result of a combination of factors, including changing family structures, more favorable perceptions among South Koreans, and a lack of space for burials.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on Oct. 20 that the nationwide cremation rate for 2013 was 76.9%, up 2.9 percentage points from 74% the previous year. It’s an all time high, and a fourfold increase from the 19.1% recorded twenty years before in 1993. Since surpassing burial as the most popular funeral option in 2005 (52.6%), cremation has risen by roughly three percentage points a year.

According to detailed data on cremations last year, the highest rate for South Korea’s 17 self-governing units (cities or provinces) was in Busan. There, the 89.2% cremation rate was fully 29.9 percentage points higher that the unit with the lowest cremation rate, South Chungcheong Province (59.3%). In general, cremation rates exceeded the national average in large cities like Busan, Incheon (87.8%), Ulsan (84.4%), and Seoul (84.2%), and were lower in South Chungcheong, Jeju Island (59.9%), South Jeolla Province (60.8%), and North Chungcheong Province (63.2%).

Cremation rates also showed a clear generational divide, with selection rates higher for younger people. 99.5% of funerals for people aged 20 to 29 were cremations. The rate for those 60 and under stood at 92.5% - but dropped all the way to 72.6% for those 60 and older.

Reasons for the rise in cremations include less centralized families, individualism, lack of space for burials, and relative ease of management. Declining family sizes could be correlated with the cremation rate, considering the greater effort required to manage grave sites. According to Statistics Korea‘s population and household survey for 2010, single and two-person households have become common enough to account for nearly half of the country’s 17.33 million households (48.2%) as of Nov. 2010, while the percentage of four-person households dropped from 29.5% in 1990 all the way to 22.5%.

Meanwhile, a 2013 survey on funeral culture by the Korea Funeral Culture and Policy Institute found many of the respondents who preferred cremation citing “ease of management” (35.8%) and “simple procedures” (12.4%).

“The cremation rate has been rising steadily as the culture changes and negative attitudes toward cremation among South Koreans disappear,” said a Ministry of Health and Welfare official.

 

By Choi Sung-jin, staff reporter

 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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