Long description

This line chart plots two simultaneous lines, ‘percentage cremated’ and ‘percentage buried’ in England & Wales between 1950 and 2019. In 1950, burials were at around 80%, and cremations around 20%. This gap closed sharply over the following years, with both hitting 50% by approximately 1967. Cremation then overtook burial as the preferred form of final disposition. ‘Percentage cremated’ continued to rise over the following decades, though more slowly than the change seen in the 1950s/1960s. In the 2010s cremations reached approximately 80%, and burials around 20%.