Burials in the ACT reached a record high in the past year, with Gungahlin cemetery having a large boost in numbers, but cremations are still Canberrans' preferred choice for entering the afterlife.
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In the past year there were 500 burials in Canberra cemeteries, the largest number on record, Canberra cemeteries chief executive Hamish Horne said.
Burials in Gungahlin cemetery rose 11 per cent, well above the total for Woden and Hall cemeteries which fell eight and one per cent respectively.
But Mr Horne said as a percentage of total deaths the number of people choosing a burial was still falling compared to cremations.
"It's a general trend across everywhere, people are going more and more to cremation. It's just a trend. There's certainly no one single reason and some places in Australia, for example just north of Sydney, they're up to 90 per cent of people getting cremated," he said.
He said due to the steady growth of Canberra's population and the slow fall in burials, the number of burials had actually stayed reasonably static for the past ten years.
"It makes life easier for us in the sense of budgeting and working out what we're going to need. It's fairly easy for us to manage how many resources we're going to need," he said.
Grantley Perry and Sons Funeral Company co-manager Margaret Perry said cremations were more popular than burials due to their relative ease.
"It just seems to kind of be the trend in these modern days. People tend to do things differently. Years ago of course it was all burials but [cremation] is a much simpler process and there are quite a few people who don't particularly like the thought of being in the ground," she said.
Mrs Perry said her company had seen an increase in the number of people asking to be buried in Gungahlin, partly due to cost and a lack of space at Woden cemetery.
She said the traditional church service was also becoming less common, with more people choosing a graveside or crematorium service.
"In this day and age there aren't very many people who are religious any more, so there's not much call for a religious service," she said.
Norwood Park Crematorium managing director Stephen Beer said the business had been forced to expand due to ongoing demand from ACT and NSW residents.
He said they had increased the number of pathways, planted more trees and extended the crematorium.
"We're looking to attempt to extend Norwood Park with an additional block of land to the west... That's just to secure the long term future of the park," he said.
The ACT government has also explored the idea of opening a second crematorium somewhere in the territory.
Mrs Perry said although they had noticed a large number of burials in the past year, it was something which could vary wildly from year to year.
"In this business you can't predict how it's going to be. Everybody's different."
