1) What percentage of people are (a) burried (b) cremated (c) interred
in mausoleums (the big type, not the single or small family units)
2) How many people are burried in the US? With US population of
293,027,571 I would think we would be overrun with cemetaries - how
many people die each year?
3) Are there any examples of cemetaries being creatively utilized (ex.
parks, golf course, etc..)
4) Are there any examples of cemetaries that (like in the movie
Poltergeist) where headstones were removed and houses built on top?

This isn't a school paper or anything .. I am just really curious
about this subject.

Interesting question: 
State by state breakdown here for cremations here; I've just copied the totals
http://www.nfda.org/page.php?pID=78&PHPSESSID=25c6a8883639cf68f1833708221dfd59

United States

693,742 2003 cremations
2,422,606 deaths

28.64 percentage 2003

35.93 projected % 2010

43.57 projected % 2025
*****************
Number of deaths for 2003:

292,700,000 US population

2,423,000 deaths

8.3 death rate per 1000 population
******
From the Illinois Funeral Directors Association website:
Are we running out of cemetery space? What are the facts?

There is sufficient cemetery space, already dedicated, to bury those
expected to die for the next one hundred years.

From the Wisconsin Funeral Directors Association website:
Isn't burial space becoming scarce?

While it is true some metropolitan areas have limited available
cemetery space, in most areas of the country, there is enough space
set aside for the next 50 years without creating new cemeteries. In
addition, land available for new cemeteries is more than adequate,
especially with the increase in entombment and multi-level burial.

*********
Here's an interesting article about Catholic funerals:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Nov2004/Feature2.asp

---

Clarification of Answer by jab-ga on 25 Apr 2005 19:54 PDT

Sorry, I didn't mean to post that as an answer, just a comment -- I
haven't answered all of the questions yet. It's hard to find
information about cemeteries because there doesn't seem to be a
central depository.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by mark800-ga on 25 Apr 2005 20:21 PDT

Good so far. I look forward to any addtl info.

---

Clarification of Answer by jab-ga on 26 Apr 2005 11:34 PDT

Cemeteries:

I've found a few books on Amazon.com, and you can look at the contents
pages of some of them, plus the dust jackets which often contain good
information.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0965708519/ref=pd_sim_b_3/102-1612360-7187311?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance
A book about New Orleans cemeteries

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/067086806X/ref=pd_sbs_b_4/102-1612360-7187311?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance
Beautiful Death: The Art of the Cemetery

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0700606343/ref=pd_sim_b_4/102-1612360-7187311?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance
Soul in the Stone: Cemetery Art from America's Heartland

(not to answer any particular question; I just think these are cool books)


About reusing cemeteries (the last reference is about building on top
of a cemetery [a school, not houses]):
Sunday's (4/24/2005) Atlanta Constitution had an article about
cleaning up an abandoned cemetery; here's a brief quote about the
Cemetery Preservation Commission in Cobb County, Georgia:
The Cemetery Preservation Commission was created by Cobb County in
1990 to ensure that the cemeteries are protected. The county also has
an ordinance that sets standards for their protection from
development. It has an Adopt-a-Cemetery program in which volunteers
commit to clean up and maintain a graveyard for a year.
While not unique --- other governments throughout the state have
mechanisms to protect cemeteries --- Cobb County "is a good model,"
said Christine Neal, an archaeology outreach specialist for the
Georgia Department of Natural Resources. She is the author of "Grave
Intentions: A Comprehensive Guide to Preserving Historic Cemeteries in
Georgia."
The state has about 15,000 of these abandoned cemeteries, and there is
increasing interest in protecting them because of growing development
and interest in genealogy, said Neal, who works in the department's
Historic Preservation Division.

Here's a headline from the Chicago Daily Herald, 11-23-2004:
HEADLINE: "A grave issue Small cemeteries are scattered across the
suburban landscape. Some see them as historic reminders of a bygone
past, but others say they are just in our way." In this case, the
cemetery is next of O'Hare Field, and is in the way of airport
expansion.

From the Texas Lawyer, v. 20, #36, p. 1: 
DISD Plots to Take Cemetery Land -- Bodies and All -- to Build School
BYLINE: John Council
BODY:
"If there's one thing that can be said about hard-fought, intense
civil litigation it's that it usually uncovers where all the bodies
are buried. And that's what Dallas Independent School District v.
County of Dallas, et al. could do -- literally.
The suit, filed last year in Dallas County Court-at-Law No. 4,
involves the Dallas school district's attempt to acquire 25 acres of
land to build a new elementary and junior high school in an
educationally underserved northwest section of the city.
But there are a few elements that make the suit more compelling than
the average eminent domain proceeding. And some recent action in the
case -- including a mandamus decision from the Texas Supreme Court
last month -- proves that the condemnation suit is in a class by
itself.
The land the school district wants belongs to the Calvary Hill
Cemetery [CHC], the only dedicated Catholic cemetery in Dallas County.
And the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, which bought the land in 1926,
doesn't want to give it up, lest it lose land to bury its dead in the
future.
"The rub is that this is the only Catholic cemetery in the city of
Dallas. You cannot start a new cemetery in the city of Dallas," says
Dennis Sullivan, a partner in Dallas' Sullivan Ave & Holston who
represents the diocese. "If this property is taken, it is going to
impact the ability for us to practice our religion."
Dorothea Vidal, a Dallas solo who represents DISD, declines to
comment. But a summary judgment motion she filed in the suit makes the
school district's case clear. The land the district wants has not been
used for years, and the church even tried to sell it at one point,
according to the motion. It is private land that is ripe for DISD to
take for a public purpose, the district maintains."
******
Here's a link to a golf club on what was once a cemetery:
http://www.lincolnparkgc.com/history.html

http://www.hull.ac.uk/HBP/ActionPlan/Parks.htm -- golf courses, parks,
and cemeteries

http://www.vaguebuttrue.com/mp1997a.htm --Vague but True commentary on
combination golf course/cemetery

http://www.meadowsfarms.com/golf/welcome.htm - Here's a golf course
built around a Civil War cemetery with grazing champion purebred Santa
Gertrudis Cattle.

If you do a google search on "cemeteries" "recreation" you might be
surprised how many municipalities have a Department of Parks,
Recreation, and Cemeteries" -they obviously consider cemeteries and
parks in the same department, probably because the same municipal
employees have to cut the grass in both places.

I think the only question I haven't answered is the only about number
of in-ground burials vs. mausoleum burials; if I find that I will post
it.

Very good info & links. 
Thanks also to those who posted comments.

Cemeteries being creatively used:  Near (in?) Cairo, Egpyt, many poor
people dwell in the ancient cemetery at Fustat, apparently also using
the mausoleums.

A lot of space would be saved by burying people vertically, rather
than horizontally.

I'd pay BIG money to have my ashes shot out into the universe from the
space shuttle.

Infinity and beyond...!!!

There is old Jewish cemetery  - I think in Cologne -  that was
respected by supporting part of the modern building on pillars.

I forgot about your primary worry:  will we run out of space?

In Europe, cemetery plots are reused.  The normal plot is allocated
for 20 or 30 years.  If the family wants to continue using it after
that time, they have to pay  for another such period, otherwise it
will be allocated to someone else.
Great old tradition, remember the grave digger's scene in Hamlet.

What do they do with the bones?  I don't know in my town.  In some
places they are stacked away in the crypt.  In Hallstatt in Austria,
they stack them in grotto, and also paint the name or initials of the
person on the skull with dates of birth and death.