I'm writiing aresearch paper on funeral, that is my question: how many
funerals do american go to per year? thanks for answering that for
me..

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 08 Dec 2005 01:05 PST

On average, over a lifetime? If not, at what age?

The reason I'm asking is I just had an interesting conversation with
my Aunt, age 80, about this very subject. She stated that as one gets
older, you go to many many more funerals. I am 48 and went to two in
two years, none before that for over 10 years. My Aunt on the other
hand said her friends are dying all around her, she goes to 2-3 a
year.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 08 Dec 2005 12:07 PST

Here's a guesstimate.

The average person knows about 50 people for whom they are close
enough to want to attend their funeral, 1% of whom will die in any
given year.

At that rate, they'll wind up attending about one funeral every two years.  


Does that help?


pafalafa-ga

It also depends on occupation. Employees of funeral homes typically go
to more funerals than the rest of us.

I mean an average american in a lifetime. Not to consider his
occupation or whatso ever....

"The average person knows about 50 people for whom they are close
enough to want to attend their funeral, 1% of whom will die in any
given year.

At that rate, they'll wind up attending about one funeral every two years. "

Paf, I wish you a very long life!  And your loved ones, too.  
But I agree with the estimate of 50 persons.

I would estimate that about the age of 40 one starts having to go to
funerals, every few years, increasing after 60 to one a year, and
increasing again with age (Cynthia's aunt), until one decides to
forego such, which may depend on one's religious beliefs.