Land of the dead? This map shows how Tennessee has the most cemeteries respective to the living

Tennessee is the land of the dead, or, at least, the state with the most graveyards respective to the living. 

A former redditor, Joshua Stevens, mapped graveyards per 100,000 people and discovered that Tennessee had the highest proportion of known burial sites. Stevens, now a NASA data visualization expert, theorized at the time that it could be related to the deadly battles of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. 

But it is possible that Tennessee simply has more data on cemeteries, according to Graham Perry, the historic cemetery preservation specialist at the Tennessee Historical Commission. 

“I have a silly theory…that ‘we’re probably walking on one big cemetery,’ and it’s probably partially true,” Perry said.

For the past few years, Perry has been mapping tombstones across the state. He has identified more than 32,000 cemeteries so far, and he expects to add many more to the map, which is not publicly available at this time. Perry said he gets calls each week from people reporting new cemeteries. 

New burial sites are also being built in the state. About 30,000 Tennesseans are buried each year, based on national estimates. In 2020, about 84,000 Tennesseans died, and about 36% of Americans are buried each year.

Burial practices are changing

The tradition causes environmental problems, from clearcutting and pesticide-soaked lawns to casket waste and toxic embalming fluid. But Perry warned against disregarding the existing cemeteries. 

“Cemeteries are for the living, and let me tell you, people get very passionate about them,” Perry said. 

Mourning practices are changing, however. More than half of Americans are opting for cremation — which has its own host of environmental problems — and many people are embracing green burials, like at the Larkspur Conservation burial ground in Westmoreland.

Human composting, also known as organic reduction, has also become an option in some places in recent years.