Writing an obituary is an emotionally heavy task, especially when losing a loved one that you’re very close to. Sometimes, you may even need some help from the funeral director to get started. If you’re looking for guidance, here are 5 interesting facts about writing obituaries that we wanted to share with you.

Obituary generator tools are here to help funeral homes and families.

There are now several obituary generator options available to use. At Gather, our funeral home software offers Obituary Builder to our funeral home customers and their families. Our A.I obituary builder helps create a meaningful personalized obituary in mere minutes.

This trend and tool is a game changer when it comes to capturing a loved one’s story with a unique, professionally written obituary. 

Over 85% of people would opt to place an obituary in their local newspaper.

According to a study from Legacy.com, 88% of people (regardless of age) desire to publish obituaries in the local newspaper – print or digital. Newspapers remain popular for publishing obituaries, likely due to their great reach.

According to the Pew Research Center, the ballpark total U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) in 2020 was 24.3 million during the weekdays, and slightly higher on Sundays. Considering obituaries are also one of the most widely read sections in newspapers, they are an overall great way to share an obituary.

Obituaries emphasize who someone is at their core, not what they have.

By analyzing over 100,000 obituaries for frequently used words, Gather found what matters most to people. We found there is a clear emphasis on words that discuss who someone is. The most commonly used words and phrases include words such as: church, life, loved, and service. Family is also mentioned often.

In contrast, materialistic terms are uncommon and weren’t found to rank in the top 150.

From this, we draw a clear conclusion. People are remembered for who they are. People never end up caring about what you own, what brand of car you drive, what brand of clothes you wear, or how much money you make. They remember your character, and how you treat other human beings.

A great obituary comes in all sizes.

According to a Legacy.com study, obituary length varies greatly. Across the nation, the average obituary length is 1,600 characters. However, from state to state there are vastly different averages. For example, in Alabama the average length is 1,057 characters; whereas in Maine, the average obituary is around 2,554 characters long.

While there is no perfect length for an obituary, all obituaries take time to write. This leads us to our next point.

Writing an obituary takes time.

Writing obituaries can take time to complete. Let’s say you’re writing a 1000-word obituary. According to Wordagents.com, this should take anywhere between 3-4 hours. Consider how long you might spend writing obituaries every week. If you write four obituaries a week and each takes three hours, that’s a total of 12 hours every week. This adds up over time.

If you’re a funeral director that assists families with writing our obituaries, we encourage you to try our Time Savings Calculator where you can see just how helpful an obituary generator can be to both your staff and your families. Our Obituary Builder can cut down your writing time from 3 hours to 5 minutes.

About Gather

Gather is an innovative, all-in-one funeral home management software that helps hundreds of funeral homes with funeral management, live streaming, custom websites and body tracking.

We love funeral directors and firmly believe that helping families through the loss of a loved one is one of the noblest professions. Our vision is to give funeral directors a seamless solution that helps both the funeral home and the families they serve.

To learn more about how Gather works or to schedule your free demo, please visit www.gather.app or call (888) 492-2697.