Size of Urn.
** A Cremation Urn can be too small, It cannot be too big. When choosing
the size please choose larger. 1 pound of body weight equals 1 cubic
inch of Cremains.**
Human Cremains:
The size of the urn is one of the most common questions regarding the purchase of an urn, and luckily quite easy to understand. The
determining factor for the urn size is the deceased’s weight. Generally
speaking, the ratio is a one to one. Generally speaking, a conservative
estimate.
1 pound of weight* = 1 cubic inch required of the urn.
Example: 175 pound individual = 175 cubic inch urn.
* Note: Technically, one pound of body weight will result in just less than one cubic inch of cremains.
General Size Ranges of Urn Size Categories:
Companion and Oversized Urns: 251+ cu. inches
Adult Full-Size Urns: 176 - 250 cu. inches
Child Urns: 11 - 175 cu. inches
Keepsake and Token Urns: 1 - 10 cu. inches
Cremation Jewelry: .001 - .999 cu. inches
When the Weight of the Decedent Individual is not known.
A time may occur when one would receive the cremains from a crematory
without the receiving person knowing the weight of the decedent. When
people are presented with cremains from either a crematorium directly or
through a funeral director, usually the cremains is in a plastic bag
inside a plastic container/box- a temporary urn. The standard volume for
most temporary urns is 200 cubic inches.
Taking the volume size of the temporary urn and measuring the amount of
inches distance there is between the temporary urn’s lid and the top of
the cremains. Every inch difference translates to approximately 25 cubic
inches subtracted from the size of the temporary urn. To therefore
derive the required size minimum of the permanent urn.
Example:
A typical Temporary urn’s displacement size is 200 cu. In. The distance measured between the lid and top of cremains is: 1.5”…therefore equals
37.5 cu. in.
200 – 37.5 = 162.50 cu. in for permanent urn size considerations as a minimum.
Again, 200 cubic inches temporary urn size is the standard from most
crematoriums and crematories, either given directly to you from them, or
through your funeral director. Please be aware that some crematoriums
and crematories utilize different sizes. Please inquire with the crematory
staff or with your funeral director. If you feel uncomfortable performing the measurements themselves, please ask the staff at the
crematory or funeral home.
A note on Infant and Child displacements.
A guiding rule is to calculate 30 cubic inches for every inch of space.
Pets:
The same approach as from human calculations on weight and size ratio is
taken when calculating for pets. The differences are normally the
temporary containers from pet crematoriums or veterinarians are not as
large as for humans.
* We are generally referring in this section to dogs and cats, and similar size animals.
