California DCA Cremation License Counts by Category

Direct answer and scope

The five dated California regulatory categories and their raw all-status totals are Funeral Director Establishment: 1,127; Crematory: 238; Cremated Remains Disposer: 266; Crematory Manager: 711; and Alkaline Hydrolysis Facility: 4. Each figure counts records in its named category across all displayed statuses in the identified snapshot. The figures should therefore be read as category-specific record totals, not as active-license counts or counts of businesses serving consumers.

The category names describe different regulatory records. Funeral establishments, crematories, crematory managers, cremated remains disposers, and hydrolysis facilities are maintained as separate categories. A funeral establishment record does not, by itself, establish physical cremation or hydrolysis at that establishment, and a crematory record does not establish that the facility sells services directly to the public.

The figures also do not establish that a listed record represents a distinct business, a distinct physical location, or a current operating service. The supplied evidence leaves active subsets, unique-entity counts, cross-category overlap, provider counts, current operation, and availability unresolved.

How to use the supplied evidence

Use each raw total only with its category label, snapshot date, and file-update date. The control totals apply to the August 25, 2026 snapshot of California Department of Consumer Affairs files updated August 1, 2026. The underlying provenance identifies Funeral_Data00.xls and Cemetery_Data00.xls as the source files for the snapshot, with their recorded file totals and checksums preserved separately.

The public dataset supplies administrative fields such as license type, license number, individual or organization indicator, public address of record, expiration date, and displayed license status. Those fields support category-specific record review and dated identification of matched entities. A public address of record is not proof of a service location, and the dataset does not establish service availability, quality, ownership links, or relationships among separately licensed entities.

For an individual entity, verify the exact license type and number, displayed status, source record, and verification date separately. A same-name result is not a confirmed match without the license number and type. Status can change, and absence from one search is not proof of a clean record. Available disciplinary or public documents should likewise be considered through the applicable California Department of Consumer Affairs lookup for the specific entity.

Decision framework

Start with the question being answered. If the question is how many records appeared in each California regulatory category on the dated snapshot, use the five raw all-status totals without modification. If the question concerns active records, apply an explicitly disclosed status filter to the underlying records rather than substituting the raw totals. The supplied evidence does not provide a resolved active subset.

If the question concerns businesses or organizations, do not treat license records as unique entities without a documented entity-matching method. The records may include individual and organization indicators, but the supplied evidence does not resolve how many distinct entities appear within or across categories. A unique-entity count therefore remains unresolved.

If the question concerns relationships, retain the categories separately. A crematory manager record, for example, does not establish daily physical presence or supervision of a particular case. A record in one category does not prove an operating relationship with a record in another category. Cross-category overlap remains unresolved unless exact matching evidence establishes it.

If the question concerns consumer-facing providers or available services, the raw totals cannot answer it. A provider count would require a separately defined inclusion rule and evidence connecting a qualifying entity to the relevant public-facing service. Current operation and availability require separate verification; neither is established by a category record, a displayed status alone, or a public address of record.

Keep DCA-derived administrative status separate from any paid placement or other presentation. The dataset supplies records and displayed status, not ratings, quality findings, service availability, or endorsement. Payment cannot change the source record or the status filter used for editorial treatment.

Evidence limits and unresolved questions

The snapshot is immutable dated evidence rather than a live view. The monthly refresh schedule means the records are not real-time, and the August 1 file update date does not prove that every record was current, active, complete, or correct after that date. The August 25 snapshot date identifies when the supplied files were captured, not a continuing status period.

Several different questions must remain separate. An active subset asks which records met an exact status rule. A unique-entity count asks how many distinct people or organizations remained after entity matching. Cross-category overlap asks whether the same entity appears in more than one category. A provider count asks which entities meet a defined consumer-facing inclusion rule. Current operation asks whether the relevant operation is presently operating, while availability asks whether a service can currently be obtained. The supplied five totals resolve none of these questions.

The unresolved questions cannot be answered by adding, subtracting, or relabeling the five category totals. The total of all records across categories would combine non-interchangeable records and could count related records more than once. It would also fail to show whether a category record corresponds to an operating location, a direct-public option, or a currently available service.

Where an entity is being assessed, the next evidence step is a separate DCA verification using the exact license type and number, displayed status, source record, and verification date. Even that record-level verification does not by itself establish quality, service availability, ownership relationships, or a direct-public offering.

Questions people ask

The answers below preserve the distinction between dated administrative record totals and questions requiring additional entity-level, status, relationship, operational, or availability evidence.

Evidence behind this page

Each point below is restricted to what the cited primary source supports. Administrative listing status is not a quality endorsement.