Abstract: Objective To examine cognition and attitude towards funeral directors and their relevant factors among people with different occupations.Methods Purposive sampling method was used and 1 181 people with different occupations from Chongqing municipality and Sichuan,Gansu,Henan,and Hebei provinces were surveyed with a self-administered questionnaire between July to September 2014.Results Of the participants,1 022 (86.5%) had no contract with funeral directors; 457 (38.7%) did not know funeral directors at all; 615 (52.1%) did not know the technique difficulty in the work of funeral directors; 420 (35.6%) thought that funeral directors did not have public holidays; 355 (30.1%) thought that the education background of funeral directors should be in college level at least;and 480 (40.7%) did not know the career prospect of funeral directors.As for the attitude towards funeral directors and their vocation,926 (78.4%) accepted while 255 (21.6%) rejected the funeral directors and their vocation.Multivariate logistic regression showed that occupation,residing location,and knowledge about funeral directors were the main factors influencing the attitude towards funeral directors (all P<0.05).Conclusion Occupational populations have poor cognition on funeral directors and their work,suggesting specific intervention on this issue should be promoted in the society.