In the United States, the most popular style is using a large single rear door, with hinging on either the left or right hand side.  Hearses used in other countries, including all throughout Europe and in Japan, are using hearses with the doors hinged at the top (i.e. hatch-style) and as you can see by the last picture, of an American built Cadillac hearse, the style is now becoming more popular within the United States.

Hearse with a right-hand hinged door.

Hearse with a left hand hinged door.

Hearse with a top hinged rear door.

With the exception of some of the early US built hearses, they were all built with one large rear loading door.  Some were built with two doors, mounted side by side, but I think this only lasted into the early 1930s.  However, we have seen this style of door opening used as late as 1965 on a German built Cadillac Hearse.

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