In a press release from earlier in December, the National Funeral Director’s Association (NFDA) made note that in spite of the conern for inflation in the United States, a recent survey seemed to show that the cost of a funeral has increased less than the overall rate of inflation for the past two years.

 

The press release, which comes from the “2023 Member General Price List Study” says that median funeral costs have increased from $7,848 to $8,300 from 2021 to 2023 — that’s an increase of 5.8% while NFDA states in the press release that the “overall rate of inflation” over the past two years was 13.6%.

 

It should be noted that the costs quoted include the general professional services for a casketed funeral, including a basic memorial print package and a metal burial casket at a cost of $2,500.  The price does not include cemetery costs, a vault, a monument, flowers and cash advance items.

 

The survey also notes that a median priced cost of an adult funeral with viewing and cremation (instead of burial) has increased 8.1% from a 2021 price of $5,801 to a 2023 price of $6,280.  That price does include an alternative cremation container, an urn, and the cremation fee.

 

Note— The press release states that these numbers are the “Median” numbers.  They are not the “Average”.  Median would mean that half of the prices reported fall “above” the reported “Median” and half of the prices fall “below” the “Median”.

 

The survey is quite complete and NFDA members may receive a free download of the complete price survey by going to this link. 

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  The complete survey, which I requested and received from NFDA is very complete.  One of the items I noticed in it was that it contained a history of the median price of the cost of a funeral with burial over time.  For instance, it goes back as far as 1960 and shows that the price of this service was $708 in that year as compared to $8,300 for the year 2023 — a period of 63 years.

 

That’s a multiple in price of 11.7 times for the same service cost in 2023 as it cost in 1960.  I thought it might be fun and interesting to compare other items and their “Cost Multiple” for that same time period.  Here’s a table that does just that.

 

 

As you can see, funeral costs are no where near the top of the list by cost multiple over the past 63 years.  We rate right there with the cost of essentials like ground beef and gasoline, but no where near the inflation that has hit housing, entertainment, college tuition, or medical costs.

 

Here’s where I found information on 1960’s costs if you would like to investigate further.

 

In the next couple of weeks we plan to look more into the what and why of death care cost increases.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Possible Arctic graveyard may be northernmost Stone Age cemetery — but there are no human remains to prove it.  Live Science
• New York City’s potters field, where hundreds of AIDS patients are buried, opens to the public.  National News from ABC – WHXC Radio (NY)
• Pros and Cons of Final Expense insurance.  Aflac
• Community mourns “good guy” funeral director Bradley Hardison.  Niagara Gazette (NY)
• Hardison Funeral Homes website
• What happens when cremated remains go uncollected?  Otaw Citizen (Canada)

 

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