Back when I was a child there was a soap opera daily on television that carried the slogan, “Like sands through an hourglass, so go the Days of our Lives”.    I thought of that today when researching an article about demographic movements and how they may affect funeral homes in the future. . . .My thought process kind of went like an hourglass timer, the sand keeps moving slowly and we keep moving with our daily lives while things slowly change around us.

 

Before you know it, years go by and lots of things have changed. . . . and if our business does not change with those changes, what we do in that business may become obsolete.  It just happens. . . think of standard landline telephones — everybody had them, some started believing they could get by with only a cell phone.  Boom. . .does any home have a landline anymore?  They have just disappeared. . . .and I sense that happening with cable and satellite television reception — soon it will be all streaming.

 

You cannot afford to wake up and realize that all the American demographics have changed and they have changed to a point that there may not be a profitable critical mass of population in your area to give business to your funeral home in a profitable manner anymore.  There are trends you need to watch.

 

Again, things happen while we are going about our business and then –Boom!!!  Things have changed.  I woke up a couple of mornings ago and realized that the state of New York no longer has the most finance jobs in America.   They have now been overtaken by Texas in that capacity.  You can read for yourself in this recent article from Yahoo Finance.

 

Since the pandemic we have heard about Texas gaining jobs and states like California and New York losing jobs and their business climates suffering. . . and we saw the trickle. . but now — Boom! — It has happened.

 

It’s not the first time something like this has happened. . . .Homes and businesses started putting air conditioning in their buildings starting in the 1950’s and that lead to a 5-decade surge in population and growth in the south and southwest.  Now, the South and Southwest have very populated states and one city, Atlanta, has the busiest airport overtaking New York and Chicago— could that have happened without air conditioning?  That’s just one example of things changing due to the demographics and population changing.  Here’s a couple articles on that movement happening:

 

• How Air Conditioning conquered America.  The New York Times
• How Air Conditioning changed the Southern economy.  Radiant

 

Demographic change is happening all around us right now, too.  America is becoming more urban, more diverse, and there is a movement from what are seen as higher tax states to lower tax states.  One of the unique ways that this “inter-state” movement is quantified is by how often U-Haul trailers leave “under load” from one state to another.  Here’s an article on that which shows that Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee are the most desired destinations.  “Loaded trailers” leave the most often from these five states — California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey, and Michigan.

 

Demographic change is also happening in the rural and urban environment.  On a whole in the last 40-some years America has become more urbanized with approximetely 82.7% of our population living in urban/suburban areas in 2020 as compared to 73.7% living in urban/suburban areas in 1980.  That percentage of the population equates to over 100 million more people living in urban/suburban areas over that 40 years.

 

Rural population has not only decreased percentage wise from 26.3% of the population in 1980 to about 17.3 percent of the population in 2020, but in raw numbers of population.  Even with a total growth of population in the country, there’s about 2 million less people living in a rural area in 2020 than in 1980.

 

So, why does this relate to funeral homes and funeral business.  If you are in a state that is losing people or you are in a rural area, growth in an organic way, may be difficult to find.  If you find yourself in this situation and enjoy what you are doing and plan to do so for some time, I might suggest looking at an acquisition or more to help with the raw death call numbers and grow to an efficient economy of scale.

 

On the other hand, if you are in a growing state and/or urban/suburban market you certainly could look at acquisitions or you might decide to not spend on acqusition costs if you believe that you can “draw” new clientele to your facility through marketing or through an additional location in your market.

 

My main goal with this article is not to give a definitive “one size fits all” panacea for demographic change, it is to make you aware that even though these types of change do happen ever-so-slowly over time, you should, none-the-less,  have a plan to address whichever situation you find your business and its demographic changes in.

 

Related — Nation’s Urban and Rural populations shift following 2020 Census.  United States Census

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Indigent burial program helps mother lay two sons to rest.  Video news story and print article.  WAVE – TV – Louisville (KY)
• What’s hidden at Woodlawn’s mausoleums — Extraordinary stained glass.  New York Times (NY)
• Tumbleweed finds life in Iowa.  The Gazette (IA)
• Tumbleweed website

 

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